# Third Party System The Third Party System (c. 1854–1896) was born from the collapse of the Whigs and the rise of the **[[Republican Party]]** as an anti-slavery coalition. It spanned the [[American Civil War]], Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age. The Republicans — the party of Lincoln, Union, emancipation, the [[Reconstruction Amendments]], protective tariffs, and national banking — dominated the presidency, while the **[[Democratic Party]]** rebuilt itself as the party of the white "Solid South," urban immigrant machines in the North, and states' rights. The era's defining features were intense partisan loyalty, near-total voter mobilization, and the sectional memory of the war ("waving the bloody shirt"). It was punctuated by the **[[Compromise of 1877]]**, which ended Reconstruction and abandoned Black political rights in exchange for the presidency. Mounting agrarian and monetary unrest — the [[Populist Party]] insurgency over free silver — set up the [[Fourth Party System]] after the realigning election of 1896. ## See Also - [[Republican Party]] · [[Democratic Party]] · [[Populist Party]] - [[Second Party System]] · [[Fourth Party System]] - [[Compromise of 1877]] · [[Realignment]]