We will defend our constitution with the belief that this country will always stand for liberty and justice for all The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's social liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous operation in the United States, and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. The party had 72 million registered voters in 2004. President Barack Obama is the 15th Democrat to hold the office. The Democratic Party evolved from the Jeffersonian Republican or Democratic-Republican Party organized by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in opposition to the Federalist party of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. The party favored republicanism, a weak federal government, states' rights, agrarian interests (especially Southern planters) and strict adherence to the Constitution; it opposed a national bank, close ties to Great Britain, and business and banking interests. The Party came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812, the Federalists virtually disappeared and the Jeffersonian party split into factions. They split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. Other factions led by Henry Clay helped form the Whig Party. The Democratic Party had a small advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery. In 1854, angry with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Democrats left the party and joined Northern Whigs to form the Republican Party
