To continue the story of the Whig Party, this
posting will describe the political landscape in those months leading up to the
1852 election. This blog is focusing on
the Whigs as a case study that functioned in a political culture that one can
describe as dominated by a version of federal theory. This blogger calls that version parochial/traditional
federalism in which its adherents ascribe(ed) in federal beliefs and values but
extend(ed) its sense of partnership only to the Western European descendants
living in America.[1]
This
blog assumes that given the general democratic attributes American politics
reflected, what the nation’s leaders debated at a given time reflected what the
nation’s population was considering important.
The drawback to the approach this blog uses is that the names of vying
politicians seem to take center stage while political beliefs and values making
up the political culture is best seen among typical citizens. Of more importance were those concerns about which
Americans were worried. Hopefully, the
reader keeps this in mind.
1848-1853 (continued)
With
Millard Fillmore taking up the presidency after Zachary Taylor’s death,
Fillmore, as pointed out in the last posting, chose to enforce the newly
enacted Fugitive Slave Act, part of the Compromise of 1850. As expected, this policy made him popular in
the South but lost him support among Northern Whigs. Therefore, he was vulnerable in the upcoming
election.
In addition, two nationally known Whigs
had presidential ambitions, Secretary of State Daniel Webster – a former
senator from Massachusetts – and General Winfield Scott who led American forces
in the Mexican-American War. The general
was garnering a good deal of support in the North but found little of it in the
South in that he was perceived as being too close to New York senator, William
Seward, who espoused an anti-slavery position.[2]
At the Whig convention in 1852, Fillmore
received at the Baltimore meeting, 133 delegate votes on the first ballot,
missing the necessary number of votes by 14.
It then took another 52 ballots – and a failed brokered deal between
Fillmore and Scott supporters – for Scott to win the nomination.
The Democrats in their convention – also
in Baltimore – nominated little known, pro South (pro slavery) New Hampshire
senator, Franklin Pierce, beating contenders such as Lewis Cass, Stephen A.
Douglas, William L. Marcy, and James Buchanan in 49 ballots. The result of these battles, both for the
Whigs and Democrats, was that in both party platforms turned out to be highly
similar and the ensuing campaign was mostly a personality contest between Scott
and Pierce.
That is not to say that the voters were
not concerned about contentious issues.
With the Compromise of 1850 having been struck just two years earlier,
many were concerned with the fate of slavery especially as the nation began adding
states in the West. Dissolution of the
union was already being considered among some in the national electorate.
But both parties supported and agreed to
enforce the Compromise of 1850 while the Democrats were more strident in their advocacy
and promised, in line with the party’s traditional position, less government
intrusion in people’s affairs. Each side
during the campaign engaged in direct attacks on the other side – some accurate,
some, at best, stretching the truth. All
the campaign strategies that had become common after the 1840 Harrison campaign
found expression in 1852. That included
handbills, parades, and rallies.
Of note, the ensuing election solicited
a low number of voters casting their votes, but from those who did vote a clear
choice was made. Pierce won 254
electoral votes to Scott’s 42 electoral votes.
Of note was Pierce’s vice president, William R. King. He was from Alabama and was considered to
balance the ticket with the New Hampshire candidate, Pierce.
He was also known as a moderate voice
who strove to maintain the debate over slavery in a civil tone. He fell ill with tuberculosis and felt it
necessary to go to Cuba for a cure.
Consequently, he was sworn into office there, the only vice president having
been so in a foreign land but made his way back to his plantation, only to die
the next day after his arrival, six weeks into his term.
As Pierce’s term began in 1853, two
national concerns seem to have been taking up people’s attention. For this youngest president to date (47 years
old), one concern, of course, was the expansion of slavery, but the other was
the economy. The memory of the national
depression, although over, was still fresh.
So, while the Whigs lost convincingly in
1852, their ranks were mostly confident that they could rebound as they did in
1845 after the Democrat Polk’s presidency.
But the overall national condition had changed since that earlier
election result. In 1853, the economy
continued to strengthen and there was a lull in the concern over the status of slavery
and its expansion. This latter state did
not last for long and simple arithmetic helps explain why.
In 1846 the number of slave states
outnumbered the number of free states, 15 to 14. But one can see a growing concern among pro-slavery
forces, and in retrospect, one can see why.
In 1858, the split was 15 slave states, 17 free states and in 1861, it
was 15 slave states and 19 free states.
As a reminder, expansion was especially
important to the pro-slavery side in that Southerners saw as essential that the
number of slave states, at least, be equal to the number of free states. This was seen as essential since if the
number remained or could be reestablished as equal or higher, slaveholders
could count on the Senate to be at least divided in half, and that would
guarantee that any anti-slavery, national bill could be stopped.
But in the immediate months after Pierce
took office, these concerns seem to be stagnated as the elements of the 1850
compromise went into effect. Therefore, especially
given the improved economy, the Whig expectation that their established policy
positions over the economy would again be seen positively, now seemed to be something
of the past. Their call for a higher
tariff only promised higher prices – which was not a winning message.
So, as 1854 approached, optimism would
begin to wane, and forward-looking Whigs started or would soon begin to look
elsewhere for a place to render their support.
The next posting will focus on this, the end of a major political party
that lasted as a viable entity some twenty to thirty years.
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