Martin Van Buren and the Nationalization of Party

1
Martin Van Buren and the Nationalization of Party

• Last time
• The nationalization of party organizations

2
Last time Props 60 and 62

• Prop 60 maintains the status quo qualified
  parties get one spot on the general election
  ballot per office after they choose a candidate
• Prop 62 was institute an open primary with a
  general-election runoff between the top 2
  candidates, regardless of party
• Do these things matter? How?

3
Last time the first party system

• Ratification of the Constitution helped coalesce
  political affiliations into Federalist and
  Anti-Federalist camps
• anti-Federalists were loosely associated with
  country factions in state politics, loosely
  opposed to the expansion of national govt power
• Federalists were loosely associated with court
  factions interests more closely aligned with
  principle cities and manufacturing interests

4
The first party system

• Issues in the first Congresses
• war debt pay it off at par, or discounted?
• assumption of state war debt?
• how to finance the war debt?
• fiscal policy more generally?
• location of the national capital?
• powers of the president?
• Participation was thin only white males meeting
  a property qualification in most cases
• Ideological legacy of the Revolution Whig
  political thought

5
Aldrich and Grant

• first Congress was unstructured politically
• Alexander Hamilton as Secy of Treasury seized
  the political initiative
• plan to pay off the war debt of 50 million (at
  face value) via the floating of bonds and
  establishment of a sinking fund financed with
  import duties
• assumption of state war debts
• establishment of a national bank

6
Aldrich and Grant, cont.

• key debates were both ideological and regional
• the major debates predated the Constitution, but
  the new structure plus Hamiltons strategies
  induced Jefferson and Hamilton to organize an
  opposition
• the key problems are internal to the Congress
  how to resist Hamiltons initiative and the
  Washington administrations patronage powers and
  prestige

7
Demise of the First Party System

• Electoral politics was popularized in the 1810s
  and 1820s
• property qualifications were eliminated on white
  male suffrage
• westward expansion and organization of new
  territories put pressure on state governments to
  pay more attention politically to new communities
• 1824 prez election final breakdown of the Era
  of Good Feeling

8
Van Buren and the Second Party System

• Martin Van Buren pioneered new electioneering
  tactics in NY state politics, formed an
  organization to back Andrew Jackson for 1828.
• 2-pronged strategy
• a National Alliance a somewhat loose
  affiliation of state and local Republican
  leaders who pre-committed to forming a long-term
  relationship
• the Caucus a national committee,
  headquartered in Washington, to provide
  logistics, fundraising, strategy, and propaganda
  (via a chain of party-run newspapers)
• the system was supported by a patronage network
  of benefit-seekers (key state bankers)