Dispute #1: the Antebellum American ruling class

["Mark Lause" <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony's argued that pre-Civil War America was a singularly united
entity around western conquest but that it also had two ruling classes
in what he calls "dual power."  I've argued that the civilization was
much more complex, that the Southern slaveocracy was the dominant
faction of the class that ruled here, and that this was particularly
evident through its control of the nationally dominant political party
after the 1820s.

We'll separate these questions.  For the present, we'll just use the
shorthand of the presiding officers as a test of this interpretation of
the ruling class.  I'm claiming no originality in this, and am mostly
just summarizing what political historians generall say about these
things.

The first party system emerged in the 1790s.  Both the
Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists existed in both the North and
the South, both had slaveholders, etc.  In any event, the first
presidents were originally referred to as "the Virginia dynasty."

1. Washington, Virginia slaveholder
2. J. Adams, Massachusetts lawyer
3. Jefferson, Virginia slaveholder
4. Madison, Virginia slaveholder
5. Monroe, Virginia slaveholder

The Virginians served two terms each, Adams only one.  Do this give us a
picture of who was ruling early America?

Now, the political party system began to change by the 1820s.  Adams'
son takes over as a kind of transitional one-term president.

6. J.Q. Adams, Massachusetts lawyer

A change in generational power and the geographic shift over the
mountains from the east coast created a new political party rivalry
between the dominant Democratic Party and the Whigs.  The Democrats
prevailed in the South and this general persistence allowed the section
to have a virtual veto over what the party did nationally.  Here's the
next lot

7. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Democrat
8. Martin Van Buren, New York Democrat---crossed the South over Texas,
so the Southern faction broke his presidency.
9. William Henry Harrison, Virginian transplanted to the west, Whig,
keeled over almost immediately, leaving the presidency to...
10. John Tyler, Virginia Democrat elected vice president on Harrison's
Whig ticket--also later in the Confederate Congress.
11. James Knox Polk, Tennessee Democrat, arranged to admit Texas (as Van
Buren had prevented), sparking War with Mexico and territorial
expansion.
12. Zachary Taylor, Virginian transplanted to Kentucky/Lousiana, Whig,
died to be replaced by his vice president.

SUMMARY THUS FAR: In the sixy-one years from 1789 to 1850, you had only
three non-Southerners in the presidency, each serving a single term and
leaving office soundly villified for.  Does anybody anybody fail to see
dominance here?

In the 1850s, you have three Northern presidents, each of whom became
terribly unpopular in the North because they gave the Southern faction
of the Democratic Party virtually anything it wanted...

13. Millard Fillmore, New York Whig
14. Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire Democrat
15. James Buchanan, Pennsylvania Democrat

These three presidents presided over the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise restricting the possible expansion of slavery in the west,
the adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Act opening the territories
generally to the possiblity of slavery, and the Dred Scott decision of
the Supreme Court effectively reopening the entire United States to
slavery.

None of this indicates "dual power" and indicates that the Southern
faction had little serious rivalry before 1850 for national leadership.
And it was contented enough through the 1850s running things through
Northerners who held power through its good graces.

The reason that faciton opted to destroy the United States in 1860-61
was the election of the first president explicitly committed not to
cooperate with it.

Solidarity?
Mark L.








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