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Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
I. Framing questions
1. Did the emergence of the slaveholding
interest in national politics constitute an
instance of “faction”?
2. Did a mass party system help or hurt the
slave power and its challengers?
3. How did the slavery issue stress a system
designed to suppress sectional stressors?
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James Madison, Federalist No. 10 (1787)
In a large republic, “the influence of factious leaders may kindle a
flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a
general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may
degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but
the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure
the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for
paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of
property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt
to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of
it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a
particular county or district, than an entire State. In the extent and
proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican
remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government.”
George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)
“In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs
as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been
furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations,
Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing
men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of
local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire
influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions
and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much
against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these
misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those
who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
The argument
• Northern and southern economies diverged,
but that alone insufficient to trigger civil war
• Ideas and values generated by diverging social
systems proved critical…
• …because they infiltrated the political system
and eventually helped break it…
• …despite that the system sought to submerge
sectionally divisive issues
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Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
II. The “slave power” in early national politics
1. Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was the only slave revolt to succeed in
destroying a slaveholding regime. Catalyzed by the French Revolution, the
event shook the Atlantic world, instilling fear into all slaveholding regimes.
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Federalists tended to support the Haitian revolutionaries because
they opposed France, while Democratic-Republicans (who were
also strong among southern slaveholders) tended to support France
against the Haitian revolutionaries.
James Monroe (Democratic-Republican): “The scenes which are
acted in St. Domingo must produce an effect on all the people of
colour in this and the States south of us, more especially our slaves,
and it is our duty to be on our guard to prevent any mischief
resulting from it.”
Timothy Pickering (Federalist): “If there could ever be an apology
for Frenchmen [to revolt against a tyrannical monarchy], will it not
apply with tenfold priority and force to the rude blacks of Santo
Domingo?”
II. The “slave power” in early national politics
1. Haitian Revolution
2. Louisiana Purchase
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Should slaves be permitted into the Louisiana Territory?
Southern Congressmen:
“Slaves must be admitted into that territory, it cannot be cultivated
without them.”
“Slavery must be tolerated, it must be established in that country, or
it can never be inhabited. White people cannot cultivate it – your
men cannot bear the burning sun and the damp dews of that
country.”
George Cabot (Mass. Federalist): “It is so obvious that the influence
of our part of the Union must be diminished.”
Francis Blake: the three-fifths clause was “an original and radical
defect in the form of government, and, perhaps, one of the primary
causes of our misfortunes.”
William Ely: resolution calling for abolition of the three-fifths clause
(failed)
Boreas [Sereno Edwards Dwight], Slave Representation (New
Haven, 1812).
“The article [clause] authorizing the Southern Negroes to be
represented in Congress is the rotten part of the Constitution, and
must be amputated.
“It is to be distinctly remembered, that if the Scourge of GOD is again
to visit this nation in the re-election of Mr. Madison; it will be solely
owing to the black Representation!”
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II. The “slave power” in early national politics
1. Haitian Revolution
2. Louisiana Purchase
3. The Missouri Compromise
Jefferson City, Missouri in the middle of the nineteenth century
James Tallmage of New York hoped to
“improve” the Missouri statehood bill with
a clause providing for post-nati
emancipation for all newborn slaves there.
“If we suffer it [the bill] to pass unimproved,
let us at least be consistent, and declare that
our constitution was made to impose
slavery, and not to establish liberty.”
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John Quincy Adams’s reflections on the threefifths clause in the wake of the Missouri
Compromise:
“the bargain between freedom and slavery
contained in the constitution of the United
States is morally and politically vicious”
“cruel and repressive”
“inconsistent with the principles on which
alone our Revolution can be justified”
“grossly unequal and impolitic”
By viewing slaves as “persons not to be
represented themselves, but for whom their
masters are privileged with nearly a double
share of representation,” the constitution had
ensured “that this slave representation has
governed the Union.”
James Appleton (1785-1862), The Missouri Compromise; or, The extension of the slave power
(Boston, 1843?).
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Thomas Jefferson on the Missouri Compromise:
“I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed indeed
for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A
geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men,
will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper
and deeper.”
Virginia Senator James Barbour:
“I behold the father armed against the son, and the son against the
father. I perceive a brother’s sword crimsoned with a brother’s
blood. I perceive our houses wrapped in flames, and our wives and
infant children driven from their homes, forced to submit to the
pelting of the pitiless storm.”
Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
Principles of mass parties
• Move from patrician politics (great men) to
institutional permanence
• Subordination of individual ambition to party
success
• Internal caucus and nominating processes to
project unified front to public and opposition
• Party success (electoral victories and spoils of
office) highest priority
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Banner used by Whig candidates
William Henry Harrison and John
Tyler (“Tippecanoe and
Tyler, too”) to mount a popular
campaign appealing to the values of
the common man
Pro-Whig cartoon from 1840 election depicting Van Buren
trapped in a log cabin (a Whig motif) composed of states
doomed to rally for Harrison. An impotent Andrew Jackson,
the original “common man” in mass party politics, vainly tries
to pry Van Buren free with a hickory stick (he was “Old
Hickory,” after all).
The first decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the expansion of the electorate, as
property qualifications for voting fell. Offsetting the new democratic spirit of the “Age of
the Common Man,” though, were new restrictions on black voting.
Voter participation in Presidential elections, 1824-1860
90.00
80.00
70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00
% Voter participation
30.00
20.00
10.00
-
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George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking (1853-54)
And thus…
• Two-party political systems favor centrist positions, for
taking fringe positions concedes the large middle of the
electorate to the opponent
– (Countering this is the need for an energized base)
• The two-party system impeded the development of third
parties by co-opting (and then moderating) their positions
• Before the Civil War, the parties worked assiduously (and,
for many years, successfully) to ignore the slavery issue
• And yet, somehow, a fringe position (antislavery) came to
re-reshape politics
• Popular ideas and values were critical to impacting a highly
responsive (i.e., democratic) political process
Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
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IV. Stressing the system
4. Nullification controversy (1833)
High tariffs on imported finished goods and industrial materials protected American
manufacturing, but southern politicians objected on two grounds: it inflated the costs
of finished goods in the South, and invited retaliatory measures that would suppress
demand for southern cotton.
UK chair
Sold in US for $4
US chair
Cost in US: $4.50
+ import duty of $1
Total cost in US: 5$
Total cost in US: $4.50
I’m paying above market value for this chair!
This is like an extra tax on me, just to support
Northern manufacturers
And Great Britain may retaliate, which will
suppress demand for my cotton and lower its value
Protective tariffs are not even constitutional!
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John C. Calhoun to Virgil Maxcy
(Sept. 11, 1830):
“I consider the tariff act as the occasion,
rather than the real cause of the present
unhappy state of things. The truth can no
longer be disguised, that the peculiar
domestick institution of the Southern
States and the consequent direction which
that and her soil and climate have given to
her industry, has placed them in regard to
taxation and appropriations in opposite
relation to the majority of the Union….”
John C. Calhoun to Virgil Maxcy
(Sept. 11, 1830):
“Against the danger of which, if there be no
protective power in the reserved rights of
the states they must be forced to rebel, or,
submit it to have their paramount interests
sacrificed, their domestic institutions
subordinated to Colonization and other
schemes, and themselves and children
reduced to wretchedness.”
IV. Stressing the system
4. Nullification controversy (1833)
5. Gag order (1836-44)
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Typical petition, sent to 24th Congress by New
York antislavery group to outlaw slavery in the
District of Columbia
“Your petitioners would humbly represent that
these laws, thus applied, forbid Congress to
exercise their “exclusive legislation” TO
PERPETUATE SLAVERY in the District placed under
their control. The acts of Congress, passed for the
government of the District, do in fact perpetuate a
system at variance with the genius of
republicanism, the principles of religion, and the
maxims of political expediency. It would be
derogatory to the American People, to suppose
that it is their wish, that the seat of their national
government, the capital of their great and happy
Republic, should forever be dishonored by a
system reprobated by the whole civilized world,
and admitted by all among ourselves to be wrong
in the abstract.”
New York Democrat Martin Van Buren, the
key figure in the development of the
modern mass party system. As Jackson’s
successor to the Presidency, he supported
the gag rules as a means of curtailing
discussion of sectionally divisive issues.
“Resolved, that all petitions, memorials and
papers touching the abolition of slavery or
the buying, selling, or transferring of slaves
in any state, district or territory of the United
States be laid upon the table without being
debated, printed, read or refined and that no
further action whatsoever shall be had
thereon-”
Resolution of Congress, 12/21/1837
John Quincy Adams led the charge against
the gag rule
Denial of the right of the ruled to petition
their rulers constituted one of the acts
“which may define a Tyrant . . . unfit to be
the ruler of a free people.”
