No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War NorthDuring the Civil War, Northerners fought each other in elections with almost as much zeal as they fought Southern rebels on the battlefield. Yet politicians and voters alike claimed that partisanship was dangerous in a time of national crisis. In No Party Now, Adam I. P. Smith challenges the prevailing view that political processes in the North somehow helped the Union be more stable and effective in the war. Instead, Smith argues, early efforts to suspend party politics collapsed in the face of divisions over slavery and the purpose of the war. At the same time, new contexts for political mobilization, such as the army and the avowedly non-partisan Union Leagues, undermined conventional partisan practices. The administration's supporters soon used the power of anti-party discourse to their advantage by connecting their own antislavery arguments to a powerful nationalist ideology. By the time of the 1864 election they sought to de-legitimize partisan opposition with slogans like "No Party Now But All For Our Country!" No Party Now offers a reinterpretation of Northern wartime politics that challenges the "party period paradigm" in American political history and reveals the many ways in which the unique circumstances of war altered the political calculations and behavior of politicians and voters alike. As Smith shows, beneath the superficial unity lay profound differences about the implications of the war for the kind of nation that the United States was to become. |
From inside the book
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Page vii
... electoral combat on the home front has been oddly neglected by historians. The lack of attention to this issue is all the more surprising given the central role that the political process played in the reimagining of the American nation ...
... electoral combat on the home front has been oddly neglected by historians. The lack of attention to this issue is all the more surprising given the central role that the political process played in the reimagining of the American nation ...
Page 4
... electoral politics in wartime became more than ever a battle over who constituted the legitimate nation. Whatever Francis Lieber may have advocated, it was difficult—not to say impossible—for Civil War Northerners to organize ...
... electoral politics in wartime became more than ever a battle over who constituted the legitimate nation. Whatever Francis Lieber may have advocated, it was difficult—not to say impossible—for Civil War Northerners to organize ...
Page 5
... electoral process itself: they printed and distributed the ballot papers and even counted the votes.7 In America, parties served functions in society and the state that elsewhere were performed by nonpartisan institutions such as a ...
... electoral process itself: they printed and distributed the ballot papers and even counted the votes.7 In America, parties served functions in society and the state that elsewhere were performed by nonpartisan institutions such as a ...
Page 6
... electoral battles, which frequently spilled over into violence or the threat of violence. At the same time, the creation of a mass citizen army added a new element to the political process. The army was a community that could politicize ...
... electoral battles, which frequently spilled over into violence or the threat of violence. At the same time, the creation of a mass citizen army added a new element to the political process. The army was a community that could politicize ...
Page 7
... electoral ploy. The Union Party label was not only an indication of the continual process of renegotiation of the identity and purpose of the Republican Party that took place in wartime, but also the most striking embodiment of the ...
... electoral ploy. The Union Party label was not only an indication of the continual process of renegotiation of the identity and purpose of the Republican Party that took place in wartime, but also the most striking embodiment of the ...
Contents
3 | |
9 | |
2 The Patriotic Imperative | 25 |
3 The Emancipation Proclamation and the Party System | 49 |
4 The Union Leagues and the Emergence of Antiparty Nationalism | 67 |
5 The Army Loyalty and Dissent | 85 |
6 Slavery Reconstruction and the Union Party | 101 |
7 Emancipation and Antiparty Nationalism in the 1864 Election Campaign | 124 |
Conclusion | 154 |
Notes | 167 |
Bibliography | 223 |
Index | 259 |
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Abraham Lincoln administration American appeal argued army August battle Boston Brooklyn Daily Eagle called campaign candidate cause Charles Chicago citizens City Civil Civil War claim Club Collection Committee Congressional Connecticut conservative Constitution convention crisis culture Daily Democratic Party Democrats Division draft editor effect efforts election electoral emancipation example explained former George Henry History Illinois issue James John July June leaders leading letter Lincoln Papers Loyal loyalty majority March McClellan means meeting military newspaper nominated North Northern November October Ohio opposed opposition organization partisan partisanship patriotic peace Pennsylvania Philadelphia platform political politicians President presidential quoted radical rebel rebellion reported Representatives republic Republican Party rhetoric September Seward slavery Society soldiers South Southern speech tion Union League Union Party Unionists United University Press victory vote voters warned wartime Whigs wrote York