Rise of Partisan Politics in the Early Republic
The founding fathers were hopeful when they drafted the constitution that political parties could not emerge in the nascent republic. They feared that such groupings would cause disharmony and threaten the unity of the union. To this end, they made a document that balanced the interests of the various political groupings. However, during the presidency of George Washington, political parties began to emerge. The earliest political parties were the Federalists while the other group was the democratic-republicans. This emergence of partisan politics and political parties can be attributed to the French revolutions and the whiskey rebellion. It played a significant role in the presidential elections of 1796.
Many leaders at the constitutional convention had all agreed to curb the excesses of democracy at the state level while creating a strong central government. However, divisions emerged during the Washington administration over domestic and foreign policy. The main bone of contention was on much power should be vested in the central government and the states. These were fueled by partisan newspapers which in turn provided political identities to voters in the emerging political parties. The Federalists believed in improving social stability and to serve the people best, and they should meet the interests of a few wealthy who would, in turn, provide benefits for all and create a stronger union. The Republicans wanted a government that was supportive of ordinary citizens who formed the majority. They did not approve of a strong central government. Both parties created support bases drawn mainly from sectional interests, and the coalitions were shaky in the early republic. This significantly influenced government response to the whiskey rebellion and the French Revolution (Rise of Partisan Politics, n.d.).
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Development of the Second Party System
The nascent republic had witnessed the emergence of two competing political groupings, the Federalists, and the Democratic-Republicans. Both had high sectional character. These, however, disintegrated after the war of 1812 and the union went back to a single party government at the national level. This new administration was dominated by the democratic-republicans and it create a false national unity. Soon, the Republican Party began to disintegrate into small factions in the face of lack of intense competition. It completely fragmented during the presidency of James Monroe even though he sought to emulate George Washington’s farewell address on the need for national unity and the elimination of partisan politics. He created a government drawn from both sides of the political divide. His cabinet did not use federal patronage to strengthen the party. Despite this, the lack of a formidable leader resulted in the disintegration of the party at this time. There was increased rivalry which became bitterer among the various faction and sections.
In the 1820s, there were significant changes to the electoral process. Many states changed rules regarding property qualifications before one could vote. Voters for the first time had the opportunity of choosing their representatives to the Electoral College apart from the states of South Carolina and Delaware. This increased citizens’ rights emboldened people to believe they had a bigger voice in both state and national politics. This rise in an emboldened electorate together with socio-economic developments led to the rise of the second party system.
The Democratic Party emerged in 1828 while the Whigs appeared in 1834. They went on to dominate the political landscape for almost twenty years. Smaller parties developed during the time as well, and they captured voter’s imaginations for a brief period. The Democratic Party supported the individual liberties and the freedom to pursue personal interests with little government interference. The Whigs, on the other hand, supported maintaining economic and judicial nationalism witnessed in the era of good feelings.
Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren led the Democrats while the Whigs were led by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and William Henry Harrison. The Democratic constituencies were mainly found in the South and the West States, primarily composed of peasant planters and urban workers. Most were Catholics, Baptists, Methodists and free thinkers. The Whigs constituencies, on the other hand, comprised of New England and the Upper Midwest States. They were composed of plantation owners, wealthy businesspeople, and traditional farmers. The second political party system saw more citizen involvement in the political party system and increased democratization in American politics (The Second Party System, n.d.).
Major Movements and Events that led to the Civil War
Slavery was the hot-button issue resulting in the civil war. The southern states wanted to maintain the institution of slavery while expanding it to new territories that had been added during the westward expansion. The North and West states opposed this as it threatened the availability of well-paying jobs. Before the war broke out, these are some of the events leading to the war. The political parties that existed at the time had a struggle on the limitation of central government and individual states power. In the lead-up to the civil war, this conflict sharply focused on the legislative powers of national government and the individual states to regulate slavery or abolish the institution. This took a Northern and Southern sectional debate widening the rift between the two. The abolitionist movement also emerged in the 1830 and through a series of campaigns marked by propaganda and religious awakening pushed for the abolition of slavery. They lobbied heavily to get followers to their side especially in the church. In the years leading to the Civil War, there was a split in the movement with radicals and moderates. Both played a significant role in the lead-up to the war.
The arguments put forward by the defenders of slavery were strong to overwhelm the abolitionist, theories were taught in line with the pro-slavery ideology. Pro-slavery’s morality and intelligence were substantially attacked by the sentiments of the anti-slavery. In most occasions, they used paternalism, economy, and even religion to defend their views. Pro-slavery’s religious argument is reported to have evolved throughout the era. Initially, it was argued to have dated back to the curse of Ham and later evolved to be the will of God for the blacks to be enslaved by Whites. On the other hand, the abolitionists founded their views on religious, economic and even non-paternalistic aspects to counters the arguments put forward by the proslavery. The abolitionists were strongly against slavery and considered it as an abomination which must be stopped. The religious arguments recognized slavery as a sin, and buying and selling of human beings were immoral.
The expansion of slavery towards the western territories was reported to have caused a lot of controversies. Both the South and the North grew differently regarding economy, society and ideology ever since the drafting of the constitution in the year 1787. The North feared that the South would enforce its ‘peculiar institution’ throughout the entire Union. The concerns mounted immediately upon the expansion of slavery into the Western region entered the Congressional debate. The federal government tried to resolve the emerging issues through compromises that seemed to be one-sided, but at the same time, sectional divides existing between them became more pronounced. It is evident that the expansion to the west gave the Americans more lands, but it, later on, caused many problems. First, there emerged the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that claimed that there would be no slavery above 36, 30 latitudes and longitude. The South expanded rapidly as a result of cotton gin hence wanted more land for cotton growing and at the same time demanded more slaves but this angered the North since the South were getting more lands and more slaves and most of the North were abolitionists.
The judicial system made the Dred Scott decision in 1857 denying a request by a slave to become an American citizen. Dred Scott decision was argued to have raised a lot of conflicts since this would imply that blacks would no longer be slaves but American citizens hence sparked the Civil War. It reversed the Missouri compromise which had limited slavery in a few areas. Missouri Compromise of 1820 claimed that there would be no slavery above 36, 30 latitudes and longitude and this raised a lot of controversies especially for the cotton growers who depended on slavery for labor. As debate or slavery raged amid the westward expansion, abolitionists moved to prohibit slavery in the newly acquired lands.
A turning point was the election of abolitionist Abraham Lincoln as president. The Whigs joined with the know-nothings and the free soil party to form the Republican Party. All opposed slavery. They backed Abraham Lincoln who won the election in 1860. The 1860 election was reported to have taken place within this same supercharged atmosphere. Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republicans but was vehemently opposed to slavery and at the same time wanted to maintain the Union. The Democrats at the North were behind Stephen Douglas, but the Southerners refused to back him claiming that he had betrayed the South through opposing the Lecompton Constitution. The party split where Northern Democrats backed Douglas and Southern Democrats supported Vice President John C. Breckinridge. During this time, the Southerners also threatened to secess in the event a Republican would be elected, and during the Election Day, Lincoln was elected causing greater secession (Causes of the Civil War, n.d.). The tension between the South and the North over the institution of slavery attained a new peak after the election. An attack by the Southerners at Fort Sumter for military supplies marked the official beginning of the civil war.
References
Rise of Partisan Politics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h444.html
The Second Party System. (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2016, from https://lumen.instructure.com/courses/202929/pages/Section14-4?module_item_id=4597267
Causes ofthe Civil War. (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://www.historynet.com/causes-of-the-civil-war
