How Did Participation In Political Campaigns And Elections Change Between 1815 And 1840
Advisor: Reeve Huston, Associate Professor of History, Knuckles University
©2011 National Humanities Heart
How did the grapheme of American politics change between the 1820s and the 1850s as a event of growing popular participation?
Understanding
Between the 1820s and 1850, every bit more white males won the correct to vote and political parties became more organized, the graphic symbol of American democracy changed. It became more partisan and more raucous, a turn that bred ambivalence and even discontent with politics and the dominant parties.
The County Election
Images
- George Caleb Bingham, The Canton Election, painting, 1852 (St. Louis Art Museum)
- Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House, painting, 1848 (Walters Fine art Museum)
- Agrestal Workingmen'south Party, New York City, political cartoon, ca. 1830 (Columbia Academy Libraries)
Notice more primary resources on pop democracy between the 1820s and 1850s in The Triumph of Nationalism/The House Dividing.
Click here for standards and skills for this lesson.
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Common Core Country Standards
- ELA-LITERACY RH.eleven-12.2 (Determine the key ideas or data of a primary or secondary source…)
Avant-garde Placement US History
- Primal Concept four.i (IC) (…new political parties arose…)
Advanced Placement Language and Composition
- Analyze graphics and visual images… as alternative forms of text.
Teacher'south Note
The richest document of the 3, The Canton Election is a reasonably reliable depiction of elections of this period. Information technology tells united states who participated and who was excluded from election rituals. It illustrates how the parties induced voters to come to the polls and vote for their candidates. They supplied alcohol: annotation the 3 stages of inebriation — still conscious in the left corner, virtually to pass out in the right, and long gone in the center. They engaged in polite persuasion: annotation the party activist on the stairs tipping his top hat and offering what is probably a pre-printed political party ballot to the rural gentleman. But in that location was also voter-to-voter example-making, unsponsored by the parties but deeply serious nonetheless: note the resolute look and finger-to-the-palm intensity of the solid denizen in the right center. Despite its borough importance and the bear upon of solemnity imparted by the oath-taking human at the superlative of the stairs, there is nearly the whole scene the air of a convivial customs gathering, suitable for children and tolerant of stray dogs.
While Bingham'southward The County Election offers broad commentary on pop elections, Woodville's Politics in an Oyster House makes a more concentrated point. It depicts the passionate commitments that party politics stirred upwardly, equally exemplified by the figure on the right, but also suggests that not everyone shared those passions. Information technology is worth discussing what the mental attitude of the figure on the left is toward his companion's political harangue. The older gentleman stares almost directly at us, seeming to implore u.s. to rescue him from his tedious companion. Here, every bit in The County Ballot, a newspaper fuels opinions and stirs emotion.
The Agrarian Workingmen's Party cartoon was probable published during the 1830 political campaign in New York (the men listed on the flag ran for role that year every bit candidates for the Agrarian Party, a splinter group of the city Workingmen's Party). The cartoon depicts two kinds of politics: i the corruption of republican virtue, the other a restoration of information technology. On the left, a party politico dressed as a wealthy human — annotation the top hat again — and carrying a pocketbook of money makes a deal with Satan. He asks Satan to "give me one of your favorites — TAMMANY, Sentry, or Periodical — or the POOR will become their rights. I'll pay all." Tammany was the Tammany Society, one of the well-nigh powerful Democratic clubs in New York. The Lookout man and the Periodical were the newspapers of rival workingmen's factions that pummelled the Agrestal Party'southward political stands. In other words, the devil controls all the opposing parties; they are all his favorites. Past turning 1 — whatever i — over to the hack, he will insure that the poor will be oppressed. In contrast, on the right, a workingman, raising a ballot, approaches a box carried past Lady Liberty, who holds a pole adorned with a liberty cap, a symbol of revolution and equality.
This lesson is divided into ii parts, both accessible below. Three images with accompanying close reading questions provide analytical study. An optional follow-up consignment enhances the lesson. The teacher'southward guide includes a groundwork annotation, the prototype analysiswith responses to the close reading questions, and an optional follow-upwardly assignment. The student'southward version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the in a higher placeexcept the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-up assignment.
Teacher'due south Guide (continues beneath)
| Pupil Version (click to open up)
|
Teacher'due south Guide
Background
From the 1820s through the 1850s American politics became in i sense more autonomous, in another more restrictive, and, in general, more than partisan and more than finer controlled by national parties. Since the 1790s, politics became more autonomous every bit one state after another ended property qualifications for voting. Politics became more than restrictive as ane land after another formally excluded African Americans from the suffrage. By 1840, almost all white men could vote in all but three states (Rhode Island, Virginia, and Louisiana), while African Americans were excluded from voting in all merely five states and women were disfranchised everywhere. At the same time, political leaders in several states began to revive the two-party conflict that had been the norm during the political struggles between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans (1793–1815). Parties and political party conflict became national with Andrew Jackson's entrada for the presidency in 1828 and have remained so ever since. Parties nominated candidates for every elective post from fence viewer to president and fought valiantly to become them elected.
