The American Party Battle: Election Campaign Pamphlets, 1828-1876

Published by Harvard University Press 1999

The American Party Battle

Election Campaign Pamphlets, 1828-1876

Edited by: Joel H. Silbey

In the series The John Harvard Library

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674043633

Overview
Contents

About this book

The nineteenth century was the heyday of furious contention between American political parties, and Joel Silbey has recaptured the drama and substance of those battles in a representative sampling of party pamphlets. The pamphlets demonstrate how, for this fifty-year period, political parties were surrogates for American demands and values.

Reviews

Silbey’s preface, introduction and head notes are excellent. In accordance with his previous work, Silbey is emphasizing campaign rhetoric while politicians work up issues both substantive and circumstantial as they seek to persuade the electorate that their particular position on affairs of state is the correct one. In making their case, they describe their achievements and their goals in positive terms while they view the opposition negatively. One would expect this dialogue to prevail in a heated political campaign, but the style of the argument and the facts presented give major clues to the state of the society at any given time. Thus the pamphlets serve as a useful probe to a better understanding of the basic tensions that were developing in American culture that led to the Civil War and the ensuing Reconstruction. Silbey has made a good selection of pamphlets to reflect the partisan mood over nearly fifty years of contention or, as he puts it in one of his topical heads, ‘the culmination of the battle for the soul of America.’
-- John Niven, Claremont Graduate School

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
Introduction: Defining the Soul of the Nation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part three New Issues and Parties: Americans, Republicans, and Divided Democrats, 1854—1860
10 A Few Considerations for Reflecting Voters (New York, 1855?) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
11 The Parties of the Day. Speech of William H. Seward at Auburn,October 21, 1856 (Washington, 1857) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
12 The Conspiracy to Break Up the Union. The Plot and Its Development . . . (Washington, 1860) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
13 Salient Points of the Campaign . . . (Springfield, 1860) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
Part four The Culmination of the Battle for the part four Soul of America, 1861–1876
14 An Address . . . to the People of the States Which Adhere to the Federal Government (Washington, 1864) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
15 “Union” on Dis-Union Principles! The Chicago Platform, McClellan’s Letter of Acceptance . . . A Speech Delivered by Abram Wakeman, of New York, . . . Nov. 3, 1864 (New York, 1864) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
16 Modern Philanthropy Illustrated. How They Tried to Make a White Man of a Negro . . . (n.p., 1868) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
17 The Three Secession Movements in the United States. Samuel J. Tilden, . . . the Adviser, Aider, and Abettor of the Great Secession Movement of 1860 . . . (Boston, 1876) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 304

eBook

Published: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 9780674043633