An observer in 1864 might have been forgiven for saying there was no difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren were dead, and buried with them were the great battles that had once rocked the floor of Congress and convention halls over the future of the United States. The American System had won decisively. Neither party would dare touch the Bank as Jackson had once so boldly demanded. Democrats could not lower the tariff, nor Republicans raise it, lest they upset their critical constituents in the South or Midwest. Appropriations bills for the construction of transcontinental railroads received enthusiastic support and laudatory speeches from both parties. Democrats paid lip service to the idea of a homestead act, but in truth, most had abandoned hope of passing one. Slavery was an afterthought in Congress as if four million men and women were not in bondage. The debates over free soil and fugitives had been settled in 1852, and neither James Jones nor his opponent Nathaniel Banks was going to reopen that debate this fall. If an abolitionist did raise the issue, they would be reminded that there was neither support for African-American citizenship nor transportation of freedmen to Africa.
Yet, the stability of this consensus was as much an illusion as the difference between the two parties. Beneath the surface, Southern Nationalism was rapidly growing in popularity as modernizers pushed the idea of the "New South" and self-sufficiency. Within the Democratic party, Salmon Chase was successfully leading a crusade for abolition. As western gold veins were emptied, a financial crisis brewed in Philadelphia. In only four years' time, debates over slavery and economic policy would rage again, and America would be on the path to war that the previous generation had so earnestly tried to avoid.
- James M. McPherson, The Second American Revolution
Yet, the stability of this consensus was as much an illusion as the difference between the two parties. Beneath the surface, Southern Nationalism was rapidly growing in popularity as modernizers pushed the idea of the "New South" and self-sufficiency. Within the Democratic party, Salmon Chase was successfully leading a crusade for abolition. As western gold veins were emptied, a financial crisis brewed in Philadelphia. In only four years' time, debates over slavery and economic policy would rage again, and America would be on the path to war that the previous generation had so earnestly tried to avoid.
- James M. McPherson, The Second American Revolution
