The Whig Party in Missouri (review)

BOOK REVIEWS265 The Whig Party in Missouri. By John Vollmer Mering. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1967. Pp. 276. $5.00.) The Whig party in Missouri might be considered an anomaly as political parties go. It enjoyed a formal existence in diat state for only fifteen years (1839-1854) yet its adherents functioned as a cohesive political group at least a decade prior to specific organization. During dieir entire twenty-five years of activity, Missouri's Whigs resembled far more frequently a pressure group dian a political party. Occupying a permanent minority status, diey tasted success only when die dominant Democracy found itself divided over issues and candidates. Under the leadership of Thomas Hart Benton a strong Democratic party had emerged in Missouri in the 1830's. It rode the wave of the Jacksonian triumph of 1828, yet its very strength proved a weakness for so divergent was its membership that agreement on principle was frequently difficult. With the Democratic label essential to success, an abundance of candidates appeared on the Jackson ticket representing a broad spectrum of political and economic thinking. Only diose who since die 1820's had been faithful supporters of Henry Clay and his American System remained outside the Democracy. They carried a variety of names but most frequently found diemselves labeled simply die "Opposition" or die "Clay men." With a minimum of organization they seldom ran candidates of their own except in legislative districts where diey might enjoy success. Radier, diey aligned diemselves, especially in statewide and congressional races, with those Democrats whose platform or principles most closely followed their own thinking. Frequently, widi tiieir help, those candidates would carry die day so that principle would be served even while party as organization floundered. When a combination of circumstances, both within and without Missouri, forced the Whigs into a more formal organization in the 1840's, they discovered how much of a minority they really were as their candidates consistendy went down to overwhelming defeat. It did not take them long to revert to die tendencies of die 1830's in statewide races. For the most part, Missouri Whigs represented the professional and business classes, widi strong support among die larger agrarian interests of die state. They found their greatest strength in St. Louis, where they managed to give the Democrats respectable competition in local races, and in the wealthier slave-holding counties along die Missouri River. Their very makeup made it difficult for them to engender mass appeal. They deplored die "log cabin" tactics of 1840 which carried die national Whigs to temporary triumph. Their ablest leaders consistendy refused to stand for office. The pressure group tactics were much more to their liking as long as diey were obviously effective. The Missouri Whigs consistendy sought to further commercial and industrial expansion dirough a rationalistic program, anticipating expanded credit through a national bank and favoring tariff protection for local hemp and lead. Locally they fought Benton's hard money policies and his desire to establish a state bank which would promote 266CIVIL WAR HISTORY a stringent credit program. Dominating die Missouri bar, they sought to preserve an independent judiciary against the democratizing tendencies of periodic elections of a partisan nature. The Whigs enjoyed their greatest heyday in the early 1850's as the Missouri Democracy split over slavery extension and the legislative attempts to instruct Benton on this issue. Yet this same problem brought about the demise of the national Whig party, and Missouri's Whigs proved no more successful in overcoming it as the 1850's moved rapidly forward. By middecade they had passed out of existence as a formal organization. Professor Mering has developed a difficult subject with considerable skill. He has judiciously researched the many manuscripts and printed sources available. He writes in a clear, readable style which adds much to a rather listless subject. WrLLIAM E. Parrish Westminster College (Missouri) The House Divides: The Age of Jackson and Lincoln from the War of 1812 to the Civil War. By Paul I. Wellman. (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1966. Pp. xiii, 488. $6.95.) Out of the climate of the turbulent Great Plains and Southwest, land of the "trampling herd," proud pony Indian...