The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

by Holt, Michael F.

• ISBN13: 9780195161045
• ISBN10: 0195161041
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the years preceding the Civil War, The American Whig Party was involvedat every level of American politics and controlled the White House for twelve ofthe twenty-two years it existed. Its members included Henry Clay, DanielWebster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln. Now, Michael F. Holtgives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written. He offers apanoramic account of the tumultuous Antebellum period, a time when a flurry ofparties (Democratic, Anti-Mason, Know Nothing, Free Soil, Republican) and largerthan life politicians--Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, MartinVan Buren, and Henry Clay--struggled to control the national agenda as the U.S.inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionatelyinvolved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and whenmomentous political events--like the Nullification Controversy, the Annexationof Texas, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act--rocked the country. Holt captures all ofthis as he shows that, amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Partycontinuously strove to unite North and South and emerged as the nation's lastgreat hope to prevent secession.

Author Biography

Michael F. Holt is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Virginia.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
"Not Fitted to Make Converts"	p. 1
"To Rescue the Government and Public Liberty"	p. 19
"No Opposition Man Can Be Elected President"	p. 33
"We Have Many Recruits in Our Ranks from the Pressure of the Times"	p. 60
"Harrison and Prosperity or Van Buren and Ruin"	p. 89
"The Whig Party Seems Now Totally Broken Up and Dismembered"	p. 122
"The Whigs Are in High Spirits"	p. 162
"The Present Administration Are Your Best Recruiting Officers"	p. 208
"The Contest for President Should Be Regarded as a Contest of Principles"	p. 259
"We Must Have the Aid of Gunpowder"	p. 284
"Stimulate Every Whig to Turn Out"	p. 331
"Many Discordant Political Interests to Reconcile"	p. 383
"Patronage Is a Dangerous Element of Power"	p. 414
"The Slavery Excitement Seems Likely to Obliterate Party Lines"	p. 459
"The Long Agony Is Over"	p. 521
"God Save Us from Whig Vice Presidents"	p. 553
"Fillmore ... Is Precisely the Man for the Occasion"	p. 598
"Webster Is Now Engaged in Strenuous Efforts to Secure the Succession"	p. 635
"Scott & Scott Alone Is the Man for the Emergency"	p. 673
"Like Pissing Against the Wind"	p. 726
"Now Is the Time to Start New; the Old Issues Are Gone"	p. 765
"This Nebraska Business Will Entirely Denationalize the Whig Party"	p. 804
"The Whig Party, as a Party, Are Entirely Disbanded"	p. 836
"Confusion Worse Confounded"	p. 879
"Let, Then, the Whig Party Pass"	p. 909
"The Whig Party Is Dead and Buried"	p. 951
Notes	p. 987
Abbreviations Used in Notes	p. 1179
Bibliography	p. 1181
Index	p. 1203
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