If politics played a minimal role in the application of free trade to neutral rights, reciprocity, and ending mercantilism, it was absolutely critical to free trade in relation to tariffs and the regulation of the domestic economy. Until questions concerning slavery engulfed the American political world in the 1840s and 1850s, free trade as the absence (or at least the reduction) of imposts and free trade as unfettered capitalism were the key political issues of the day. Although the actual words “free trade” were used most often in attacking higher tariffs, both anti-tariff free trade and free trade in domestic markets divided Republicans in the so-called Era of Good Feelings and contributed to the development of the two-party system. In the political debates that ensued, partisans articulated ideas centered on free trade with a new clarity. By the 1830s the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson stood for low tariffs and minimal government interference in the economy, while the Whig Party of Henry Clay wanted higher tariffs and an activist government. As each side in this political debate scrambled for rhetorical tools with which to attract voters, they would sometimes return to Porter's slogan regardless of how applicable it was to their party platform, offering stark testimony to the potency of the words “free trade and sailors’ rights” and the persistence of the memory of the War of 1812.