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. |
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Page 6
... leadership. They did this because to many Republicans, slavery was only the most virulent symptom of a larger national malaise. Yankee Protestant elites, with their allies in the evangelical churches and with the moral idealism of rank ...
... leadership. They did this because to many Republicans, slavery was only the most virulent symptom of a larger national malaise. Yankee Protestant elites, with their allies in the evangelical churches and with the moral idealism of rank ...
Page 11
... leaders—dedicated party men like Martin Van Buren, Thurlow Weed and William L. Marcy—began to celebrate parties as “the natural consequences of a Republican and Representative government,” arguing that “their reg- ular formation shows ...
... leaders—dedicated party men like Martin Van Buren, Thurlow Weed and William L. Marcy—began to celebrate parties as “the natural consequences of a Republican and Representative government,” arguing that “their reg- ular formation shows ...
Page 12
... 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 reader of late ...
... 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 reader of late ...
Page 17
... leaders in Jefferson and Madison's time presented themselves to the public in much the same way as the supporters of Lincoln would do in the Civil War: as the patriotic saviors of the nation against the factionalism and ...
... leaders in Jefferson and Madison's time presented themselves to the public in much the same way as the supporters of Lincoln would do in the Civil War: as the patriotic saviors of the nation against the factionalism and ...
Page 21
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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