19th-Century Democrats

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that the primary reasons people joined the Democratic Party during the middle decades of the 19th century were economic, the welcoming of immigrants, and the Populist movement. The author points out that the idea that the Democratic Party would create a more egalitarian country in which talent and ambition and energy mattered more than family background and connection was very appealing. The paper reports that the Granger Movement, which had strong allegiances to the Democratic Party, had broad goals, seeking to improve not only the economic conditions of farmers, but also their social status and political power.

Table of Contents
Introduction
A President of the People
The Grangers as Archetypal Democrats
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"It was because the Democratic Party suggested that simply because a person wasn't from a good family and well educated didn't mean that he or she wasn't just as good as anyone else that it gained in popularity. It was because it supported populist ideals that it dominated American politics during the middle decades of the 19th-century, until it began to splinter under the pressures brought about by the Civil War and Manifest Destiny. These decades saw the elections of Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan as the Democrats won every presidential election, saving 1840 and 1848."

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