Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Culture Of The An

CSPAN3 Lectures In History Culture Of The Antebellum Congress July 12, 2024

Leading up to the civil war, these friendship and alliances disintegrated. Prof. Balcerski welcome everybody. It is me, your professor. Im excited to offer you a lecture of the antebellum congress. The outline, we start with a review of the first and Second Party Systems. I will introduce a concept to you of a lyrical culture and compare that to something we have encountered before, Political Parties. Finally, the bulk of the lecture is going to be presenting new evidence on the antebellum political culture. As you will see i have three , major areas as evidence to talk about today. One,acone, Tobacco Culture. Number two, political friendships, and number three, affairs of honor. Like we often do in the class, i will start with an image on the screen. Im going to ask you to tell me what you see. This is Lady Washingtons reception from 1861. Take it in. Who can point out something you see right away that strikes you . Lady washington is on a platform. Prof. Balcerski how high do you think she is . Off the ground . Like a foot. Prof. Balcerski thats a good piece there. What else . Everyone is dressed up fancy. Prof. Balcerski like you are today. Exactly. Very fancy. Ladies are wearing downs. Good. How about a third thing . Go ahead. At looks like they are fairly close together. They may be dancing. They are all close together. Prof. Balcerski very good. I should say about Lady Washingtons reception, she is Standing Center stage in an elegant gown. What you might not have noticed is there is someone else we sometimes think of as important in the background. That is George Washington here in the center. In black formal republican attire. Sort of overshadowed by lady washington. The title of Lady Washingtons reception, a formal reception that was held and hosted by the first lady, martha washington. Many of you noticed how she was standing on a platform. And you notice the opulent attire. Frankly, this is a scene that could have taken place in a European Court as much as it could take place in america. The next image i think you will find may be more familiar. This is county election from 1851. What do you see here . How does it differ from the last image . Go ahead, zechariah. You see a guy at the top left. Prof. Balcerski theres actually more than one drunk person. Good. Someone who had a little too much here. Stump speaking. Prof. Balcerski stump speaking. Vote for me for president. Anything else . It is workingclass people. Not the wealthy. Prof. Balcerski that is all good. You are seeing a diversity of people. One thing you are also seeing though is the white male electorate. This is going to stand in for democracy. In this jeffersonian jacksonian period. It is a diverse thing. The whole town. Children as well. Although it would be the white male voter, the constitution encompasses culture men and women whites and , africanamericans alike. It is not a question about whether one can participate or if one can participate more broadly in politics. When we think back to the people who stood in as politicians, two people come to mind. From the Federalist Party alexander hamilton. Mr. 10 bill. From the democratic republican, the Opposition Party to the federalist, we have Thomas Jefferson. They could not be more stark opposites. Recall that the federalists stood for a strong federal government. A Strong Financial and manufacturing base. And hamilton was their leader. Versus the democratic republicans were just republicans for sure for short who were wary of centralized government, who were wary of encroachment on personal liberties, who promoted farming and commerce among small villages instead of large cities and manufacturing. Jefferson, the enlightened figure was their leader. That is the First Party System. It is socalled because of what follows. The First Party System was an earlier moment. One of the key issues was the embargo. We see from this cartoon that the embargo is spelled backwards me. H, grab it is a turtle biting at the british smuggler. The art the embargo was a Foreign Policy measure designed to make it so that britain would have a hard time trading with the United States. It was one of the policies that doomed them to a second war with great britain. Thats part of the First Party System history. The way the federalists and the republicans clashed, where hamilton and his legacies, and jefferson and his successors came into power and faded from the scene. Who they left the politics of the United States to were these guys. The men of the Second Party System. We have totally new names for the parties. Although some issues changed, these are the new leaders of american politics. Andrew jackson, a tennessee democrat. On the right, henry clay. Between clay and jackson we get two very different views of what america should look like to show how and the Second Party System new issues were emerging. The question of the banks. This is the second bank of the United States. We see Andrew Jackson holding a cane which he walked with. Because of all of his old wounds from his tools trying to battle back the many headed hydra, the mythical creature from great mythology. Here it stands for the bank. On the heads of the hydra is an individual representing the bank. The most prominent was nicholas bill, the president of the bank and who became an enemy to jackson in this process. This is something of a satire because jackson would kill the banks. That whole political story is somewhat wellknown at this point. After the bank war, formally the wig party coalesces. Indeed it shows the whigs were actively trying to attack jackson. We know he was a man of the people. He was a symbol of american