The Political Style of Conspiracy: Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln (review)

The Political Style of Conspiracy: Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln is a study of conspiracy in American political discourse. Although the subject has been examined by scholars across disciplines, Pfau brings a unique rhetorical perspective to distinguish conspiracy rhetoric at the fringe of political discourse from conspiracy rhetoric at the center. The distinction enables Pfau to reexamine Richard Hofstadter’s now famous diagnosis of the “paranoid style.” Pfau argues that the “paranoid style” is appropriate for conspiracy rhetoric at the fringe of political discourse, but loses interpretive power when examining conspiracy rhetoric at the center.

The study offers the alternative lens of a “political style” to investigate the “slave power” conspiracy in the addresses of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, and Abraham Lincoln as case studies in conspiracy rhetoric at the center of political discourse. According to Pfau, the aim of the study was “to develop interpretive strategies that elucidate the rhetorical operations that characterize conspiracy rhetoric in the political style and in doing so . . . to explain the persuasive strategies that contribute to the success of conspiratorial interpretations within public discourse” (180). Pfau achieves his objective through a careful balance of textual analysis and historical research, resulting in an excellent study that generates a deeper understanding of conspiracy rhetoric, nineteenth-century public address, and American political discourse at large.

Chapter 1 outlines the scope of the project, defines the conceptual tools necessary for the study, reviews the legacy of Hofstadter’s “paranoid style,” and justifies the importance of studying the “slave power” conspiracy for nineteenth-century politics. According to Pfau, the disciplinary focus on argument and the legacy of the “paranoid style” has left many powerful conspiracy discourses unexamined despite the role conspiracy rhetoric has played in shaping American history. In order to contrast the case studies with an example of fringe conspiracy rhetoric, Pfau turns to the works of William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society. According to Pfau, Hofstadter’s “paranoid style” is appropriate for understanding Garrison’s deployment of the “slave power” conspiracy, which focused on longer narratives that identified early examples of conspiracy (the Constitution) and removed human agency to resolve the overpowering cabal of conspirators. With the fringe discourse as a point of comparison, Pfau turns to his three case studies: Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln.

In chapter 2, Pfau examines the introduction of the “slave power” conspiracy to the center of American political discourse through two texts from Salmon P. Chase: Address of the Southern and Western Liberty Convention and Appeal of the Independent Democrats. The beginning of the chapter establishes Chase’s role in the creation of the Liberty Party and the tensions that developed between party members that sought coalitions with outsiders and those that sought to preserve the ideological purity by focusing inward. Pfau argues that the social logic of party politics represents a crucial difference between conspiracy theories at the fringe and those at the center of American political discourse. After examining both of the addresses, Pfau concludes that Chase deployed the “slave power” conspiracy by utilizing the civic republican tradition within a comic frame that emphasized human agency through party affiliation to establish a unique identity for the Liberty Party. The result was a shorter conspiracy narrative that located recent events as examples of the “slave power,” but argued that the nation’s founding was untainted. Pfau’s analysis demonstrates that the introduction of the “slave power” conspiracy to the center of American political discourse marked a distinct change in the style that is not easily explained within the traditional understanding of the “paranoid style.”

Chapter 3 focuses on Charles Sumner’s “The Crime Against Kansas.” Although the address has been examined by historians and rhetoricians, the focus of their analyses has frequently centered on Sumner’s brutal caning by Preston Brooks and the portions of the speech that contributed to the violent reaction. Pfau argues that a closer reading of the text reveals...