Don't you ever look anything up? A hundred years ago, not many rich people lived in the Hamptons or on Martha's Vineyard or even summered there. It was mostly farmers and fishermen. They weren't liberals. And a hundred years ago the rich people who lived in the summer resorts of the day weren't all liberals either. They were the ones the progressives imposed the income tax on, and a lot of them weren't happy about that.
Even the strongholds of the old Republican party, New York, Boston, Chicago, are still liberal strongholds today.
New York City was a Democrat stronghold in 1860. Chicago was still Lincoln country and Boston was still puritan and abolitionist, but they would follow New York City after the war and vote Democrat.
It was with rural voters in the North that Lincoln was strong. Sure, they welcomed the opportunities created by the Homestead Act, but they weren't looking for special privileges or handouts.
People who did want things from the government could wangle them out of any government, Whig, Democrat, Republican. There was plenty of corruption in the Buchanan administration and the national debt and deficit skyrocketed.
The point is to show it is the same class of people as currently live in all the wealthy estates in the Northeast.
They were the ones the progressives imposed the income tax on, and a lot of them weren't happy about that.
And where was the progressive base? If you had to pick the geographic center of it, where would that have been?
New York City was a Democrat stronghold in 1860. Chicago was still Lincoln country and Boston was still puritan and abolitionist, but they would follow New York City after the war and vote Democrat.
New York had a lot of powerful Democrats in it, but I doubt the Cooper Union address was heard by many of them. Most likely the New York Democrats of 1860 only counted themselves as such for the purpose of looking out for their interests in the Southern export trade.
Their interests did not necessarily coincide with the manufacturing men as well as other titans of industry such as the railroad barons.
But yes, Massachusetts and New York formed a progressive coalition and it has remained such to this present day.
People who did want things from the government could wangle them out of any government, Whig, Democrat, Republican.
Only when they had influence on the majority of congress.
There was plenty of corruption in the Buchanan administration and the national debt and deficit skyrocketed.
But it seemed to reach it's peak under Grant. Why would that be?