Also worth noting that if memory serves me, Taney was a Federalist before becoming a Jacksonian.
There were more than a few Federalists who jumped on the Jacksonian bandwagon after 1824: another, of course, being James Buchanan, who Republican propagandists rebuked as a "Federal Democrat" during the 1856 campaign, suggesting that his platform was a repudiation of earlier Jacksonian principles.
"Reactionaries but not conservatives" is how I would describe the Democrats after 1850, too. But I won't say any more while Henry Malclerc is within earshot! (mods, pls ban; Obama, pls drone)
