American Party Battle: Election Campaign Pamphlets, 1828-1876, Volume 1: 1828–1854

Joel H. Silbey is President White Professor of History, Cornell University.

Silbey’s preface, introduction and head notes are excellent. In accordance with his previous work, Silbey is emphasizing campaign rhetoric while politicians work up issues both substantive and circumstantial as they seek to persuade the electorate that their particular position on affairs of state is the correct one. In making their case, they describe their achievements and their goals in positive terms while they view the opposition negatively. One would expect this dialogue to prevail in a heated political campaign, but the style of the argument and the facts presented give major clues to the state of the society at any given time. Thus the pamphlets serve as a useful probe to a better understanding of the basic tensions that were developing in American culture that led to the Civil War and the ensuing Reconstruction. Silbey has made a good selection of pamphlets to reflect the partisan mood over nearly fifty years of contention or, as he puts it in one of his topical heads, ‘the culmination of the battle for the soul of America.’

• Preface "Please Read and Circulate" "To Indulge in General Abusive Declamation" "Repellant and Mutually Abhorrent Parties" A Note on the Texts Acknowledgments Introduction: Defining the Soul of the Nation The Great Themes: Continuity and Change "To Save and Exalt the Union" "Consider Well...the Platforms...of the Parties Now Asking Your Suffrage" VOLUME 1 The Evolution of Party Warfare, 1828-1838 Proceedings and Address of the New Hampshire Republican State Convention...Friendly to the Election of Andrew Jackson...(Concord, 1828) The Virginia Address (Richmond, 1828) Proceedings of the Antimasonic Republican Convention of theState of Maine (Hallowell, Me., 1834) To the Electors of Massachusetts (Worcester? 1837) The Jacksonian-Whig Synthesis, 1838-1854 To the Democratic Republican Party of Alabama (n.p., 1840) Address of the Liberty Party of Pennsylvania to the People of the State (Philadelphia, 1844) The Twenty-Ninth Congress, Its Men and Measures; Its Professions and Its Principles...(Washington, 1846) What's the Difference? Cass and Taylor on the Slavery Question (Boston, 1848) Speech of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, Delivered in Richmond, Virginia, July 9, 1852(Richmond, 1852)