Whig, a shortened form of whiggamom, a nickname of the peasantry of the Western Lowlands of Scotland, derived not from whig, 'sour whey,' but from whiggam, a sound used by them in driving their horses. The 'Whigamore Raid' is the name given to the march of 7000 western Covenanters on Edinburgh (1648), which sealed Charles I.'s doom; and we find the same term applied to the Covenanters of Bothwell Bridge (1679). Thence the name Whig came to be fastened first on the whole Presbyterian zealots of Scotland, and afterwards on those English politicians who showed a disposition to oppose the court, and treat Protestant nonconformists with leniency. Coming into use about 1679-80, Whig and Tory (q.v.) immediately became familiar words, and have been retained as designations of the two opposite political parties. These, however, since 1830 have been renamed Liberals and Conservatives, Whig being restricted to the more conservative members of the Liberal party, as opposed to Radical (q.v.).
In United States history it denotes those who in the colonial and revolutionary periods were opposed to the British rule; and also it is the name adopted in 1834 by the survivors of the old National Republican party, after its overwhelming defeat by Jackson in 1832. Jackson's bold action in dismissing members of his cabinet, and his relentless war upon the United States Bank, made him in their eyes a tyrant little less hateful than George III., and the old name of Whig was chosen as expressive of their revolt against one-man power. Webster, Clay, and other National Republicans and old Federalists readily accepted the name, under which they were defeated in 1836, and in 1840 won their first great victory in the return of President Harrison. The party died in 1852, slain by the hands of its own dissatisfied members.