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In the 1850s, a startling new political party appeared on the American scene. Both its members and its critics called the new party by various names, but to most it was known as the Know Nothing Party. It reignited political fires over nativism and anti-immigration sentiments. At a time of political uncertainty, with the Whig party on the verge of collapse, the Know Nothings seemed destined to replace them and perhaps become a political fixture. Historian Marius M. Carriere Jr. tracks the rise and fall of the Know Nothing movement in Louisiana, outlining not only the history of the party as it is usually known, but also explaining how the party's unique permeation in Louisiana contrasted with the Know Nothings' expansion nationally and elsewhere in the South. For example, many Roman Catholics in the state joined the Know Nothings, even though the party was nationally known as anti-Catholic. While historians have largely concentrated on the Know Nothings' success in the North, Carriere furnishes a new context for the evolution of a national political movement at odds with its Louisiana constituents. Through statistics on various elections and demographics of Louisiana politicians, Carriere forms a detailed account of Louisiana's Know Nothing Party. The national and rapidly changing Louisiana political landscape yielded surprising, credible leverage for the Know Nothing movement. Slavery, Carriere argues, also played a crucial difference between southern and northern Know Nothing ideals. Carriere delineates the eventual downfall of the Know Nothing Party, while offering new perspectives on a nativist movement, which has appeared once again in a changing, divided country.
Book Review
"This book is about citizenship, or membership in a political community, and Lincoln's evolving understanding of who belonged and who didn't belong in that community between 1837 and 1865"--
Though antebellum Louisiana shared the rest of the South's commitment to slavery and cotton, the presence of a substantial sugarcane industry, large Creole and Catholic populations, numerous foreign and northern immigrants, and the immense city of New Orleans made it perhaps the most unsouthern of southern states. John M. Sacher's A Perfect War of Politics explores why Louisiana joined its neighbors in seceding from the Union in early 1861 and offers the first comprehensive study of the state's antebellum political parties and their interaction with the electorate. Sacher shows that, although civic participation expanded beyond the elite from 1824 to 1861, Louisiana remained a "white men's democracy." Ultimately, he explains, an obsession with defending white men's liberty led Louisiana's politicians to support secession. Sacher's welcome study provides a fresh, grass-roots perspective on the political causes of the Civil War and confirms the dominant role regional politics played in antebellum Louisiana.
For more than twenty years Michael F. Holt has been considered one of the leading specialists in the political history of the United States. Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln is a collection of some of his more important shorter studies on the politics of nineteenth-century America.The collection focuses on the mass political parties that emerged in the 1820s and their role in broader political developments from that decade to 1865. Holt includes essays on the Democratic, Antimasonic, Whig, and Know Nothing parties, as well as one on Abraham Lincoln's relationship with the congressional wing of the Republican party during the Civil War. Almost all essays touch on the broad question of the role of partisan politics in explaining the outbreak of the war. Individual essays address the following questions as well: What explains the birth and death of powerful third parties? What was the relationship among economic conditions, party performance in office (especially legislative performance), and the mobilization of an unprecedented number of voters between 1836 and 1840? Why did the Whigs find it necessary to nominate military hero Zachary Taylor as their presidential candidate in 1848? What explains the death of the Whig party? What role did ethnoreligious issues and the Know Nothing party play in the realignment of the 1850s and the ultimate triumph of the Republican party? In what ways did the continuation of two-party competition after 1860 help the North win the Civil War?Most of the essays have been published previously over a twenty-year span, but there are also two new pieces. "The Mysterious Disappearance of the American Whig party," originally delivered as the Commonwealth Fund Lecture at University College London in February, 1990, seeks to explain why the Whig party died in the 1850s. This essay contrasts the fate of the Whig party with the fates of the Republican party in the 1930s and 1970s and the British Conservative party in the 1840s and 1850s - parties that survived similar, indeed graver, challenges than those to which the Whigs succumbed. In addition, Holt has written and excellent introduction in which he explains how he came to write the essays and reflects upon them in light of the current state of political history as a discipline.Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln offers provocative insights into both the history of nineteenth-century politics and the way it is studied.
