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¹⁰ Pleasants, Samuel A.Fernando Wood of New York (New York, 1948), p. 84.Google ScholarNew York Times, 3 Dec. 1857. Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, 6 05 1858. (Boston)Google ScholarDaily Advertiser, 2, 3 Dec. 1857. Springfield (Mass.)Google ScholarRepublican, 20 Nov., 4 Dec. 1858.,

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¹² Peoria Daily Transcript, 2 Dec. 1857.

¹³ Randall, and Donald, , The Civil War and Reconstruction, p. 20;Google ScholarFormisano, , The Birth of Mass Political Parties, pp. 102, 110, 125–7;Google ScholarSilbey, , The Transformation of American Politics, p. 13Google Scholar; for Iowa, , Swierenga, Robert P., ‘The Ethnic Voter and the First Lincoln Election’, reprinted in Luebke, Frederick C. (ed.), Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1971), pp. 129–50, esp. pp. 136–7.Google Scholar

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²⁶ G. W. Scranton to W. Bigler, 18 May 1858. William Bigler Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

²⁷ Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774–1961 (Washington, D.C., 1961)Google Scholar, Scranton entry. In 1856, the Democrats had carried the Pennsylvania Xllth congressional district by 10,442 against 7,657 for the Union candidate; but in 1858 the Union candidate, Scranton, won by 10,023 to 6,186. Tribune Almanac for 1859 (New York, 1859), p. 53.Google Scholar

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²⁹ L. R. to Bigler, 10 May 1858. Bigler Papers.

³⁰ ‘Covode Investigation’, p. 613.

³¹ The impressive performance by the Republican (or Union or People's) party in Pennsylvania in 1858 suggests that the party worthies realized the value of this popular respect for businessmen. The People's Party carried 21 congressional seats in the state; 12 were gains over 1856. Of the 21 Republican members a majority (12) were, as one would expect, lawyers. But 8 were businessmen, who thus constituted an unusually high proportion of the total members. The significance of the businessmen-candidates is perhaps explained when one considers that in twelve districts gained by the People's party in 1858, businessmen were the candidates in six. In nine of these newly captured seats the previous Democratic majorities had been substantial; five of the successful People's party candidates in those seats were businessmen. Thus, in an economic depression, it is possible that the People's party deliberately chose businessmen, and not lawyers, as especially appealing candidates in protection-conscious Pennsylvania. Certainly in the previous major opposition victory in the state's congressional election, in 1854, the proportion of businessmen among the successful Whig-American candidates (five out of nineteen, with eleven lawyers) was smaller than the proportion in 1858; and in 1854 there was no concentration of businessmen in the key swing districts, as there was in 1858. Biographical Directory, passim. Tribune Almanac for 1859, pp. 52–3. Tribune Almanac for 1855 (New York, 1855), pp. 43–4Google Scholar

³² Hofstadter, RichardThe American Political Tradition (New York, 1973 edn), pp. 101–6.Google ScholarFoner, , Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, pp. 316–17Google Scholar. Brock, , Conflict and Transformation, p. 418.Google Scholar

³³ Formisano, , The Birth of Mass Political Parties, pp. 124–6.Google ScholarChalmers, Leonard‘Tammany Hall, Fernando Wood, and the Struggle to Control New York City, 1857–1859’, New York Historical Society Quarterly, LIII (1969), 13–15.Google ScholarNew York Times, 23, 26 Oct. 1857. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, however, the Whigs had a better record of support for humanitarian reform in the state legislatures than did the Democrats. Herbert Ershkowitz and William lates Shade, G.‘Consensus or Conflict? Political Behaviour in the State Legislatures during the Jacksonian Era’, Journal of American History, LVIII (1971), 609–11.Google Scholar

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³⁶ Fishlow, Albert‘Levels of Nineteenth Century American Investment in Education’, Journal of Economic History, xxvi (1966), pp. 418–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Fishlow, Albert ‘The American Common School Revival: Fact or Fancy?’ in Rosovsky, H. (ed.), Industrialization in Two Systems: essays in honor of A. Gerschenkron (New York, 1966), pp. 43, 49–55.Google Scholar

³⁷ Thornbrough, , Indiana in the Civil War Era, pp. 465–74, 645.Google Scholar Similar delays occurred in New York state where the principle of completely free schools was accepted in 1850 but not translated into reality until 1867. Fishlow, ‘The American Common School Revival…, p. 53.

