It is me, your professor. Im excited to offer an lecture on the political culture of the antebellum congress. The outline, we start with a review of the party system. I will introduce a concept of political culture. I will compared to something that we have encountered before, Political Parties and finally, the bulk of the letter will be presenting new evidence, some from my own research and for those of other scholars in the area on the antebellum political culture. As you see, i three major areas of evidence to talk about today. Tobacco culture. Political friendships. And affairs of honor. We will conclude there after getting through those. Likely off into the necklace, we are going to start today with an image on the screen and im going to ask you to tell me what d. C. We this is Lady Washingtons reception from 1861. Take it in. Who can point out something right away that strikes you . There we go, yes. Lady washington is on a platform. How high do you think she is off the ground . I dont know, a foot. Its a good foot. What else do you see . Another one on there. Everyone is dressed up super fancy, like you are today, everyone is stressing the same way. It is very fancy, that women are wearing gowns. How about a third thing . It looks like they are all fairly close together, are they dancing, they are all very close together. Exactly, very good. I should say about Lady Washingtons reception, we lady washington herself is center stage in an election game. You might not of notice that there is someone else who we think of as important who is receding into the background. And that is good old George Washington in the center, black formal republican gown. Overshadowed by lady washington. The title was, Lady Washingtons reception. Its a formal reception that is held by the first lady. As you see that she is standing on a platform, you also notice the opulent attire. This is a scene that couldve taken place in a European Court as much as it might have taken place in america. The next image i think he will find a little more familiar. This is county election from 1851. What you see here and how does it differ from the last image . I have a hand down here. Pass it down. I see a drunk guy in the top left of the picture. John people, very good. Theres more than one drunk guy. There is the sky here, we have someone whos had a little too much here. Good. I also see stumps. Stump speaking, that yes, me, vote for me. Excellent. Anything else . There is a hand back there. We it is primarily working class people, not the wealthy. Good, that is all good. You are seeing a diversity of people. One thing you are also seeing is the white male electorate. This is going to stand in for democracy in this period, the jackson ian period, the one we are looking at today. We although it is the white male electric, it is people of all kinds. Note the African American to the left of the picture. There are children as well. Although it would be the white male voter for many years who would be the voter in america, nevertheless, political culture encompasses all people, men and women, whites and African Americans alike. It is not so much a question of whether one can participate in the vote but whether one can participate in politics. We think back to the First Party System, we think back to the people who stood in as politicians of the early day. Two people come to mind. From the Federalist Party alexander hamilton. Mr. Ten dollar bill. From the democratic republican, thomas jefferson. They could not be more stark opposites. Recall that the the federalists stood for a strong federal government. A Strong Financial and manufacturing base. And hamilton was their leader. Versus the democratic republicans 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 as oh grab me. It is a turtle biting at the british smuggler. He will try to break the embargo. 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. He is 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 biddle, 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. He would veto it before its determination. That whole political story is somewhat wellknown at this point. After the bank war, formally the whig 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. But we have heard these antijackson cartoons coming out of the period of the wakes. In this one, its executive power. At the top of the image we see the phrase, born to command. Jackson is figured as a regal figure, holding a scepter. You may not be able to see all the details, in the left hand he has a scroll which says veto. This is a reference to his using the veto more than any other president in American History as a way of claiming executive power. And underneath him, under his feet, you will see the constitution of the United States as if he was trampling on it. You will also see various other improvements, internal improvements, things that the wig party stood for like roads, canals, and eventually railroads. With jackson here is pictured as being against all of those improvements. As a wig, with this was very effective. If there is one thing that american politics feared it was that of a king, remember the American Revolution had been fought over this very issue, fighting a monarch to replace with the democratic system. Although jackson himself is thought to be a kind of leader of democratic reform, lets not forget that
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