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Chapter 2: A New and Profitable Branch of Trade: Beyond the Boundaries of Respectability?
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Chapter 2 A New and Profitable Branch of Trade Beyond the Boundaries of Respectability? kDuring the heated canvass for the presidency in 1864, a newspaperreporterinNewYorkobservedanamusingdeceptionpracticed in a nighttime rally for Democratic candidate George B. McClellan. ThemanagersofthetorchlitparademarchedthevariouswardDemocratic clubs in and out of view among New York’s buildings so that they seemed to magnify their number greatly, like a small group of actors marching across the stage, behind it, and back on the stage again so that, to the audience, they seem to form one long file of people. The editors of the newspaper were ‘‘not aware that the trick has ever before been played in political meetings.’’1 Such a stunt might seem like grist for the mill of those skeptical of the apparent high level of nineteenth-century Americans’ political engagement. Critics emphasize the feverishness and deceptiveness of the efforts on the part of the politically committed to dazzle largely indifferent and apolitical American citizens into interest in voting. Political historians too have long emphasized the importance of party organizations and managers—the sorts of operators who dreamed up ruses such as the one described in New York. But how far must we go in believing that organizational methods and campaign technique periodically created a temporary and fleeting political engagement ? Does it not beggar the imagination to think that the same little deceptions could produce similarly spectacular results in voting behavior each and every time, as though the people never grew wise to the tricks? The problem lies in assuming an oversimple model of party that imagines politicians pushing and voters being pushed. The ultimate foundation of such a model is an unflattering portrait of the people. In their description of ‘‘vernacular liberalism,’’ Altschuler and Blu- min say bluntly that the people were ‘‘unreflective’’; that their ‘‘daily routines of work, family, and social life’’ monopolized their thoughts; that a ‘‘primacy of self and family’’ ruled their lives; and that they followed an ‘‘apolitical way of life.’’2 What Rude Republic presents, in other words, is the first ‘‘me generation,’’ in the middle of the nineteenth century, fast on its way to becoming ‘‘generation X.’’ Ironically, Altschuler and Blumin share with their foes, the New PoliticalHistorians,aone-dimensionalandratheruglyportraitofthe people. The political historical model favored by the previous generation was based on an image of the American voter as a person who didnotunderstandorcareaboutissuesandwasmotivatedby‘‘tribal’’ antipathies toward other social groups in the society.3 Without romanticizing them, the people deserve better from historians , political and social alike. Our models of party are too simple and too often left unstated. The politicians, the ward managers who organized the parades in New York, the tireless newspaper editors , and the office-seekers with their oratorical appeals were not the only agents in the nineteenth-century political drama, working on a bedrock of passive, unreflective, selfish, prejudiced, and apolitical people. Help in revising the oversimplified model of American political life can be found in material culture: for example, a lithograph from the 1860 election campaign, The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved (Fig. 2.1), published by William H. Rease of Philadelphia, a lithographer and skilled producer of trade cards (what we call business cards today). The lithograph featured portraits of the Republican candidates for president and vice president, Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin.4 Rease’s lithograph teemed with ideological references. Arching overallwasaUnion-preservingmessage,butspecialappealwasmade to Pennsylvania’s insatiable appetite for protective tariffs with the image of a shield featuring ‘‘Protection to American Industry’’ in the lower center of the print. Issues stressed by Republicans everywhere in the North—freedom of speech, free soil, and the Homestead Bill—were blazoned on a banner suspended below the image of an American eagle. The rail borders around the portraits of Lina new branch of trade 31 [44.204.65.189] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:24 GMT) figure 2.1. The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved. Lithograph by William H. Rease (Philadelphia, 1860). Reproduced from the Collections of the Library of Congress. Although this print made reference to a number of platform planks, both of Rease’s lithographs for the campaign of 1860 (see also Fig. 2.2) emphasized Union. coln and Hamlin echoed Lincoln’s nickname in the campaign, ‘‘the railsplitter.’’ The smokestacks of industry, the masts of commercial shipping, and the rural and urban workingmen were pictured above the abundant fruits of their labors, which poured from the cornucopia in the lower center...