The number of newspapers exploded; the vast bulk of them were mouthpieces for the Democratic Party or the Whig Party (the National Republican Political party before 1834). Accompanying the newspapers was a inundation of pamphlets, broadsides, and songs aimed at winning the support of ordinary voters and pedagogy them to recollect as a Democrat or a Whig. Parties besides created gigantic and incredibly constructive grass-roots organizations. Each party in almost every schoolhouse district and urban ward in the country formed an balloter committee, which organized partisan parades, dinners, and picnics; distributed partisan newspapers and pamphlets, and canvassed door-to-door. In this fashion the parties got ordinary voters involved in politics, resulting in extremely loftier voter participation rates (fourscore–90%). Even more than in the before period, parties were centrally coordinated and controlled. They expected their leaders, their newspapers, and their voters to toe the political party line. Once the party caucus or convention had decided on a policy or a candidate, everyone was expected to support that conclusion.
The Democrats, National Republicans, and Whigs were not the but people creating a new kind of democracy, however. Several small, sectional parties promoted a manner of conducting politics that was quite different from the practices of the major parties. The Workingmen's Political party, for case, organized in the major northeastern cities and in dozens of small, industrial towns in New England. Workingmen'south parties were part of the emerging labor motion and were made up primarily of skilled craftsmen whose trades were being industrialized. In addition, a growing movement of evangelical Christians sought to reform society by advocating temperance, an end to prostitution, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, and more.
The 2 paintings and the cartoon offered here capture the passion, tumult, and divisions that came to narrate American democracy at this time.
George Caleb Bingham (1811–79) was ane of the near successful and important American artists of the early nineteenth century. Born in 1811 to a prosperous farmer, miller, and slaveowner in western Virginia, Bingham knew prosperity but besides experienced economic hardship when his father lost his holding in 1818 and over again when his male parent died in 1823. While he was a cabinet-maker'southward apprentice, Bingham began painting portraits for $20 apiece and, past 1838, was start to acquire a reputation as an artist. During the 1840s he moved to St. Louis, the largest metropolis in the W, where he pursued a successful career every bit a portrait artist. In 1848 he was elected to the Missouri General Associates and later held several appointive posts. With gentle sense of humour The County Election captures the arguing, the campaigning, and the drinking that accompanied the masculine ritual of voting in mid-nineteenth century rural America.
Richard Caton Woodville (1825–55) was born in Baltimore. His family hoped he would become a physician, and he did undertake medical studies in 1842. However, past 1845, when he traveled to Frg to railroad train at the Dusseldorf Academy, he had abandoned medicine to pursue a career as an artist. Although he spent the rest of his life in Germany, French republic, and England, he devoted himself to re-creating his native Baltimore on canvass. With humor alike to that of Bingham, Politics in an Oyster Firm depicts a "conversation" betwixt a young political enthusiast and a skeptical old-timer. As in The County Election, the political realm is exclusively masculine, for the oyster business firm is a male person-only pub.
The Workingmen's Party cartoon illustrates disillusionment with and dissent from the sharply divisive politics of the historic period. It suggests that the corruption of both the Whigs and the Democrats will lead to the oppression of the poor.
Analysis
For each epitome, before posing the content-specific questions listed below, nosotros recommend that you accept students conduct a general assay using the following four-stride procedure.
- Visual Inventory: Draw the image, beginning with the largest, nearly obvious features and proceed toward more particular details. Describe fully, without making evaluations. What do you see? What is the setting? What is the time of twenty-four hour period, the season of the twelvemonth, the region of the country?
- Documentation: Note what you know about the piece of work. Who made it? When? Where? What is its title? How was it made? What were the circumstances of its creation? How was it received? (With this step you may take to aid students. Refer to the lesson'south groundwork note for information.)
- Associations: Brainstorm to make evaluations and describe conclusions using observations and prior knowledge. How does this image relate to its historical and cultural framework? Does it invite comparison or correlation with historical or literary texts? Practice yous detect a bespeak of view or a mood conveyed by the image? Does it present any unexplained or hard aspects? Does it trigger an emotional response in you as a viewer? What associations (historical, literary, cultural, artistic) enrich your viewing of this image?
- Interpretation: Develop an interpretation of the piece of work which both recognizes its specific features and also places it in a larger historical or thematic context.
