POLI 100C POLITICAL PARTIES
21 February 2006

  1. The Realignment of the 1850s

    1. The Founders Tried to Duck The Issue:

      1. Section. 2. Clause 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

      2. Section. 9. Clause 1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

      3. Amendment XIII. (ratified 6 December 1865)

        Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

        Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

    2. The Invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney in 1793




      By 1860 Cotton Exports were $192,000,000 or four times U.S. Government revenues. About 86% of the Cotton was grown on farms of 100 or more acres. England imported about 80% of its Cotton from the South and about 1.5 million people were employed in the English Textile mills.




    3. The Formation of the Whig-Democrat Mass Based Political Party System

      1. The 1828 Election



      2. Popular Democracy During the Whig-Democrat Era



      3. Congressional Elections: 1826 - 1858
                         HOUSE                                   SENATE
      Jackson  Anti-Jackson  Nullifiers       Jackson  Anti-Jackson  Nullifiers
      Democrat    Whig      Anti-Masons       Democrat    Whig      Anti-Masons
1826    113       100                            27        21
1828    136        72                            25        23
1830    126        66           21               24        22            2
1832    143        63           34               20        26            2
1834    143        75           24               26        24            2
1836    128       100           13(1)            35        17               
1838    125       109            6(2)            30        22
1840     98       142             (2)            22        29             (1)
1842    147        72             (4)            23        29
1844    142        79             (6A,1)         34        22             (2)
1846    110       116             (1A,2)         38        21             (1)
1848    113       108             (1A,9F,2)      35        25             (2F)
1850    127        85             (4F,10U,7)     36        23             (3F)
1852    157        71             (4F,2)         38        22             (2F)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Opposition                              Opposition
               Republican                              Republican
1854     83       100             (51A)          39        22             (1A)
1856    132        90             (14A,1)        41        20             (5A)
1858     83       116             (5A,36)        38        26             (2A,2)
      4. Presidential Elections: 1828 - 1860
        
                  Democrat                  Whig              
----------------------------------------------------------------
1828    Jackson    178    642,553     Adams      83    500,897
1832    Jackson    219    701,780     Clay       49    484,205
1836    Van Buren  170    764,176     Harrison   73    550,816 
1840    Van Buren   60  1,128,854     Harrison  234  1,275,390
1844    Polk       170  1,339,494     Clay      105  1,300,004
1848    Cass       127  1,223,460     Taylor    163  1,361,393
1852    Pierce     254  1,607,510     Scott      42  1,386,942
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Republican              American/Whig
1856    Buchanan   174  1,836,072     Fremont   114  1,342,345  Fillmore   8   844,032

1860    Douglas       12  1,004,042  21.47%  Northern Democrat
        Lincoln      180  1,855,276  39.67%  Republican
        Breckinridge  72    672,601  14.38%  Southern Democrat
        Bell          39    590,980  12.64%  Unionist
        (Fusion)       0    553,570  11.84   Misc. Fusion Tickets
      5. Population Increase was very Rapid


      6. The Elections of 1840 -- Both the Whigs and Democrats were competitive in nearly every region of the United States





      7. A (near) Party-Line Roll Call Vote in the House in 1841 -- Red are Whigs and Blue are Democrats



      8. A Roll Call Vote on Whether to Accept a Petition Concerning Slavery -- Red is to Accept and Blue is to Reject



      9. The Issue Differences Between the Whigs and the Democrats Were Mainly on Economics. The other basic Issue, Slavery, split the Parties internally.

        1. Whigs -- Mercantilists -- Believed that the state had an important role in ensuring economic development. They favored internal improvements to stimulate economic growth. Statists -- They believed in strong government which properly channeled the voice of the masses through institutions rather than direct expression. Order -- The primary enemy of society was anarchy and rebellion, not crime. They stood for Order, Authority, and Tradition.

        2. Democrats -- Jeffersonians -- Believed in popular control of government so they favored limited government, that is, they favored state and local government because they saw them as being more under popular control. They opposed internal improvements, high tariffs, the National Bank, and an activist federal government. They were anti-corporate and anti-capitalist – the protector of the common people. They were Agrarians. They adhered to Jefferson's yeoman ideal of the independent producer, the traditional agrarian economic model, and a distrust of the parasitic state. Democrats did not condone slavery – rather, they were pro-White.

    4. The Economy Before the Civil War and How it Interacted with the Whig-Democrat Party System

      1. The Economic Development of the North and South took Dramatically Different Paths Before the Civil War. The South -- The Slave Power -- became the World's leading producer of Cotton. The North developed extensive transportation systems -- canals, roads, and railroads -- rapidly industrialized, and its population rapidly expanded to the Mississippi River. This difference in the pattern of economic development made the conflict over the extension of slavery to the territories inevitable.

