No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War NorthDuring the Civil War, Northerners fought each other in elections with almost as much zeal as they fought Southern rebels on the battlefield. Yet politicians and voters alike claimed that partisanship was dangerous in a time of national crisis.In No Party Now, Adam I. P. Smith challenges the prevailing view that political processes in the North somehow helped the Union be more stable and effective in the war. Instead, Smith argues, early efforts to suspend party politics collapsed in the face of divisions over slavery and the purpose of the war. At the same time, new contexts for political mobilization, such as the army and the avowedly non-partisan Union Leagues, undermined conventional partisan practices. The administration's supporters soon used the power of anti-party discourse to their advantage by connecting their own antislavery arguments to a powerful nationalist ideology. By the time of the 1864 election they sought to de-legitimize partisan opposition with slogans like "No Party Now But All For Our Country!"No Party Now offers a reinterpretation of Northern wartime politics that challenges the "party period paradigm" in American political history and reveals the many ways in which the unique circumstances of war altered the political calculations and behavior of politicians and voters alike. As Smith shows, beneath the superficial unity lay profound differences about the implications of the war for the kind of nation that the United States was to become. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
1 Concepts of Party and Nation before the Civil War | 9 |
2 The Patriotic Imperative | 25 |
3 The Emancipation Proclamation and the Party System | 49 |
4 The Union Leagues and the Emergence of Antiparty Nationalism | 67 |
5 The Army Loyalty and Dissent | 85 |
6 Slavery Reconstruction and the Union Party | 101 |
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abolitionist Abraham Lincoln American Political antebellum antiparty antislavery appeal argued army August August Belmont ballot Basler Batterson Blair Boston Broadsides campaign candidate Chicago Civil Club coln Committee Confederate Congressional Connecticut conservative Constitution convention crisis Demo Democratic Party discourse draft editor electoral emancipation Emancipation Proclamation faction former Whigs Francis Lieber George Henry Historical Society History Holt Illinois issue James John John Murray Forbes leaders letter Library of Congress Lincoln Papers Loyal Publication Society loyalty McClellan military newspaper Nicolay nominated nonpartisan North Northern November October Ohio opposition pamphlet partisan partisanship party organization party politics party system Party’s patriotic peace Pennsylvania People’s Philadelphia platform political culture politicians President Proclamation quoted radical rebel rebellion republic Republican Party rhetoric Richard Yates September Seward Silbey Simon Cameron slavery slaves soldiers South Southern speech Theodore Tilton Thurlow Weed tion Tribune Union League Union Party Unionists victory vote voters War Democrats wartime Washburne William