Thanks Larry.
Posted on 12/29/2015 12:03:31 PM PST by LS
Every once in a while a scholar will write an absolutely pathbreaking article . . . then disappear. No books. No other articles. Sometimes they fail to get tenure, sometimes it's a health problem, sometimes they change research direction.
One of the most fascinating people I have come across is a historian named Lynn Marshall, who in 1967 wrote what I thought was one of the most profound articles ever---in the prestigious American Historical Review. He briefly taught at my school, the U. of California, Santa Barbara and word was (unverified) that he failed to get tenure.
Marshall produced no noteworthy books. But his 1967 article, "The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party," stuck with me and constantly informed my own writing. Today, some of its lessons seem profound.
Focusing on the Whig Party, created in 1832, Marshall argued that it didn't have a chance. The Whigs were formed as the "alternative" party to the Democrats (the name taken by Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson's party). To appreciate what that means, in my book 'Seven Events that Made America," I dedicate a chapter to Van Buren's formation of the Democrat Party specifically as an instrument to protect and preserve slavery. Every conservative really ought to understand the origins of the "Evil Party." It truly was evil. Anyway, Van Buren's idea was to bribe northerners (and the few anti-slave southerners) to maintain and perpetuate slavery through bribes known as government or party jobs. Organized top down along state, county, district, ward, precinct levels, the idea was to "get out the vote." At each level, the person who succeeded was rewarded with a promotion within the party or into state government. As you got higher, the promotions moved you into federal jobs. The Post Office was a biggie, larger at one point in Jackson's tenure than the Army.
But Jackson was an easy man to hate (and a good hater himself) and his enemies decided to form a party to oppose him. The problem was, Van Buren had already laid out the playing field. They either joined in the "spoils system" and patronage game, or lost. So the Whigs marched onto the Democrats' playing field and . . . well, lost. Except for two generals (Zachary Taylor and William Henry Harrison, both of whom died in office), the Whigs never won the presidency.
More to the point for us today: the Whigs never stood for ANYTHING except "like the Democrats, only not quite as much." They gave away goodies just as freely. But what did the Whigs in was not only that they were Democrat Lite, but that they refused to listen to the public clamor for change when it came to slavery. More than half the country opposed slavery, and perhaps as much as 1/3 were ardent abolitionists. Yet they had no real voice in government. Election after election, they either got a party dedicated to protecting slavery, or a party . . . complicit in protecting slavery. Thus, Marshall says, the Whigs were "stillborn." Not until the Republican Party of 1855 was there a genuine opposition party to the Democrats over the real issue that mattered.
Today we find ourselves in much the same status: two parties, hand in hand sitting at the dinner table while the fires rage outside, oblivious to the cries of the public to put out the fires.
The current GOP is exactly like the Whigs in 1850: no mission, no purpose, no point of opposition to the Democrats. They weren't stillborn, but they committed suicide along the way.
Actually, my substitution is welfare for slavery.
Thank you. It’s really my job, writing history. This is contained in my “Patriot’s History of the United States.”
This is where I differ with almost all on FR these days..
I think there will come a day when you will want people to vote for you (and that day is coming soon)...
If you have decided the Republican party et al is the bad guy and you cannot work with them, where do you get your votes?
Even if its the Republicans that have committed Hari Kari I think you will want them breathing long enough to vote.
I personally liked Trump better when he was a Democrat. But he says he found God and turned into a Republican and Im assuming that is the party most of you want to run with. Ross Perot’s Party is hard to find these Days.
Maybe to get elected Trump will stand like the Colossus of Rhodes with one foot in The Democrat Party and one in the (now dead) Republican party.
So FR seems wedded to the idea that all Republicans (but some) are evil incarnate.
Good luck with all that
Um, that was a great vanity. Thank you.
Oh, what became of Lynn Marshall, is he still alive?
Great article! Sound history.
Thank you sir, madam. Have you read Woodham-Smith’s book “The Reason Why?” about the Charge of the LB?
Maybe this is why your "scholar" disappeared.
The Whigs were a Big (Federal) Government Party. They favored Federal Government involvement building railroads and supporting what passed for big business in those days. The real problem for the Whigs was that they had no positions on things that were (for better or worse) the issues of the day like expansion of slavery into the territories. So prominent members of the party took opposite sides and tore the Party apart.
For a real scholar's view try Holt's The Rise and Fall of the Whig Party.
ML/NJ
The Whigs "big government" positions were not the problem, as you say: their lack of opposition to slavery killed them. BTW, Holt borrowed heavily in his research from Marshall. And as a scholar, I prefer my own "A Patriot's History of the United States" to either of them.
By the way, the reason Marshall “disappeared” is that by the time his tenure review came, he only had two articles, not a book, and even though one was in the incredibly prestigious American Historical Review, the UCSB History Dept. did not grant him tenure. Bad move, I thought.
Great post. Very illuminating. Thanks for posting.
Thanks Larry.
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Oh, well, sorry. Can’t do anything about that.
But take it from me, it’s a goodie :)
Read later
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