Civil War Study Guide
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1. Alexander Hamilton – He was one of the earliest and most active nationalists, believing that the continental congress needed to be strengthened or overthrown in favor a new, more imposing federal government that could legislate within the states, which the continental congress could not do. Hamilton was the spokesman for an active government, stressing the principle of government “Responsibility”, against the Jeffersonian/Madisonian principle of public vigilance and suspicion of government power. Recent scholars have argued that these two philosophies form the thesis-antithesis of the post-revolutionary era–Alexander Hamilton being the figurehead of responsible government.
2. Thomas Jefferson – Jeffersons idea for the United States was that of an agricultural nation of yeoman farmers, in contrast to the vision of Alexander Hamilton, who envisioned a nation of commerce and manufacturing. Jefferson was a great believer in the uniqueness and the potential of the United States and is often classified a forefather of American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from a unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom.
3. Henry Clay – Henry Clay was known as “Mr. Whig” because he was one of the founders of the party. He was a 3 time presidential loser. In 1824, he advocated high duties to relieve the prevailing economic distress, which he pictured in a brilliant and effective speech. Although they were caused by the reactionary effect of a disordered currency and the inflated prices of the War of 1812, he ascribed the problems to the countrys dependence on foreign suppliers and markets. He said that the United Kingdom was a shining example of the wisdom of a high tariff; and no nation ever flourished without one. He closed his principal speech on the subject in the House of Representatives with a glowing appeal in behalf of what he called the “American System.”Henry Clays American System was a plan to strengthen the nations economy by tying the North, South, and West together. It called for: Federal funding of infrastructure improvements (such as the Erie Canal and a series of highways) funded by a raised tariff on imported goods. Using protective tariffs to encourage development of domestic industry, and Reliance on domestic financial resources. Henry Clay was only twenty-two, when, as an opponent of slavery, he vainly urged an emancipation clause for the new constitution of Kentucky.
4. American System – Henry Clays American System was a plan to strengthen the nations economy by tying the North, South, and West together. It called for: Federal funding of infrastructure improvements (such as the Erie Canal and a series of highways) funded by a raised tariff on imported goods. Using protective tariffs to encourage development of domestic industry, and Reliance on domestic financial resources.
5. Whig Party – The Liberal Party (the term was first used officially in 1868, but it had been used colloquially for decades beforehand) arose out of a coalition between Whigs, free trade Tory followers of Robert Peel, and free trade Radicals which was first created, tenuously under the Peelite Lord Aberdeen in 1852, and put together more permanently under the former Canningite Tory Lord Palmerston in 1859. Although the Whigs at first formed the most important part of the coalition, the Whiggish elements of the new party progressively lost influence during the long leadership of the Peelite William Ewart Gladstone, and many of the old Whig aristocrats broke from the party over the issue of Irish home rule in 1886 to help form the Liberal Unionist Party. The Unionist turn to protection in the early twentieth century, however, (inspired by the Liberal Unionists own leader, Joseph Chamberlain, probably the least Whiggish character in the party) further alienated the more orthodox Whigs, however, and by the early twentieth century whiggery was largely irrelevant and without a natural political home.
6. Democratic Party – The Democratic Partys origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1794. In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Democratic Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories, in opposition to the newly-founded Republican Party, which sought to prohibit such expansion. Democrats in the Northern states opposed this new trend, and at the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down in defeat – part of the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats fractured into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of Republican President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. From 1856 onward, Democratic Partys main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party. The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was known as the “Solid South” for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, especially in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, and controlled the House of Representatives for most of that period.
7. Wilmot Proviso – It was assumed that Texas would be the last slave state to enter the Union, leaving California and New Mexico for free labor. The proviso was named for Congressman David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. The Free Soil Party formed in support of the Wilmot Proviso, and their platform of Free Soil was later adopted by the Republican Party. The proviso pushed the country closer to civil war; it raised questions about slaves that had not been asked previously. Southerners saw slaves as property, and since their rights to property were protected under the Constitution, they believed that they could take slaves where ever they wished. This led to strong opposition to any attempts to bar slavery while the country was expanding. This was one main reason the proviso was never passed.
8. Abolitionism – Abolitionism as a principle was far more than just the wish to limit the extent of slavery. Most Northerners recognized that slavery existed in the South and did not push to change that fact. Most Northerners favored a policy of gradual and compensated