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 5
... opposition could never be respectable or constructive, that even organizing a Democratic public meeting carried the serious implication of treason, administration supporters fought the war against their internal enemies in the North as ...
... opposition could never be respectable or constructive, that even organizing a Democratic public meeting carried the serious implication of treason, administration supporters fought the war against their internal enemies in the North as ...
Page 7
... opposed secession but argued that abolitionists had to share some of the blame for the crisis. Conservatives were the swing voters of the Civil War. Some became fervent supporters of emancipation on the grounds that it was the only way ...
... opposed secession but argued that abolitionists had to share some of the blame for the crisis. Conservatives were the swing voters of the Civil War. Some became fervent supporters of emancipation on the grounds that it was the only way ...
Page 10
... opposition; both reified the idea of the unmediated will of the people. In the antebellum period, the boisterous and communal act of vot- ing was far removed from the discreet and decorous business that it was to become in the twentieth ...
... opposition; both reified the idea of the unmediated will of the people. In the antebellum period, the boisterous and communal act of vot- ing was far removed from the discreet and decorous business that it was to become in the twentieth ...
Page 11
... opposition, and treats all disagree- ment from the opinion of those in power, as sedition or treason.”16 Not all citizens at all times succumbed to the partisan embrace. Recent scholarship has suggested that the “party period” paradigm ...
... opposition, and treats all disagree- ment from the opinion of those in power, as sedition or treason.”16 Not all citizens at all times succumbed to the partisan embrace. Recent scholarship has suggested that the “party period” paradigm ...
Page 13
... , the commonwealth, the country.”33 At no time, Lieber warned, was the danger of party becoming factious more pressing than in time of war. “If an opposition feels really 13 concepts of party and nation before the civil war.
... , the commonwealth, the country.”33 At no time, Lieber warned, was the danger of party becoming factious more pressing than in time of war. “If an opposition feels really 13 concepts of party and nation before the civil war.
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