The Louisiana Governors is a one-volume reference work on the diverse, frequently colorful leaders of Louisiana since the eighteenth century. From Iberville to Edwards, this biographical directory provides a comprehensive look into the lives of sixty-six men who have wielded their political power in molding the history of the state. Joseph G. Dawson’s introduction sets the stage for this knowledgeable look at Louisiana’s governors by examining the historical evolution of the governorship over the past three centuries. Dawson focuses not only on the evolution of the office but also on the dominant personalities who have served it and the ever changing constitutions that have guided it. For the first time, students of Louisiana history will have at their disposal a chronological compilation of scholarly essays on the lives of the men who have served at Louisiana’s chief executive. Providing first a short biographical sketch of the governor under consideration, each essay includes an analytical discussion of the governor’s administration and of his role in the state’s history. A bibliography pertaining to the governor and his era follows each essay. The Louisiana Governors describes in rich detail the influence of French and Spanish colonial governors on Louisiana’s leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The rivalry that now exists between the chief executive and the legislature, as well as the factionalism that has surfaced in the political system, is directly rooted in the state’s colonial past. It has been said that Louisianians like their politicians like their food—hot and spicy. They have not been disappointed. From the Lemoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, of the French colonial era, to the Long brothers, Huey and Earl, of the twentieth century, Louisiana’s governors have attracted ardent loyalty and vigorous criticism simultaneously. They have been hailed by critics as dictators, political mavericks, puppets, and even rubber-stamp governors. But whether weak or powerful, charismatic or unimposing, these men have braved controversy and political turmoil to create a governorship steeped in tradition.
A history of the Italian immigrant communities in Louisiana at the close the nineteenth century and the difficulty the faced acclimating to American society. Though the Italian contribution to Louisiana’s culture is palpable and celebrated, at one time ethnic Italians were constantly embroiled in scandal, sometimes deserved and sometimes as scapegoats. The new immigrants hoped that they would be welcomed and see for themselves the “streets paved with gold.” Their new lives, however, were difficult. Italians in Louisiana faced prejudice, violence and political exile for their refusal to accept the southern racial mores. Author and historian Alan Gauthreaux documents the experience of those Italians who arrived in Louisiana over one hundred years ago. “This historical survey was no easy task, and the presentation of this intriguing chapter in Louisiana’s rich history is quite impressive. Any Louisiana library would be incomplete without Italian Louisiana, an extensively researched, evenly paced, and well-balanced account of the unique Italian experience in Louisiana.” —Florent Hardy, Jr., Ph.D., state archivist for Louisiana State Archives “Immigration historians have largely focused on the northeast and California when studying the history of Italian Americans in this country. We are therefore grateful to Alan Gauthreaux for his well-researched study on how Italian immigrants to Louisiana fared. More than a hundred years ago, thousands of Italians, mainly from Sicily, were “imported” to Louisiana to work in the sugar cane fields that the newly freed slaves avoided. The Italians faced serious obstacles, including prejudice and violence. In fact, the biggest mass lynching in American history occurred in 1891, when a New Orleans mob slaughtered 11 Italians, including a teen-age boy, after they had been found innocent of murdering a police officer. But Gauthreaux also explores how, through hard work and strong values, these immigrants eventually secured a much brighter future for themselves and their descendants. A “must-read” for anyone interested in Italian Americans and their story.” —Dona De Sanctis, PhD, editor-in-chief, Italian America Magazine
Regarded as one of the most vocal, well-traveled, and controversial statesmen of the nineteenth century, antebellum politician Henry Stuart Foote played a central role in a vast array of pivotal events. Despite Foote’s unique mark on history, until now no comprehensive biography existed. Ben Wynne fills this gap in his examination of the life of this gifted and volatile public figure in The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist. An eyewitness to many of the historical events of his lifetime, Foote, an opinionated native Virginian, helped to raise money for the Texas Revolution, provided political counsel for the Lone Star Republic’s leadership before annexation, and published a 400-page history of the region. In 1847, Mississippi elected him to the Senate, where he promoted cooperation with the North during the Compromise of 1850. One of the South’s most outspoken Unionists, he infuriated many of his southern colleagues with his explosive temperament and unorthodox ideas that quickly established him as a political outsider. His temper sometimes led to physical altercations, including at least five duels, pulling a gun on fellow senator Thomas Hart Benton during a legislative session, and engaging in run-ins with other politicians—notably a fistfight with his worst political enemy, Jefferson Davis. He left the Senate in 1851 to run for governor of Mississippi on a pro-Union platform and defeated Davis by a small margin. Several years later, Foote moved to Nashville, was elected to the Confederate Congress after Tennessee seceded, and continued his political sparring with the Confederate president. From Foote’s failed attempt to broker an unauthorized peace agreement with the Lincoln government and his exile to Europe to the publication of his personal memoir and his appointment as director of the United States mint in New Orleans, Wynne constructs an entertaining and nuanced portrait of a singular man who constantly challenged the conventions of southern and national politics.