The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay by Joseph W. Pearson

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay by Joseph W. Pearson Michael E. Woods (bio) The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay. By Joseph W. Pearson. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020. Pp. 238. $35.00 cloth) The Whig and Democratic parties mobilized thousands of eager voters during the electoral battles of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. But what did these clashing political titans stand for, and how did Americans choose between them? Historians have argued over these questions almost as fiercely as antebellum partisans debated banking, tariffs, and internal improvements. A few scholars have found little substantive difference between the parties, viewing them merely as patronage-fueled electioneering machines. Many more historians have detected sharp partisan divergence, but disagree on whether it reflected struggles between regions, economic interests, or ethnocultural groups. Some researchers, including Daniel Walker Howe and Lawrence Frederick Kohl, delved even deeper and argued that antebellum partisanship reflected conflicting views of self and community. In The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay, Joseph W. Pearson joins the latter historiographical camp, presenting a study of Whig thought that sheds light on Democrats as well. As Pearson puts it, The Whigs' America explores "underlying attitudes and worldview of society" to excavate the "deeply felt, shared cultural soil beneath Whig politics" (p. 1). Grounded in newspapers, periodicals, speeches, and other published texts, this approach reveals bedrock assumptions and principles that shaped Whigs' policy preferences. Whigs' zeal for publicly funded infrastructure, for instance, grew from their faith in the rewards of cooperation among far-flung American communities. Whigs' enthusiasm for temperance and public schools reflected their cautiously optimistic understanding of human nature: inherently flawed individuals could—and, to preserve well-ordered liberty, must—improve themselves through self-discipline and commitment to the common good. Whigs' sharp critique of Democrats' inclination to leave citizens to their own devices stemmed from a reading of history that warned against relapsing into barbarism. Pearson [End Page 73] argues that these perspectives on the individual, society, the state, the past, and the future coalesced into a "middle-class worldview" that made the Whigs "the first political party speaking for, to, and about America's rising middle class" (p. 2). For some readers, the middle-class theme will clarify Whigs' appeal; for others, it will muddy the waters. Pearson consciously avoids linking the term to social or economic status and posits that Americans of any background could embrace the virtues and values defined here as middle-class. This approach certainly elucidates how the Whig Party—which, like any major American political party, was a diverse coalition —attracted mass support. Whigs' worldview must have resonated widely, or they would have won precious few elections. But it also raises questions about context. Defining Whigs' ideas as middle class while disassociating both class and ideas from social and economic relations makes it difficult to explain patterns of party support. Why did these ideas—however we label them—appeal more to some groups of Americans more than others? Something more than personal idiosyncrasy must have been at work. Ideas are important, but they develop within a broader context, and one need not indulge in economic determinism to trace connections between Whigs' worldview and the era's rapidly changing social relationships and economic structures. Attention to this context would help explain, among other things, precisely why and how America's middle class was "rising" in this period. But many of this book's most intriguing findings have little to do with the middle-class label. Pearson teases out interesting areas in which Whig and Democratic ideas simultaneously overlapped and clashed. On issues ranging from mental health to infrastructure, Pearson shows that Whigs and Democrats presented views that were deeply divergent but not polar opposites. By delving into the antebellum era's plentiful print culture, Pearson has illuminated some important contours of partisan debate amid a time of wrenching change. [End Page 74] Michael E. Woods MICHAEL E. WOODS is associate professor of history and director of the Papers of Andrew Jackson at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is...