[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Although a few Anti-Masons became abolitionists and some becameDemocrats, most northern Anti-Masons became Whigs.The process variedby region and state.Some Anti-Masons held aloof from both major partiesand politics generally, though it is impossible to estimate how many andfor how long.²v The Anti-Masons of New England generally tended to re-sist giving up the cause, partly because of a residue of antagonism towardthe National Republicans now reemergent as Whigs and partly becauseof what their former rivals and would-be allies saw as their proscriptiveand intolerant spirit. Nothing would satisfy them, said one Massachu-setts Whig in 1835, but some legislative brand to be affixed on the fore-head of every mason. In Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, Anti-Masonry, either as a rump organization or as a diehard sentiment, lingeredinto the presidential election of 1836.These and other causes made for adisorganized opposition to the Democrats and their candidate, Martin VanBuren.According to the most thorough historian of the Whig Party, To callall who opposed Jackson before 1836 Whigs or to speak of a Whig partyin the mid-1830s is more a literary convenience than an accurate descriptionof fact.Although the opponents of Jackson could cooperate in Congressand although they cheered on each other s efforts in different states, theyhad developed no central organization. ²wThe Whigs could not agree on a single candidate or to arrange a na-tional convention, so they put forward three different regional candidates,the most successful of whom was a former general, William Henry Harrisonof Ohio, who received 73 of the 113 electoral votes that went to the oppo-sition, compared with 170 for Van Buren (and a popular majority of lessthan 50,000 out of almost 1.5 million total).Significantly, two of the three Whig candidates in 1836, Harrison and Daniel Webster, were regarded assympathetic to Anti-Masonry, and both made statements designed to at-tract Anti-Masonic support.Webster, however, could not command unitedAnti-Masonic support in New England, or even in his own state, in partbecause of calculations regarding his electability and in part because his aristocratic tastes and continuing ties with Biddle s bank repelled theegalitarian sensibilities of many Anti-Masons.Throughout the North avariety of rump factions of Anti-Masonic leaders maneuvered on behalf ofHarrison or Webster, and some for Van Buren, but most remained hostileto presumptive favorite Henry Clay.The intensity of negotiations between150 The Changing Public Sphere Whigs, Whig/Anti-Masons, and Anti-Masonic holdouts indicates that thesepolitical leaders regarded lingering Anti-Masonic sentiment as an electoralforce that their favored candidates would do well to propitiate withoutoffending still resentful Freemasons, if possible.In the end, in December1839, former and still adhering Anti-Masons played a significant role at thenational Whig presidential convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, whichnominated Harrison instead of Henry Clay.²xAfter 1836 Anti-Masonry except in Thaddeus Stevens s Pennsylvanialegislature ceased to be an organized political force.But the new WhigParty, especially in those states where former Anti-Masons helped orga-nize it, had absorbed not only most former Anti-Masonic voters but alsothe evangelical and egalitarian strains so prominent in the blessed spirit. Many Whigs were neither evangelical nor egalitarian, and even those whofavored a cause such as temperance could be at odds with the moral au-thoritarianism of evangelicals who would coerce moral behavior throughprohibition or Sabbatarian laws.²y But northern Whigs tended to uphold the familiar Antimasonic principle that government and legislation shouldbe used to improve society, morally and economically. Western New York,where religious and moral crusades continued to flourish, became an un-assailable citadel of Whiggery because it had been the holy land of Anti-masonry. Even before the Bank War or the formal birth of the Whig Party,Anti-Masonic voters there had stabilized into a long-lived voting coalitionschooled in egalitarian and evangelical ideology and in new political tac-tics [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl milosnikstop.keep.pl
.Although a few Anti-Masons became abolitionists and some becameDemocrats, most northern Anti-Masons became Whigs.The process variedby region and state.Some Anti-Masons held aloof from both major partiesand politics generally, though it is impossible to estimate how many andfor how long.²v The Anti-Masons of New England generally tended to re-sist giving up the cause, partly because of a residue of antagonism towardthe National Republicans now reemergent as Whigs and partly becauseof what their former rivals and would-be allies saw as their proscriptiveand intolerant spirit. Nothing would satisfy them, said one Massachu-setts Whig in 1835, but some legislative brand to be affixed on the fore-head of every mason. In Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, Anti-Masonry, either as a rump organization or as a diehard sentiment, lingeredinto the presidential election of 1836.These and other causes made for adisorganized opposition to the Democrats and their candidate, Martin VanBuren.According to the most thorough historian of the Whig Party, To callall who opposed Jackson before 1836 Whigs or to speak of a Whig partyin the mid-1830s is more a literary convenience than an accurate descriptionof fact.Although the opponents of Jackson could cooperate in Congressand although they cheered on each other s efforts in different states, theyhad developed no central organization. ²wThe Whigs could not agree on a single candidate or to arrange a na-tional convention, so they put forward three different regional candidates,the most successful of whom was a former general, William Henry Harrisonof Ohio, who received 73 of the 113 electoral votes that went to the oppo-sition, compared with 170 for Van Buren (and a popular majority of lessthan 50,000 out of almost 1.5 million total).Significantly, two of the three Whig candidates in 1836, Harrison and Daniel Webster, were regarded assympathetic to Anti-Masonry, and both made statements designed to at-tract Anti-Masonic support.Webster, however, could not command unitedAnti-Masonic support in New England, or even in his own state, in partbecause of calculations regarding his electability and in part because his aristocratic tastes and continuing ties with Biddle s bank repelled theegalitarian sensibilities of many Anti-Masons.Throughout the North avariety of rump factions of Anti-Masonic leaders maneuvered on behalf ofHarrison or Webster, and some for Van Buren, but most remained hostileto presumptive favorite Henry Clay.The intensity of negotiations between150 The Changing Public Sphere Whigs, Whig/Anti-Masons, and Anti-Masonic holdouts indicates that thesepolitical leaders regarded lingering Anti-Masonic sentiment as an electoralforce that their favored candidates would do well to propitiate withoutoffending still resentful Freemasons, if possible.In the end, in December1839, former and still adhering Anti-Masons played a significant role at thenational Whig presidential convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, whichnominated Harrison instead of Henry Clay.²xAfter 1836 Anti-Masonry except in Thaddeus Stevens s Pennsylvanialegislature ceased to be an organized political force.But the new WhigParty, especially in those states where former Anti-Masons helped orga-nize it, had absorbed not only most former Anti-Masonic voters but alsothe evangelical and egalitarian strains so prominent in the blessed spirit. Many Whigs were neither evangelical nor egalitarian, and even those whofavored a cause such as temperance could be at odds with the moral au-thoritarianism of evangelicals who would coerce moral behavior throughprohibition or Sabbatarian laws.²y But northern Whigs tended to uphold the familiar Antimasonic principle that government and legislation shouldbe used to improve society, morally and economically. Western New York,where religious and moral crusades continued to flourish, became an un-assailable citadel of Whiggery because it had been the holy land of Anti-masonry. Even before the Bank War or the formal birth of the Whig Party,Anti-Masonic voters there had stabilized into a long-lived voting coalitionschooled in egalitarian and evangelical ideology and in new political tac-tics [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]