1860s Party Rivalries

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the topic of American history. Specifically, it discusses the political party rivalries in Augusta County, Virginia, in the 1860s, prior to the Civil War. The paper then looks at how politicians used their differences to intensify sectional conflict and opposition between the parties.

From the Paper:

"Of course, slavery was at the very heart of the secessionist movement, although many Southerners attempted to deny this fact. John D. Imboden was bold enough to acknowledge the importance of slavery, and how Unionists simply could not understand it, in a letter he wrote to a friend in 1860. He writes, "You can't make the great mass of the people-- especially the non slaveholder's understand the political philosophy of our government, and the nice principles on which the Secessionists are now attempting to act." Surprisingly, however, many documents do not mentions slaves at all, or mention them in passing, noting buying, selling, etc. There is little mention in many printed documents of slavery at all, and while politicians did use the issue (especially in the North for the Republican platform), in the South, there was much less evidence in print."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ayers, Edward L. Momentous events in small places: The coming of the Civil War in two American communities. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1997.
• Cochran, John. H. 1997. John H. Cochran to his mother, October 8, 1860 [online]. University of Virginia. [cited 10 February 2006]. Available from World Wide Web:(http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/civwarlett-browse?id=A0571)
• Editors. 1997. Augusta county: Party affiliation and voting in 1860 [online]. University of Virginia. [cited 10 February 2006]. Available from World Wide Web:(http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/tablesandstats/augusta/apolitics_2.html)
• Editors. 1997. Republican Vindicator, July 27, 1860 [online]. University of Virginia. [cited 10 February 2006]. Available from World Wide Web: (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu:8090/xslt/servlet/ramanujan.XSLTServlet?xml=/vcdh/xml_docs/valley_news/newspaper_catalog.xml&xsl=/vcdh/xml_docs/valley_news/news_cat.xsl&level=edition&paper=rv&year=1860&month=07&day=27&edition=rv1860/va.au.rv.1860.07.27.xml#p2)
• --. 1997. Republican Vindicator, January 18, 1861 [online]. University of Virginia. [cited 10 February 2006]. Available from World Wide Web: (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu:8090/xslt/servlet/ramanujan.XSLTServlet?xml=/vcdh/xml_docs/valley_news/newspaper_catalog.xml&xsl=/vcdh/xml_docs/valley_news/news_cat.xsl&level=edition&paper=rv&year=1861&month=01&day=18&edition=rv1861/va.au.rv.1861.01.18.xml#p2)

More papers on 1860s Party Rivalries:

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• Essay # 67711 : "The Black Panther Party"

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