In Chapter 17 of The Rise of American Democracy<\/i>, Wilentz focuses primarily on discussing parties. In particular, he details carefully the \u201cbig\u201d names that associated themselves with the Whigs and the Democrats, and discusses how these people influenced the early American party system, as well as early American politics in general.<\/p>\n
Wilentz gives a fair amount of attention to the surprising ascendency of John Tyler to President of the United States. This makes sense, as Tyler\u2019s presidency threw the political system into confusion and turmoil. Tyler ran with Harrison under the banner of the Whig Party, yet it soon became clear after Tyler gained the Presidency that he had no qualms with resisting popular Whig policy.<\/p>\n
Tyler quickly fell into dispute with Henry Clay, previously a political ally, over the re-chartering of the national bank. A personal war soon broke out between them. When it became apparent that Tyler would not support a national bank, much like President Jackson, Henry Clay cut all ties with Tyler and isolated him entirely from the Whig party. This type of political squabbling is a theme throughout this chapter of The Rise of American Democracy. <\/i>\u00a0Wilentz does a good job of describing the cutthroat elements of American politics at this time. He notes all the scheming, strategizing, and manipulation of early American politicians in great detail, and the reader leaves with a real sense of how cruel and ferocious early American politics could be.<\/p>\n
Particular interesting to me was Wilentz\u2019s description of the Dorr Warr. \u00a0Dorr and his fellow reformers attempted to push through a new constitution with the use of a state convention in Rhode Island. Angered, the conservative government already in power began to arrest Dorrite leaders. Violence ensued between the two parties, and the episode culminated with the arrest of Dorr.\u00a0 Legally, this incident is fascinating because it tested whether the majority in a state had a right to overthrow the government as stated by the Constitution. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that Dorr and his supporters had no right to attempt a revolution.<\/p>\n
This chapter, while not focused on the abolition movement, does highlight some progress in the department of racial equality. As mentioned by the authors of the blog posts The Connection Between Women\u2019s Rights and Abolition <\/i>and Ask a Slave<\/i>, during this time period abolitionists were actually making headway with regards to racial equality. We finally start to see the North developing into a hotbed for the abolition movement. Women\u2019s rights activists begin to sympathize with African-Americans, and people in general were more open to discussing the abolition of slavery than ever before. Thus, the conservative constitution in Rhode Island during the Dorr War \u201cenfranchised black males who met the same minimal taxpaying requirements as native-born whites.\u201d I personally was shocked by this, because this constitution legally viewed African-Americans as having the same rights, at least with regards to voting, as whites. Here we clearly start to see an example of the decline of the pro-slavery movement in the North.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Chapter 17 of The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz focuses primarily on discussing parties. In particular, he details carefully the \u201cbig\u201d names that associated themselves with the Whigs and the Democrats, and discusses how these people influenced the early American party system, as well as early American politics in general. Wilentz gives a fair … <\/p>\n