The County Election
George Caleb Bingham, The County Election, oil on sheet, 1851–1852 (St. Louis Art Museum)
1. According to The Canton Election, who participated in elections? Who was excluded?
Nearly all white men participated, just Blacks and women were excluded.
2. How did Bingham explain the enormous popular participation in politics? What drew and then many people into politics?
The political parties offered drink, food, fellowship, and the opportunity to discuss problems of the day. They distributed pamphlets and broadsides.
three. Why might elections in rural areas have get important social gatherings?
They would be a reason for those in rural areas to gather. General subcontract work took up much of the time, and an election was a reason to take a intermission from farm work and catch up with the community. The fact that elections occurred on a regular schedule for the most part helped likewise.
iv. How important were political candidates, issues, and political party loyalties?
They became important as more people were able to vote. As the parties worked to build their constituency they expected those of their political party to be loyal to the party line.
5. How engaged are the voters?
They are engaged, including drinking (several have had more than than enough to drink), accepting a broadside or sample ballot, and discussing the issues of the ballot.
half-dozen. Who are the men in the top hats? What are they doing? How does Bingham portray them? How do they relate to ordinary voters?
The men in the elevation hats are probably working for a party trying to garner support. They are portrayed as polite strangers who are trying to engage and encourage voters through word and distributing pamphlets or sample ballots.
7. What do you think Bingham'southward attitude toward elections was?
His attitude was that the election was a community gathering for a purpose. In that location is a suggestion of certified business conveyed by the man at the height of the stairs, so the viewer does not forget that the ballot is official. Simply in general the tone is that of a friendly community gathering that welcomes all potential voters.
viii. Did he see them as serious exercises of republic, as farce, or as something in between?
He saw them equally something in betwixt. There is indeed a serious do of commonwealth as spoken language appears to be free, but in that location are too focused attempts at persuasion (coercion?) by those working for the party.
ix. What was his attitude toward the electorate? Did he see voters equally serious well informed men or as manipulated dupes?
He saw voters equally well informed, listening to party members and discussing issues with their fellow voters.
10. What does the painting say about elections in a republic in which common people can cast ballots?
Those election results cannot be forecast, as the electorate may modify political back up fifty-fifty up to the terminal minute. The action of the crowd suggests that the electorate was actively engaged and that voter turnout would be big. It also suggests that elections were important events in the growing republic.
Politics in an Oyster Business firm
Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House, oil on fabric, 1848 (Walters Art Museum)
11. How does Woodville describe the viewer into the painting?
The man on the left appears to stare directly at the viewer with a bemused expression. This draws the viewer directly into the painting. Also, he shows ii men talking, simply the one on the right is much more animated. The viewer wonders what he is saying and why the figure on the left does not lucifer the level of animation.
12. What might the open curtain symbolize?
It might symbolize that this could have been a private table where the two men could have discussed issued in private. That the drapery is open could symbolize that the problems or discussion expanded beyond the normal limits of chat. It likewise could imply that the human on the left is wanting to leave.
xiii. What sort of people are the men in the painting? What do their clothes tell us? Why has Woodville dressed the young man entirely in one color? What is the significance of their divergence in age?
The younger man is wearing his top hat indoors, giving the impression of a young, perhaps inexperienced man on the go. By dressing him in one color the viewer focuses more on his apparent harangue than his vesture. The older human being on the left appears to be dressed more accordingly, with colour, and he conveys experience and possible abundance.
xiv. What is the man on the right doing? How much does he care about politics? How does Woodville bespeak his passion? What is the source of his arguments?
The human being on the right is conveying his passionate argument, and he cares very much about politics. His body linguistic communication leaning forward conveys his passion. He's using his hands to convey his message and signal his passion and clings to the newspaper from which his arguments are drawn.
15. How does the man on the left feel about his companion's political arguments and passion? Do y'all call up he agrees or disagrees? Does he care?
The man on the left is a scrap apathetic, conveying that he has either heard this before or doesn't care. His facial expression asks the viewer to relieve him from this speech.
sixteen. What attitude does Woodville take toward the political passions of the human on the correct? Does he think they are good, bad, ridiculous? Compare his mental attitude toward the politics of his age with that of Bingham.
Woodville thinks that much of the political polemics is just so much hot air and that most men will brand upward their own minds. This contrasts with Bingham'due south portrayal of the process of a democracy. Woodville portrays republic on a one-to-1 scale, while Bingham conveys the expansion of democracy.
Agrarian Workingmen'due south Political party cartoon
Captions
Upper left: "We are in favour of Monarchy, Aristocracy, Monopolies, Auctions, laws that oppress the Poor, Imposture and the rights of the rich homo to govern and enslave the Poor man at his will and pleasure, denying the Poor the right to redress, or whatsoever participation in political power."
