Was there any struggles between federalist, farmers and others in the democratic party in the 1870s like in the Republican party in 1850s?

[BenkeiDNA]

Niek Koning writes that In the late 1850s, many farmers joined the new Republican party, which promised free soil and the exclusion of slavery from the new terriories. After the victory of the Union, however, the new party revealed itself as a tool of northeastern business interests, imposing monetary restrictions and granting government support to big business (The Failure of Agrarian Capitalism by Niek Koning) he also writes how Wartime loyalties enabled the new Republican federalists to maintain their hold of nothern farmers for some time, before the Granger movement, the anti-monopoly parties and the rise of tariff-reform agiation when there was a partial return of nothern farmers to the Democratic party.
It was in northeast where Wall street where located and J.P. Morgan and Rocefeller had their powerbase with strong connections to the british elites, and Morgan would invest heavily in politicians who he thought would govern sympathetically to big business and financial institutions, and to fight populism.
My question to you is this,

1. Do you know of any connections between business interests like JP morgan and the federalist elites and the Democratic party around 1870?, did any federalist infiltrate the democratic party and where there any kind of struggles in this way inside of the democratic party during this time?.
2. Do you know of any new republican of the 1850s who had some direct connections to JP morgan or Rockefeller or any other elites and bankers during this time?.

 

[overoceans]

This is pre-1900.

 

[raharris1973]

It's not clear what you mean by "federalists" here?

 

[Tonifranz]

First of all, Federalists were dead in the 1860s. Had been since the 1820s at the latest.

Second, the Republican did fulfill those promises to the farmers.. After all, it did fulfill free soil, by excluding slavery in the territories.

And it delivered free land by enacting the Homestead land, and many farmers did gain free land in the west.

Third, I don't think the Republican Party tried to fool anybody about what it is. It never hid that it supported business, as during the war it passed probusiness measures like the Morrill Tariff, etc.

1. Yes, there are business interests that allied to the Democratic Party in the 1870 and yes, there are some direct connections between JP Morgan, Rockefeller and bankers during the 1850s. Though Rockefeller was anti-slavery, so of course he has some connections to Republicans.

BTW, Rockefeller was born in 1839, so he'd be 20 in 1859. I don't think he'd be engaging in politics in the 1850s. Same with Morgan. He was born in the 1837, and would be 23 in 1860.

 

[BenkeiDNA]

1. Yes, there are business interests that allied to the Democratic Party in the 1870 and yes, there are some direct connections between JP Morgan, Rockefeller and bankers during the 1850s.

Can you please tell me what you know of the business interests that allied to the Democratic Party in the 1870?, if it was Wall street and JP morgan?. Maybe you know if it was Wall street that was in contact with the republican party of the 1850 also?. Thanks for your help.

PS what i mean by federalists is that they had to accept that their party no longer was wanted and they moved over and formed new parties like the whigs and the national republican party. So the federalists never did go away, they where very much alive and had alot of business interests that supported them.

 

[Byz]

The Republican Party was always pro-business, but that was not necessarily viewed as being anti-farmer or even anti-labor. A lot of the positions it championed, such as expansion of railroads, high tariffs, and other initiatives to promote business, had widespread support throughout the North.

Looking at the Democrats in the 1870s, you're probably thinking of the Bourbon Democrats. Most Bourbon Democrats were southerners, and they were very friendly with big business. Naturally they had conflicts with some of the more populist elements of the Democratic Party, never more clear than in 1896, when after Bryan took over they bolted to form the National Democrats and helped throw the election to Mckinley.

I'm not sure what you're referring to by "federalists", at this time they'd been irrelevant for decades.

 

[Raferty]

The Republicans had regional tensions, but really, it would be a mistake to even call them a party in the 1850s in any discernible form.

The Free Soil Party evolved out of anti-slavery factions in the NY Democratic Party, who did not share the protectionist and infrastructure related plans of the anti-slavery Whigs who made up a bigger part of the party. Keep in mind however that the Free Soilers, while they got their start as the Van Buren Democrat defectors, quickly found a lot of support from abolitionists in New England who disagreed with the direction of the Cotton Whigs and saw it as a better option than the Liberty Party.

Add into that mess the Know Nothings, who built on the Anti-Masonic tradition with a combination of nativism and anti-Catholicism. Some important Republicans were at various points in the American Party or the Know Nothings in the 1850s, like Thaddeus Stevens, and the Republicans seemed to have mixed views on that platform, with some being anti-Catholic but not nativist, and some the other way around, or both.

Essentially, the groups groped in the darkness until pluralities and majorities could be found on the issues. Protectionism was fairly obvious as it was a Northern Regional party really until after the war, while it adopted pro-immigrant resolutions in its platforms while often countenancing anti-Catholicism. It could agree on little except for anti-expansion of slavery, and for differing reasons often (abolition was a minority view in the party at first).

The Republicans were not merely the Whigs in Exile. Whiggism after all was strongest in parts of Appalachia and was expressed in the 1860s with the Constitutional Union Party. Only the Conscience Whig ideas really survived in the Republicans.

You will notice a lot of conspiratorial elements in the party (Know Nothings, ex-AntiMasonic, elements of the Free Soil movement), and that was a fact of political life in the 1850s. Regardless of personal views on slavery in the party, almost all believed in the slave power conspiracy (and by that, I mean they thought there was an organized cabal running a shadow government of sorts rather than just a question of influence, while attaching a ton of perceived importance to lunatic filibuster movements like the Knights of the Golden Circle). Really, though, the party name itself kind of tells you much of what went into the founding of the party; it was organized around the ideological principle of republicanism and that often had a conspiratorial aspect to it in terms of who it saw as its enemies.