POLI 100C POLITICAL PARTIES
23 February 2006

  1. The Realignment of the 1850s

    1. The Founders Tried to Duck The Issue:

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

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

      1. Population Increase was very Rapid: 1820 9,618,000; 1840 17,120,000; 1860 31,513,000


      1. 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 from 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 after Sumner's two day speech "The Crime Against Kansas."





        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. The Panic of 1857



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

          John Brown, 9 May 1800 - 2 December 1859


          "Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done." (Speech from scaffold, 2 December 1859)

          John Brown's Body

|: John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, :|
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on. 
Chorus:
|: Glory, glory, hallelujah, :|
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
His soul goes marching on. 

|: He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, :|
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus: 

|: John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, :|
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus: 

|: John Brown died that the slaves might be free, :|
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus: 

|: The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, :|
The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus:

--------------------------------------------------------------
Battle Hymn of the Republic, by 
Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 (Written after she heard John Brown's Body)

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
Where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
Of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on. 
Chorus:
Glory! glory, hallelujah!
Glory! glory, hallelujah!
Glory! glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on. 

2. I have seen Him in the watchfires
Of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar
In the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence
By the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Chorus 

3. I have read a fiery gospel
Writ in burnished rows of steel;
"As ye deal with my condemners,
So with you my grace shall deal."
Let the hero born of woman
Crush the serpent with his heel,
Since god is marching on!
Chorus 
  4. He has sounded forth the trumpet
That shall never sound retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men
Before His judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him;
Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Chorus

5. In beauty of the lilies,
Christ born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom
That transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy,
Let us live to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Chorus:

6. He is coming like the glory
Of the morning on the wave;
He is wisdom to the mighty,
He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool,
And the soul of wrong His slave.
Our God is marching on.
Chorus:
      8. The Election of 1860



        
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