democracy. What we have left are these iffy jackson cartoons coming out of the period of the whig. We see born to command. He is a regal figure holding a scepter. You may not be able to see all the details. In his left hand he has a scroll which says veto. This is a reference to him using the veto more than any other resident in american history. And underneath him, you will see the constitution of the United States as if he is trampling on it. You will see various improvements called internal improvements. Things that the whig party stood for like roads and canals. Jackson is pictured as being against all those improvements. As a whig, this is effective. If there is one thing american politics feared, it was that of a king. Remember, the American Revolution had been fought over this issue. Fighting a monarch to replace it with the democratic system. Although jackson himself is thought to be a leader of democratic reform, lets not forget sometimes politics is personal. I want to ask a question and see if we can knock out a few of them. Lets name the characteristics of the Democratic Party versus the whig party. Think about a few things. What do you have . Whig. At or weak governments. Against tariffs. A tax on goods. Prof. Balcerski coming into the United States. Good. Thats good, we got a few of them. Government. Got that one. Indian action. Lets not forget that is part of it. Remember the tariffs, that was a remember the tariff of abominations that was a measure passed under the John Quincy Adams presidency. What we see are the democrats are in a lot of ways, they are the legacy party of the democratic republicans. They even have the same name. There is a continuation through jefferson and his policies and jackson and his policy. Theipping the coin whigs. The opposite of democrats. They are for strong government. They are for Government Action in general. Government spending and tariffs. Prof. Balcerski thats good. They are everything the democrats are not. Strong government. Especially federal government. They wanted certain economic and social goals. The whigs are prospending on transportation, particularly the socalled internal improvements like the canals and roads. And then the tariffs. View, itwhig point of it was no tariff of abominations. It was something the United States should enact. It can be argued the whigs very much secede the federalist agenda of alexander hamilton. Although they are remixed, the jackson democrats and the henry igs, they are the next generation of politics. It is this party system that i want to focus on. In order to move us from parties to political culture i want to introduce you to this concept. It is a concept i think will be useful for us to think about. Parties. Ive broken it into two sets of components. People, the leaders, the organization. People. And it is action. We are talking about campaigns, platforms, elections. Parties are focused on these things. Awaited talk about clinical parties is they are a group of organized people taking action for a certain result. Thats the role of the party. To gain power through all of these things. Elections, campaigns. Political culture is a little different. It can be said to be a more capacious view of politics. It includes the leafs it includes beliefs. These are more abstract things like norms or values or attitudes. And it includes elements of power, things like symbols and meanings and rituals. Between political politics and culture, we have a broad view of politics. We can think about how Different Actors and politicians are both partisan or members of Political Parties and part of a political culture which may transcend at times those parties or may be limited to those parties. That is the idea and concept i want to introduce. The concept of political culture allows us to get into new concepts. Allows us to go beyond the party mold and look at interesting things from the antebellum. I have a few questions to consider during the remainder of the lecture. How and why did American Political Culture change from the days of the early republic to the antebellum . In other words from the days of , hamilton and jefferson to the days of jackson and clay . We want to trace that change. Thats the first goal of the lecture today. The second one, what does this emerging political culture reveal about wider American Society . Im going to return to those questions at the end. I want to present some evidence that i hope will begin to answer that question and that will help you understand how political culture operated in this period. The three areas i want to investigate today include the Tobacco Culture, political friendships and affairs of , honor. They are interrelated. Not to say that one couldnt affect the other. Some are more important than others. Broadly these are important , aspects of the political culture of the day. It inen we think about those terms we see these are ways for us to understand why and how politicians came into conflict with each other before the civil war. The first piece, Tobacco Culture. This draws on my research ive done. I have not published these findings. Im presenting them to you today with an eye towards seeing what you but, there are elements of presenting them to you today with an eye towards seeing what you think. But, there are elements of the culture i found very interesting. Its amazing what you can find out there. Some of the elements of the Tobacco Culture i found include chewing tobacco, snuff, and cigars. In the 19th century i should say right now they had not invented the cigarette. If you were doing tobacco you were doing it one of these three ways. It may seem silly. Tobacco was one of the key ways politicians across parties could talk to each other. I found numerous incidents where sharing a wad of