Satan: "Take whatsoever, my dear Friend, they will all help you to grind the WORKIES [workingmen]!!"
Box in Satan's hand: "Election Box"
Human in elevation hat: "My Old Friend, give me ane of your favourites — TAMMANY — SENTINEL, or JOURNAL, or the POOR will get their rights. I'll pay all."
Box in lower left foreground: "This contains the cause of all the misery and distress of the homo family."
Upper right: "We are opposed to Monarchy, Aristocracy, Monopolies, Auctions, and in favour of the Poor to political ability, denying the right of the rich to govern the Poor, and asserting in all cases, that those who labour should brand the laws past which such labour should be protected and rewarded and finally, opposed to degrading the Mechanic, by making Mechanics of Felons. Our motto shall exist Liberty, Equity, Justice, and The Rights of Human being."
Liberty's imprint [Candidates of the Agrarian Workingmen's Party, Nov. 1830 election]: "Register, John R. Soper, Mariner. Associates, Henry Ireland, Coppersmith; William Forbes, Silversmith; William Odell, Grocer; Micajah Handy, Shipwright; Edmund L. Livingston, Brassfounder; Joseph H. Ray, Printer; Merritt Sands, Cartman; Samuel Parsons, Moroccodresser; Thompson Town, Engineer; Alexander Ming, Senior, Printer; Hugh M'Bride, Cartman. For Lieutenant-governor, Jonas Humbert, Senior, Bakery. Senator, George Bruce, Typefounder. Congress, Alden Potter, Machinist; John Tuthill, Jeweller; Thomas Skidmore, Machinist.
Worker: "Now for a noble attempt for Rights, Liberties, and Comforts, equal to whatsoever in the land. No more grinding the POOR — But Liberty and the Rights of man."
Box in Liberty's hand: "Election Box"
Agrarian Workingmen'southward Party of New York City, political drawing, ca. 1830 (Columbia University Libraries)
17. Compare the party man's clothes with those of the working man. What do their wearing apparel say about each homo?
The party human being is dressed more than formally, while the working man is without a coat and has his sleeves rolled upward. The party man is non accustomed to work while the working man is someone that labor could identify with.
18. What is the politician trying to achieve?
He is making a deal with the devil in social club to limit and command the working man.
19. What office does the cartoonist remember the parties and their newspapers served?
The parties and their newspapers kept the working man from achieving the liberties due to him. They kept monarchies, anarchies, and those who would deny working rights in ability. They too kept the working man from achieving political power.
twenty. What was the cartoonist saying about the character of the Workingmen'southward Political party?
The Workingmen'southward Political party is directly opposed to the main parties and wants to empower the working man to take control over those laws that directly affect them.
21. Which figure — the workingman or the political party politician — did the cartoonist think was the legitimate protector of the accomplishments of the Revolution?
He felt the workingman was, since he is working with Mother Liberty.
22. What is the cartoonist saying well-nigh the nature of politics as conducted by the major parties?
The major parties bear politics in an evil and dishonest fashion, making deals with the devil. They are decadent. The party man has a purse of coin in his manus, assorted with the election in the hands of the workingman. Thus the major parties get their power from money rather than the voice of the people (or the ballot).
23. What solution does the cartoonist offer to solve the problems of political corruption and working class oppression?
He suggests that political power to the workingmen through the vote will solve these problems.
Follow-Up Assignment
Enquire your students, either in discussion or in a written consignment, to clarify George Caleb Bingham'south Stump Speaking (oil on canvas, 1853-54) in terms of the changes that occurred in American politics between the 1820s and the 1850s.
- How does Bingham'southward Stump Speaking reflect changes that occurred in American politics betwixt the 1820s and 1850s?
If you want to bring the discussion into the twentieth century, you tin can ask students to compare Stump Speaking with Norman Rockwell's Liberty of Spoken language (oil on canvas, 1943) from his Four Freedoms series. (The link takes you to the presentation of the painting in the National Endowment for the Humanities' Picturing America website. It includes an informative annotation plus useful interpretative prompts that you could apply to both works.)
- Compare and contrast Bingham'south Stump Speaking with Rockwell'due south Freedom of Spoken language. How does the 1943 painting reflect political changes that took place in America a century earlier?
Images:
- George Caleb Bingham, The County Election, oil on canvas, 1852. Saint Louis Art Museum, souvenir of Banking company of America, 44:2001. Reproduced past permission.
- Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House, oil on fabric, 1848. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 37.1994. Reproduced by permission.
- Agrarian Workingmen'south Political party of New York Urban center, political cartoon, ca. 1830. Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Edwin Kilroe Ephemera Drove. Reproduced by permission.
Source: https://americainclass.org/the-expansion-of-democracy-during-the-jacksonian-era/
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