“If we give up the right of petitioning, or
cease to exercise it in this cause then we are
indeed slaves.”
“The actual slavery of one portion of a
people must eventually lead to the virtual
slavery of the other.”
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IV. Stressing the system
4. Nullification controversy (1833)
5. Gag order (1836-44)
6. Presidential election of 1844
Presidential election 1844
Popular vote
Presidential
candidate
Party
Count
Percent
EV
James K. Polk
Democratic
1,339,494
49.5%
170
Henry Clay
Whig
1,300,004
48.1%
105
James G. Birney
Liberty
62,103
2.3%
0
2,703,659
100.0%
275
Total
EV needed to win
138
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1844: The Liberty Party splits the vote in
New York and gives the election to Polk
Popular vote
In New York state
Presidential
candidate
Party
Count
Percent
James K. Polk
Democratic
238,588
49.50%
Henry Clay
Whig
232,482
48.10%
James G. Birney
Liberty
Total
15,812
2.30%
485,882
100.0%
Popular vote in NY state
Polk (Dem) popular vote
238,588
Clay (Whig) popular vote
232,482
Clay lost by
6,106
Birney (Liberty) popular vote
15,812
With Birney spoiling NY
Polk's final E.V.
170
Clay's final E.V.
105
Without Birney spoiling
Polk's final E.V.
134
Clay's final E.V.
141
138 EV needed to win
IV. Stressing the system
4.
5.
6.
7.
Nullification controversy (1833)
Gag order (1836-44)
Presidential election of 1844
Censorship of the southern mails
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“New method of assorting the mail, as practised by southern slave-holders, or attack on the post office, Charleston, S.C.”
(Boston?, 1835). Depicts July 1835 raid of anti-abolitionists on Charleston Post Office, to pilfer abolitionist tracts.
“$20,000
Reward for
TAPPAN”
“U.S.M.”
“Liberator”
“Post Office Laws”
“Plan of Constitution”
President Andrew Jackson to Postmaster
General Amos Kendall:
“deliver to no person those inflammatory
papers, but those who are really subscribers
for them... The postmaster ought to take
the names down, and have them exposed
thro the public journals as subscribers to
this wicked plan of exciting the negroes to
insurrection and to massacre."
National newspapers respond:
"Every freeman would be roused to a sense
of his danger.”
"The people would simultaneously spring to
their feet in self-defence, to rescue from the
hand of tyranny all which is comprehended
in the sacred words — Our Liberties."
“Liberty and slavery cannot exist together,”
warned abolitionists; “either liberty will
abolish slavery, or slavery will extirpate
liberty.”
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Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The “slave power” in early national politics
The rise of a mass party system
Stressing the system
Conclusion
Framing questions
1. Did the emergence of the slaveholding interest in
national politics constitute an instance of “faction”?
In unifying the states, the Constitution had empowered
the slaveholding interest within the national union
(had the founders been too hopeful?). Political
discourse increasingly spoke in terms of a “slave power”
bent on dominating the mechanisms of government.
Framing questions
2. Did a mass party system help or hurt the slave
power and its challengers?
The Constitution hyper-empowered the slaveholding
interest, and mass party politics further raised the
threshold for destroying slavery through a two-party
system designed to submerge the divisive issue.
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Comparative perspectives
• Compared to other societies that ended slavery,
the threshold for abolition was higher in the US
– UK abolishes slavery 1833
– France abolished slavery 1848
– Only Cuba (1880) and Brazil (1888) followed US
• The culprit: a highly democratic political system,
in which the slaveholding interest was fully
incorporated (and, indeed, hyper-empowered)
– The US South constituted rarity: a fully incorporated
and politically hyper-empowered agricultural
periphery
Framing questions
3. How did the slavery issue stress a system designed
to suppress sectional stressors?
–
–
–
The Constitution’s intention to minimize the effects of
“faction”
The supplemental effect of the two-party political system
on suppressive sectionally divisive issues
Widespread racial prejudice in the North further impeded
the formation of an antislavery politics
Framing questions
3. How did the slavery issue stress a system designed
to suppress sectional stressors?
Despite forces suppressing the slavery issue, mass party
politics could not avoid mediating national conflicts
over slavery, by translating concerns over slavery into
concerns over threats to republican liberty (the “slave
power” motif).
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What’s next
• How did ideas, values, and morals come to
impact the political process so deeply?
• What proved necessary to break such a
resilient system?
• How did the causes and nature of breakdown
impact the post-war situation?
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