      2. Fundamentals --

        1. U.S. Long on Resources and Short on Population -- Result, capital intensive development.

        2. The Creation of the modern economy during the 1840s to the 1890s was due to

          • cheap energy in the form of coal,

          • mass transportation in the form of the railroads, and

          • mass communication in the form of the telegraph.

      3. The South:

        1. Slavery Became Immensely Profitable because of the Speed-up and Specialization of Slave Labor and the Self-Sufficiency of the Plantations.



        2. Exports Soared Mainly due to Cotton and other Raw Materials


      4. The North:

        1. The Development of Canals in the North from 1817 - 1840 dramatically reduced the price of agricultural goods in the coastal cities.



        2. Transportation Costs from Buffalo to New York City in 1817 when construction began on the Erie Canal were three times the market value of a bushel of wheat and six times that of a bushel of corn. Small wonder that upstate New York commodities were not being shipped in large quantities to New York City!



        3. The Public Lands -- Free Soil, Free Men



        4. The Rapid Development of the Railroad Network.

          1. First railroads were built 1830-32. The first regularly scheduled public steam train to run in the U.S. was in Charleston, South Carolina on 25 December 1830.



          2. By 1840 railroad mileage and canal mileage were about equal -- 3000 miles. By the Civil War about $1.2B (1909 $$) had been invested in the railroads of which about 25 to 30 percent was government funds. By 1849 freight receipts exceeded passenger receipts.

          3. Between 1850 and 1860 22,500 miles of railroad were built and by 1860 there were about 30,000 miles of railroad. By 1854 Chicago was the leading rail center in the U.S. and by 1860 the major trunk lines -- the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the B&O all had lines into Chicago. By 1860 a railroad passenger could travel from St. Louis to Boston in 48 hours or from New York City to Charleston, S.C. in 62 hours.



          4. Before 1850 the great majority of the agricultural products of the Mississippi valley went south through New Orleans. By 1860 the railroads had largely taken over this traffic from the Mississippi river and the western canals. By 1860 Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin replace Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio as the leading wheat growing states.



          5. As the railroads grew ever larger, they captured an increasing percentage of the freight business and their productivity grew by leaps and bounds. In the 1830s freight rates were about $.075 per ton mile and passenger rates were about $.05 per mile. By 1859 these rates had fallen to $.0258 and $.0244 respectively. During this period the 8-wheel freight car is introduced, rail weights increase from 13.5 pounds per foot to 59.5 pounds per foot (still iron rails – steel rails began to be used extensively in the 1870s), locomotives got larger, and overall, the capital/output ratio goes form 10:1 to 5:1.

      5. The Crisis Over the Extension of Slavery to the Territories: 1820 - 1850

        1. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 Hemmed in the South



        2. Texas Becomes Independent From Mexico, 14 May 1836, and Andrew Jackson Recognizes the Republic of Texas on 1 March 1837

        3. Texas Admitted to the Union on 29 December 1845 with the Provision that it could have divided itself into 5 States



        4. The War with Mexico -- 13 May 1846 to 13 January 1847



        5. The Wilmot Proviso of 1846 and 1847 Would Have Banned Slavery From the Territories Seized From Mexico

        6. Unanswered Questions -- Did the Missouri Compromise Line extend to the Pacific Ocean?; Popular Sovereignty -- Let the Citizens of the Territories Decide the Slavery Matter Themselves

      6. The Compromise of 1850

        1. California to be Admitted as a Free State

        2. Part of Texas Given to the New Mexico Territory

        3. The Slave Trade was Abolished in the District of Columbia

        4. A Fugitive Slave Law

        5. Utah and New Mexico Were Organized as Territories.
      7. The Crisis Over the Extension of Slavery to the Territories: the 1850s

        1. The United States at the Compromise of 1850



        2. The Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe it sold 300,000 copies during its first year of publication. It was turned into a stage play that was performed throughout the North. It helped fuel Northern Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law.



        3. Stephen A. Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 30 May 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and declared "that all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the people residing therein, through their appropriate reprsentatives." It organized the Kansas and Nebraska Territories.





        4. Preston (Bully) Brooks' Attack on Charles Sumner on the Senate Floor on 21 May 1856.



        5. The Dred Scott Decision of 6 March 1857. In effect the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had no right under the Constitution to exclude Slavery from the Territories.

        6. John Brown's Raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry, VA (now WVA) on 16 October 1859



      8. The Election of 1860