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Republicans and Democrats Search for New Identities, 1870–1890

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Albert V. House
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Extract

In October, 1963, Professor Vincent De Santis published a provocative revisionist essay on the realities of national politics in the United States during the Gilded Age. His perceptive comments and illustrations showed that the lion's share of the blame for the continuing misunderstanding of the politics of the period should be laid at the doors of Lord Bryce and Henry Adams. He demonstrated clearly that the distinguished, aristocratic Englishman and the Bostonian child of the eighteenth century were guilty of judging the passing parade of American political life by the standards of their own provincial and noncontemporary value systems. He went on to delineate the social, cultural and economic environment in which Gilded Age politicos functioned. These included the equating of democracy and capitalism, blind adherence to laissez-faire, cultural lag as to the theory of states' rights, the blight of two serious depressions, and a remarkably even balance of party and sectional power, especially after 1875.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 1969 , pp. 466 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1969

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References

1 de Santis, Vincent, “American Politics in the Gilded Age,” in Review of Politics, XXV (10, 1963), 551–561CrossRefGoogle Scholar. My article is a revision of a paper entitled “The Climate of National Politics in the Gilded Age,” read before the American Studies Association of New York State at Elmira College (New York) on October 1, 1966.

2 Ibid., 554.

3 Lambert, John R., Arthur Pue Gorman (Baton Rouge, 1954), pp. 145–166Google Scholar.

4 White, Leonard D., The Republican Era, 1869–1901; A Study in Administrative History (New York, 1958), pp. 20–44Google Scholar; Tugwell, Rexford G., How They Became President: Thirty-Five Ways to the White House (New York, 1964), pp. 553–554Google Scholar.

5 Clarke, Grace Julian, George W. Julian (Indianapolis, 1923), pp. 344–345Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 315–319.

7 House, Albert V. Jr, (sic),“Northern Congressional Democrats as Defenders of the South During Reconstruction,” in Journal of Southern History, VI (02, 1940), pp. 55–57Google Scholar.

8 Charles, A. and Beard, Mary R., The Rise of American Civilization. 2 vols. (New York, 1942), II, 551Google Scholar.

9 Hudson, William C., Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter (New York, 1911), pp. 112–114;Google ScholarHouse, Albert V., “The Democratic State Central Committee of Indiana in 1880: A Case Study in Party Tactics and Finance,” in Indiana Magazine of History, LVIII (09, 1962), 207Google Scholar.

10 Hirsch, Mark David, William C. Whitney: Moder Warwick (New York, 1948), p.238Google Scholar; Flick, Alexander C., Tilden, Samuel Jones: A Study in Political Sagacity (New York, 1939), p. 304Google Scholar; Mitchell, Stewart, Horatio Seymour of New York (Cambridge, 1938), p. 463Google Scholar; Clapp, Margaret A., Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow (Boston, 1947), pp. 284–285; Grover Cleveland Papers (Library of Congress), “Summary List of Campaign Contributors” dated February 5, 1895Google Scholar.