Third Party System

The Third Party System is a term of periodization used by historians and political scientists to describe the history of political parties in the United States from 1854 until the mid-1890s, which featured profound developments in issues of American nationalism, modernization, and race.

Third Party System Media

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  An 1881 cartoon attacking the imperial splendor of Garfield's inauguration in contrast to Jefferson's republican simplicity (upper left)

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  Democratic magazine ridicules Republican use of "bloody shirt" memories of war