³⁸ Roseboom, Eugene H.The Civil War Era: 1850–1873 (A History of the State of Ohio, vol. iv) (Columbus, Ohio, 1944), pp. 177–80.Google Scholar

³⁹ Controllers of Public Schools for the First School District of Pennsylvania, Report for the year ending December 31, 1857 (Philadelphia, 1858), pp. 11–12Google Scholar. Bessie Pierce, Louise, A History of Chicago, II (New York, 1940), 390–1.Google Scholar For Philadelphia's schools, see Warner, Sam Bass Jr., The Private City. Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth (Philadelphia, 1968), pp. 118–20.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Roseboom, , The Civil War Era, p. 147.Google ScholarAdams, HenryThe Education of Henry Adams (Boston, 1918), pp. 54–5, 65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarNevins, AllanOrdeal of the Union (New York, 1947), II, 544–7.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The American Almanac for 1858 (Boston, 1857), pp. 206–7.Google Scholar

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⁴⁴ Freedley, , A Practical Treatise on Business, pp. 75, 41–2.Google Scholar Also: Wyllie, Irwin G.The Self-Made Man in America (New York, 1966 edn), p. 101.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, xxiv (1851), 398, 655Google Scholar; xxv (1851), 141, 144, 266, 400. Bow's, DeReview, xi (1851), 98, 546, 689.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ On American invention, see Nevins, AllanOrdeal of the Union, II, 251–61.Google Scholar For an example of detailed comparisons with European models of American industrial methods, techniques and attainments, see Bishop, J. LeanderA History of American Manufacturing, III (Philadelphia, 1868), pp. 24, 30–3, 40, 44, 49, 57–8, 72–3, 79, 82, 92Google Scholar: these references are to Philadelphia factories in different types of industry, in the late 1850s.

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⁶³ Freedley, , A Practical Treatise on Business, pp. 48, 74.Google ScholarWare, NormanThe Industrial Worker, 1840–1860 (Chicago, 1964 edn), p. 119.Google Scholar Average earnings for non-farm employees on in 1860 were $363 per annum. Davis, Lance E.Easterlin, Richard A. and Parker, William N. (eds.), American Economic Growth. An Economist's History of the United States (New York, 1972), p. 212.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ For a swashbuckling attack on these more traditional views, see Pessen, EdwardJacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics. (Homewood, Ill., 1969), passimGoogle Scholar. At the highest levels there was no reduction under Jackson's administration in the dominance enjoyed by the well-born and affluent over public office. Aronson, Sidney H. Status and Kinship in the Higher Civil Service. Standards of Selection in the Administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), p. 195.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Town officials had to execute many tedious and fairly complex administrative tasks, which required some education. For an example of these responsibilities on the eve of the Jacksonian era, see Richardson, William M.The New-Hampshire Town Officer (Concord, 1829)Google Scholar. This form-book contains 299 pages of instructions and illustrative forms for official use.

⁶⁶ This consideration may well explain why, for example, some 32 per cent of the city aldermen of Springfield, Massachusetts, were artisans and workingmen in the 1850s. That high proportion dropped, however, during the 1870s when the local upper class increased its hold on public offices. One reason for this change (and Frisch offers others) was probably the increased complexity of urban government and the demands made thereby on local leaders. Frisch, ‘The Community Elite…’, pp. 282–5.