chewing tobacco could bridge a gap that otherwise existed between a democrat and a wig. I want to share a story with you about that. Tobaccoonvince you that wasnt just an every day thing that didnt matter for politics, let me read you this quote from an english observer who came to the United States, who went to washington, who checked out the scene. He said the habit of chewing tobacco is prevalent in the states. Nor is it confined to the border classes. Members of the house of representatives and the senate, doctors, attorneys chewed tobacco almost as generally as the laboring classes did in the old country. Even in the court of justice more especially in the western , states, it is no unusual thing to see judge, jury and the gentleman of the bar all chewing and spitting as liberally as the crew of a homeward bound west india man. You have judges. Everyone is chewing and spitting. It is incredible to think about. If you were sitting in the congress in 1840, you would be hearing the spittoon as clearly as you would hear the politicians. This is really incredible to think about. This is a nasty habit. This is from a book from 1840 that i found called a pinch of snuff. Here is what this office says. A mans character may often be judged by the manner in which he takes snuff. We did test the stealthy, miserly, and ungrateful attitude in which some people be their noses. A liberal elegant hand may be known in this work at a distance too great for the fact it serves to be seen. That rather unattractive person you see on the screen i assume a woman, it is hard to tell is reaching into a box and she is taking a pinch of this fine tobacco and she is putting it in to her nose by way of a snort. When you took a pinch of snuff, the first thing that would happen is you would sneeze horribly. The second thing is you would get the hit of tobacco in your system. What i found was the most common user of tobacco of the entire u. S. Senate was henry clay. This is the guy who is the leader of the whig party. Who is mr. Antijackson. And yet, henry clay was more known for using tobacco than any politician in the antebellum senate. And on the right we see William Rufus king. These men it turned out had a major incident. It almost led to a duel. It came when senator king asserted that the character of , the president , that of his editor Francis Blair would compare gloriously to that of mr. Clay. This is king making an attack on clay i comparing him and his character to a jacksonians reporter. It was said mr. Clay consider this as placing blair inequality it is said that mr. Clay considered this as placing blair on a equality with himself. And called it cowardly. Get ready. It is a bad word. King promptly issued a challenge to clay and both men went so far as to arrange seconds. In the process clay realized he was a little overboard. The two men come to reconciliation. On a personal level they had not apologized to each other. This is how clay does it. There are no hard feelings after the formal apology. Because in the senate the next task ofy approached the the desk of king and said give us a pinch of your snuff. And they burst into applause. They knew this was clays way of saying im sorry. This incident demonstrates political actors could rely on a common Cultural Practice to bind most partisan divisions. What do you think of this example . Had you heard of tobacco before . I thought it was pretty incredible. Is there any remnants of the Tobacco Culture today . Prof. Balcerski a good question. We think maybe it is just henry clay. What i found out i cannot believe it. Even when you walk into the Congress Today in the gallery there are boxes that are filled with snuff. Any member could take it because with todays antismoking laws you cant smoke inside a public , building but you can take snuff. I actually was watching an old film of one of my favorite musicians. It was 1970. It was not offensive for him to tell the story of a snuff commercial. Times of change. Prof. Balcerski we are going to snuff that conversation. And moved to political friendships. Maybe this will be more friendly of an audience now. Tobacco shows we can all get along. It also shows if henry clay, the haterackson heater that there is, can reconcile over tobacco, maybe there is hope for america. Political friendships were a deep part of the antebellum congress. Here i am drawing on my research and others including Rachel Shelden who talked about a washington brotherhood, for sheldon and my own research i find there are key elements that define this brotherhood. Boarding houses is a big part of it. The politicians lived together. Fraternal organizations. Like freemasons. If you are a mason and a ,emocrat or a mason and a whig you are still a mason together. Politicians like to drink. Going to a tavern and talk about over things they bonded. Social clubs. Formal clubs where men could gather and smoke cigars and have brandy. As you can see in the pictures, this was a thing of the antebellum. And lavish parties. Washington was nothing if not a place to party. It typically was the case there would be balls and receptions and the president would have balls. This is the case where the first lady would help to arrange those. Smoking cigars,. It was one of the ways that men bonded with each other. So what we have here is a washington, d. C. By the time of , the civil war that is quite advanced along this line. That was not exactly the case when Thomas Jefferson became president. In 1800, washington, d. C. Was just Getting Started this image shows the white house as it was just built in 1800. John adams was the first to occupy it. For a few short months. Jefferson was the first to occupy the white house during his entire presidency. The washington of 1800 was an undeveloped p

© 2025 Vimarsana