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 6
... Whigs and Know-Nothings—were, in Michael Holt's phrase, “up for grabs.”19 As many historians have noted, although initially most Democrats and conservative former Whigs could unite with all wings of the Republican Party in support 6 ...
... Whigs and Know-Nothings—were, in Michael Holt's phrase, “up for grabs.”19 As many historians have noted, although initially most Democrats and conservative former Whigs could unite with all wings of the Republican Party in support 6 ...
Page 9
... Whig voiced widely held views when it announced that it had a “very great aversion to anything like party in a crisis such as this” and argued that “the old system [of parties] has failed, and we should profit by the failure for our ...
... Whig voiced widely held views when it announced that it had a “very great aversion to anything like party in a crisis such as this” and argued that “the old system [of parties] has failed, and we should profit by the failure for our ...
Page 11
... Whig Party in the South as well. Its nonparty origins enabled its self-projection as an “alternative antiparty movement” that would sweep away the corruption of existing parties and restore a sense of virtue and honor to public life.21 ...
... Whig Party in the South as well. Its nonparty origins enabled its self-projection as an “alternative antiparty movement” that would sweep away the corruption of existing parties and restore a sense of virtue and honor to public life.21 ...
Page 12
... Whig and Democratic leaders alike, Know-Nothings charged, had treated “this country as the mere skittle ground of gambling politicians.”22 Antiparty discourse also indicated a more general malaise about the standards of public life. No ...
... Whig and Democratic leaders alike, Know-Nothings charged, had treated “this country as the mere skittle ground of gambling politicians.”22 Antiparty discourse also indicated a more general malaise about the standards of public life. No ...
Page 15
... Whig Party politician, but his art expressed a yearning to see politics as the product of Lincoln's “better angels of our nature” rather than the “base” art of party struggles. Partisanship, then, was, in the words of Kimberly Smith, “a ...
... Whig Party politician, but his art expressed a yearning to see politics as the product of Lincoln's “better angels of our nature” rather than the “base” art of party struggles. Partisanship, then, was, in the words of Kimberly Smith, “a ...
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