A Whig partisan, R. McKinley Ormsby, wrote a History of the Whig Party in 1857. In it he described what he thought was the ideal Whig personality type:

W Whig is one who has not the gratification of a present passion in view; but crushes out and sacrifices private feelings and interests, and compromises with antagonistic views, to secure the stability of the country, develop its resources, and place its future on a safe and enduring basis. His ideals are not formed on partial views, nor inspired by local interests; but are liberal, enlarged, comprehensive, and are the growth of long-continued and mature reflection.