⁶⁷ Kutolowski, Kathleen S. ‘The Social Composition of Political Leadership. Genesee County, New York, 1821–1860’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Rochester, 1973), pp. 283–96.Google Scholar For the city of Pittsburgh in the late 1850s a slightly more ambiguous picture emerges. During 1855–7 t n e candidates put forward by both parties in Pittsburgh on came from an economic elite: 71 per cent of Republicans and 67 per cent of Democrats possessed wealth in excess of $5,000, and 65 per cent of Republicans and 50 per cent of Democrats held more than $10,000. During 1858–60, however, there was a strong feeling in the city that the top people no longer presented themselves for public office; this was only partly true, for during those years, 56 per cent of the two parties' candidates held over $5,000 in wealth and 49·5 per cent of Republicans and 40 per cent of Democrats owned over $10,000. Strong local factors turned some members of the local upper classes from active politics. Holt, Michael F.Forging A Majority. The Formation of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh, 1848–1860 (New Haven, 1969), pp. 296–8, 349, 361.Google Scholar

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⁶⁹ Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, 30 Jan. 1858. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Manual, LXXXVIII (Harrisburg, 1948), pp. 509–78.Google ScholarGeneral Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Journal of the House of Representatives. 1858 Session. (Harrisburg, 1858), pp. 43–4.Google Scholar Another example is provided by the Ohio senate of 1852. Among 35 senators, the occupations of 28 have been recorded: 13 were lawyers, and farming, with 5 senators, was the next major occupation. ‘ERIE, Legislative Correspondent of the Cleveland True Democrat’, Pencilings in the Senate of Ohio (Columbus, 1852), passimGoogle Scholar. I wish to thank Mr D. J. Ratcliffe for this reference.

⁷⁰ I have calculated this from lists and biographical entries in Biographical Directory, passim.

⁷¹ Thornbrough, , Indiana in the Civil War Era, pp. 557–9.Google Scholar The predominance of agriculture in Indiana's economy was reflected in the overwhelming presence of farmers among party workers in the state; but the political leadership consisted of lawyers. Elbert, E. Duane‘Southern Indiana in the Election of 1860’, Indiana Magazine of History, LXX (1974), 1–23.Google Scholar

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⁷⁵ For example, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, at the age of twenty, arrived in Illinois from the east; in order to obtain some law books, he was dependent on the aid of a leading attorney in Jacksonville. Johannsen, Robert W.Stephen A. Douglas (New York, 1973), p. 19.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables, ch. VIII.

⁷⁷ Rochester Union and Advertiser, 16 Mar. 1858.

⁷⁸ Logansport Journal, 10 July 1858.

⁷⁹ Bureau County Republican, 10 June 1858.

⁸⁰ Morgan Weekly Herald, 1 Apr. 1858.

⁸¹ The information on these politicians' business interests has been derived mainly from the individual entries in the Dictionary of American Biography.

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⁸⁴ Johannsen, , Stephen A. Douglas, p. 37.Google Scholar Of course Democratic leaders were equally involved with major corporations: in the late 1850s, the chairman of the New York state Democratic central committee, Dean Richmond, was the vice-president of the New York Central Railroad; Governor William Packer of Pennsylvania was a director of the Sunbury and Erie Railroad; Senator Jesse B. Bright of Indiana and his brother were deeply involved in the establishment of the Indiana State Bank; Governor Robert Stewart of Missouri was a director of the Hannibal and St Joseph Railroad. Dictumary of American to Biography. Primm, James N., Economic Policy in the Development of a Western State: Missouri, 1820–1860 (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), p. 111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThornbrough, , Indiana in the Civil War Era, p. 427.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Douglas worked hard to obtain the first federal land grant made to a railroad for the Illionis Central. Within a few years of purchasing a plot fo land in Chicago, he sold a portion of that land to the Illinois Central for ten times the sum originally paid for the entire area. Johannsen, , Stephen A. Douglas, pp. 314–17, 335.Google Scholar

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⁸⁸ Nichols, , Disruption, pp. 285–6.Google Scholar ‘Covode Investigation’, pp. 140, 150, gives one example of the underhand use of funds for political purposes.

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⁹¹ I wish to thank the libraries cited for permission to quote from their manuscript collections. I am extremely grateful to my former supervisor, Dr J. R. Pole, for his criticisms of an earlier version of this article. Professor W. Hamilton Bryson and Dr Derek Beales kindly helped me on various points.