Help someone and Hurry create an annotation for this Thomas Jefferson defined the Democratic-Republican Party as one that strives for small government. The Federalist Party died out after the War of 1812, and the Republican Party reigned during the Era of Good Feelings. But when Democrat Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1832, the Republican Party saw its reign end. Andrew Jackson was a self-made man and won because he expanded suffrage to all white men despite their wealth. Andrew Jackson was unpredictable; even though he was a Democrat, he did not think states should have more rights than the Federal Government. Yet, he believed the Federal Government was overstepping its power with the Bank of the United States, so he shut it down in 1836. This change in the political scene made the northeastern elite upset, so they created a third party known as the Whigs.