Stalwarts: Conkling's Elimination Of The Republican Candidates

In 1854, the Republican Party was established as a response to controversial issues within the United States of America. The founders of this political party ‒ anti-slavery Whigs, former Democrats, former members of the Free Soil Party and Know-Nothing Party ‒ helped to identify their ideals prior to the Civil War.

In the years following the civil war, the Democratic Party within Texas was divided in many ways by a variety of issues. Though united against Republicans and their liberal Reconstruction policies, Texas Democrats in this period came from a variety of backgrounds and had unique motivations driving their political sentiments. In the article "Of Rutabagas and Redeemers: Rethinking the Texas Constitution of 1876," Patrick Williams argues against the pervasive characterization of the key factions in the Democratic Party during the constitutional convention consisting of agrarian versus business minded or “new South” interests. Williams contends that although convention contemporaries including noted “Rutabaga” (a semi-derogatory term for a delegate in league with the Grange) John Johnson came to believe that the constitution of 1876 represented the triumph of farmers and their allies against corporate driven “progressive” Democrats and their policies, the political reality was much more complicated.

More than personality fueled the political crisis of the 1790’s; two strong individuals dominated the era. (Reader, 165) The federalist split into two factions over financial policy and the French Revolution, and their leaders, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, offered contrasting visions of the future. (Textbook, 193) The conflict gave rise to political parties by creating factions on opposite political sides. Both saw a great future for the nation but very different approaches.

The 1800 realignment was the decline of the Federalist party and the rise of the Democrats and the Republicans. The federalist lost a lot of seats in Congress and had a hard time competing for the Presidency and in 1820 didn’t run a candidate in the 1820 election. The Hamiltonians and the Jeffersonians squared of over the scope and power of the federal government. The Hamiltonians were in favor of federal government and executive power and the Jeffersonians in favor of state government and legislative power.

The radical republicans had passion and innovative ideas that had potential to do good within the country. On the contrary, corruption and the rise of heavy white supremacy organizations tarnished the potential of the Reconstruction era. Race was a very big issue within the country and many Americans did not know how to deal with it. The south formed white supremacy in cause of African-Americans gaining rights. Radical republicans “wanted” to give rights to African-Americans but, corruption was rampant within the party.

When Mark Twain first published The Gilded Age, there seemed to be no real discords between the Republicans and the Democrats. Both parties represented Corporate America—or a certain portion of it—although lines could be drawn between the Protestants and the Catholics, North and South, protectionists and people who believed in (or benefited from) free trade. As American politics gradually shifted from a game of the elites to ordinary people’s democracy, both parties took in more demographic groups under their wings. While it seems difficult to pinpoint when exactly the two parties evolve into what they represent today, it is generally agreed that Republicans are more conservative, Democrats are more liberal, whereas most people belong somewhere in between.

From late 1870’s to early 1900’s both Democrats and Republicans fought for power. In which Republicans controlled the senate and Democrats the House of Representatives. Where both parties supported big business and disapproved the radicalism, they had their own goals to offer public. Such as Democrats believed in limited government and states right, Republicans supported federal involvement and industrial growth. Meanwhile, where Democrats very backed by political machine and immigrants, Republicans had support of folks who believed in political morality and stronger government. Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison ruled the politics in late 19th century. In which Hayes served one term and had his focus on Reconstruction of South,

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, major political issues of the United States of America, were emphasized by political conflict and power struggles. Many of the partisan disputes were of propaganda origin, with various “sham issues” prevalent in dominate debates. The predominant parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, were at each other’s throats for power not giving all efforts to the nations citizens.

Events during that time period, such as the civil war, reconstruction, and the great depression, caused voting patterns and demographics to shift towards the Democratic Party. During the mid-1800’s, the democratic and republican

As the 1840s arrived, Jacksonian Democrats, and its opposition, by that time known as the Whigs, had gathered large bases of followers and debated over the political effects of the market revolution. No more than a decade later, links to slavery threatened to fracture both parties. This change came from the racial exclusivity of Jackson’s “democratic”

The Second party is a term of periodization between 1828 to 1854. One of the two parties were called The National Republicans, led by Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Webster. They believed that the government should be used to advance social and cultural improvements. As well as improve the standards of life in American communities. Most of the Republicans we known as the Whigs, their supporters mostly came from the northeast. The second party was known as the Democratic Republicans commonly known as the Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson. He believed that it was in their best interest of the common man. He also believed that the Whigs were threatening their economic, social, and cultural freedoms. His supporters rotted in the west and south

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al

FDR’s desire to “purge” and reform the party system was based on a belief that intra-party battles where the cause for the dysfunctionality in American politics and its inefficiency of mobilization to needed change.

Conkling followed nothing of this sort. In fact, in more than two decades in Congress, he never drafted one bill. Instead, Conkling distributed very profitable jobs at the New York customhouse and spent most of his career as senator by rewarding his party who stayed faithful with government jobs. Conkling's actions show the changes made only for personal benefit of this time period because instead of during what was needed for the nation, he responded with actions that would help out himself with more votes and by helping out only his friends.

This book details the struggles concerning the elections of 1800. Ironically, I found many parallels with present day politics. The "Federalist" who believed in big government and central power in a sort of monarchical government against the 'republicans' or "anti-federalist" that where big supporters of the original intent of the Constitution, de-centralized government doing battle. This fits the narrative we see today where the two factions are "Big Government" Republicans and Democrats and the smaller government "republicans" (emphasis on the lowercase 'r') which has members of more "traditional" Democrats and Republicans.