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The nineteenth century was the heyday of furious contention between American political parties, and Joel Silbey has recaptured the drama and substance of those battles in a representative safmpling of party pamphlets. Political parties mapped the landscape of electoral and ideological warfare, constructing images of themselves and of their adversaries that resonate and echo the basic characteristics of Americas then reigning sets of ideas. The nature of political controversy, as well as the substance of politics, is embedded in these party documents, which both united and divided Americans. Unlike todays party platforms, these pamphlets explicated real issues and gave insight into the society at large. Andrew Jacksons Democrats, Millard Fillmores Whigs, Abraham Lincolns Republicans, and other, lesser-known parties are represented here. The pamphlets demonstrate how, for this fifty-year period, political parties were surrogates for American demands and values. Broad in scope, widely circulated, catalysts for heated debate over the decades, these pamphlets are important documents in the history of American politics.In a brilliant monograph-length introduction, Silbey teases out and elucidates the themes each party stressed and took as its own in its fight for the soul of the nation.
List of contents
Preface "Please Read and Circulate" "To Indulge in General Abusive Declamation" "Repellant and Mutually Abhorrent Parties" A Note on the Texts Acknowledgments Introduction: Defining the Soul of the Nation The Great Themes: Continuity and Change "To Save and Exalt the Union" "Consider Well...the Platforms...of the Parties Now Asking Your Suffrage" VOLUME 1 The Evolution of Party Warfare, 1828-1838 Proceedings and Address of the New Hampshire Republican State Convention...Friendly to the Election of Andrew Jackson...(Concord, 1828) The Virginia Address (Richmond, 1828) Proceedings of the Antimasonic Republican Convention of theState of Maine (Hallowell, Me., 1834) To the Electors of Massachusetts (Worcester? 1837) The Jacksonian-Whig Synthesis, 1838-1854 To the Democratic Republican Party of Alabama (n.p., 1840) Address of the Liberty Party of Pennsylvania to the People of the State (Philadelphia, 1844) The Twenty-Ninth Congress, Its Men and Measures; Its Professions and Its Principles...(Washington, 1846) What's the Difference? Cass and Taylor on the Slavery Question (Boston, 1848) Speech of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, Delivered in Richmond, Virginia, July 9, 1852(Richmond, 1852)
About the author
Joel H. Silbey is President White Professor of History, Cornell University.
Summary
The 19th century was the heyday of furious contention between American political parties, and Silbey has recaptured the drama and substance of those battles in a sampling of party pamphlets. The nature of political controversy, as well as the substance of politics, is embedded in these party documents which both united and divided Americans.
