Chapter 11

Society, Culture, and Politics, 1820s-1840s

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Political Factionalism in the North
and West
 Emergence of the Whig Party
 Support among commercial farmers and new urban
commercial classes in cities and towns
 Grounded in market revolution, but supported broad political
agenda
 Activist government, economic development, moral progress
 Emergence of the Democratic Party
 Appealed to cultural traditionalists who had gained little from
the market revolution and who had no use for Whig moralism
 Especially popular among Irish Catholics
 Opposed mixing of church and state that characterized Whig
moralism
Politics in the South
 Democrats strongest in up-country communities
 Folks who either were or hoped to be beneficiaries of the
market revolution
 Whigs strongest in plantation counties and areas
where their plans for internal improvement appealed
to ambitious farmers
 Demanded minimal government, low taxes, little interference
with personal matters
 Unlike North and West, southern political divisions
had little to do with religion
The Politics of Economic
Development
 Party differences over the role of government
 Whigs favored activist government to support the market
 Democrats saw government as dangerous and wanted it
limited
 Banking question of central importance
 Whigs saw banks as agents of economic progress
The Politics of Economic
Development (cont.)
 Democrats distrusted banks and wanted them abolished
 Partisan squabbling over internal improvements
 Democrats in Congress blocked federal involvement
 Whigs favored direct action by state government to fund
projects
 Democrats opposed any direct government action
 Feared inequality, favoritism, privilege, debt, corruption
The Politics of Social Reform
 Political debate over public education
 Parties agreed in principle on public education
 Differed over extent and aims
 Whigs favored extensive, expensive, and centralized system
– Called for character building rather than skills training
– Advocated state-level centralization
The Politics of Social Reform (cont.)
 Democrats preferred local control
 Question of parochial education after the mid-1840s
 Catholics demanded reforms of public schools or chance to form their
own schools
 Opposed vehemently by Whigs
 Partisan disagreement over prisons and asylums for the insane
 Whigs favored institutions for rehabilitation
 Democrats favored institutions that isolated deviants
 Most state systems were a mixture of the two approaches
 Whigs generally approved of expensive and humane moral
treatment facilities for the insane
 Most Democrats opposed better treatment for the insane as too
expensive
Social Reform in the South
 Whigs and Democrats generally united in opposing
efforts at “social improvement”
 Region was culturally similar
 Common rejection of big, activist government
 Favorer individual moral improvement, not public
coercion
 Reinforced personal independence and patriarchy
Temperance as a Political Issue
in the 1830s
 Whigs favored coercion rather than voluntarism
 End licensing system for local liquor sales
 Saw temperance as arm of evangelicalism

 Democrats rejected idea of government intervention

in people’s lives
 Favored reliance on personal choice
The Politics of Race
 Sizable free black population in many northern
seaport cities
 Took a variety of jobs
 Discrimination became commonplace after the 1820s
 Informal as well as official
 African Americans formed their own institutions
 Entertainment venues, often integrated
The Politics of Race (cont.)
 Churches, schools, social clubs
 Racism in the democratic Party
 Incorporated racism into their political agenda

 The consolidation of racist thought

 Whites came to view blacks as treacherous and wicked
 Democrats saw blacks as unfit to be citizens of the white
republic
Emergence of an Antislavery
Ideology
 Not until the 1830s did many Americans actively oppose slavery
 Northern abolition was implicit condemnation of slavery in the
South
 William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator began publishing in 1831
 American Anti-Slavery Society organized in 1833
 Logical extension of middle-class evangelicalism
 Yet attracted only a minority among middle-class evangelicals
 Demonstrated complicity of the Democratic Party in supporting
slavery
Gender Issues as Political
Questions
 Democrats accused of abjuring sentimental
domesticity
 Whigs embraced “traditional” values
 Focused on improving the character of individuals rather
than institutions
 Role of women in social improvement campaigns
 Magdalen Society’s efforts to eliminate prostitution
 Replaced by Female Moral Reform Society
 Gender Issues as Political
Questions (cont.)
 Commitment to raise “proper” boys
 Campaign against the sexual double standard
 Assumed responsibility for defining what was respectable and
what was not
 Women’s rights movement
 Assuming greater roles within the family
 Played prominent role in antislavery movement
– Logical step to think, then, of women’s equality with men
 Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
– Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

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