The Magic of the Many

by Crocker, Matthew H.

• ISBN13: 9781558492226
• ISBN10: 1558492224
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr

Summary

A study of partisan politics and class conflict in early nineteenth-century Boston, this book traces the history of a popular revolt against an entrenched ruling elite. Led by an unlikely populist, patrician Josiah Quincy, the rebellion against the reigning Federalist party not only altered the political landscape of Boston but also signalled the advent of the Jacksonian Age.

According to Matthew H. Crocker, Boston in the early republic was a city divided by opposing conceptions of democracy. While the Federalist elite struggled to uphold traditional notions of deference to authority, anti-Federalist insurgents rejected the idea of hierarchy and embraced a commitment to political equality. The challenge to the established order eventually coalesced around Josiah Quincy, who reversed his longstanding political loyalties and forged a popular coalition that broke the hegemony of the Federalist party. Elected in 1823 as Boston's second mayor, Quincy dominated the city's politics for nearly a decade before the people who had brought him to power turned against him

Author Biography

Matthew H. Crocker is visiting assistant professor of history at Keene State College.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
The Setting for Insurgency	1	(8)
New England Federalism on the Attack: The Washington Benevolent Society and Turning Gardens into Republican Farms, 1800--1819	9	(15)
Militiamen, Debtors, Downeasterners, and ``Demigods'': The Ingredients for Insurgent Activism and Federalism on the Defensive	24	(21)
Boston Rebels Again: Local Challenges to the Federalist Order	45	(16)
``Popular Hallucinations,'' ``Ten-footers,'' and ``Lordly Nabobs'': The Middling Interest Leadership and Coalitional Unity	61	(16)
The Mayoral Election of 1822 and the Triumph of the Middling Interest	77	(20)
``The Siege of Boston in once more raised'': The Betrayal of the Insurgency's Mayor and Federalist Death Spasms	97	(20)
Personal Partisanship, Political Fragmentation, and the Politics of Public Persona	117	(15)
Boston's Caesar and the Formation of the Modern Municipal State: Reform, Renewal, and Order	132	(17)
Conclusion	149	(16)
Notes	165	(38)
Bibliography	203	(14)
Index	217