The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (review)

58CIVIL WAR HISTORY The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onsetofthe Civil War. By Michael F. Holt. (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1999· Pp- xviii, 1248. $55.00.) Some readers may be intimidated by the length of this book, but its size should not discourage them. The time it will take to read Michael Holt's study will be time well spent, for it is the most complete analysis ofthe Whig party to appear in recent years. The book should become the standard reference for party politics during the antebellum period. Founded in 1833-34 in response to Andrew Jackson's policies toward the Second Bank of the United Sates, the Whig party reached its full potential during the Panic of 1 837. The panic allowed the party to create an economic program to meet the crisis that enabled it to capture the presidency in 1840. But the party's nomination of John Tyler for the vice-presidency was one of its major errors. When he succeeded to the presidency Tyler could not accept the Whig program, and his efforts to annex Texas made the slavery extension controversy a major political issue and one that eventually played a leading role in bringing about the downfall ofthe party. While the party remained politically vital through the Tyler and Polk administrations, its decline began in 1848. Its nominee for the presidency won the White House in 1 848, but Zachary Taylor's victory was due more to low voter turnout and voters' dislike of Democratic nominee Lewis Cass than to public support for Whig ideals. State elections in 1851 indicated that the party was fading more rapidly in the North than in the South. Northern Whigs won only two often 1851 governors' races, while SouthernWhigs gained two additional governorships. Despite Millard Fillmore's efforts to revitalize the party, new political groupings, sectional tensions, and the inability of its various factions to pull together caused the party's demise. Two features of this book stand out for this reviewer. One is Holt's examination ofthe political struggles in the various states. It is his contention—one few historians would argue with—that state and local politics in the nineteenth century often determined the outcome ofnational elections. Therefore, Holt details political feuds and issues for every state in the Union to reveal their impact. Second, in his last chapter Holt skillfully summarizes the causes for the Whig party's decline, pointing out how each issue, from the slavery problem to the selfish ambitions of leaders, played a role in the party's downfall. The Rise and Fall ofthe Whig Party is a magisterial work, one that cannot be neglected by nineteenth-century historians even if their particular emphasis is not political history. While it is intended to be the history of a political party, it has something worthwhile to say about almost every major issue in United States history from the nullification controversy of 1832 to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Eugene H. Berwanger Fort Collins, Colorado ...