Class not Creed:
Rethinking the Second Party System

Marc Egnal
York University, Toronto

Contemporaries argued about the makeup of the Whig and Democratic parties, and twentieth century scholars have kept this debate simmering. Early in this century, Progressive historians made the case for wealth and class as the chief determinant of loyalty. More recently the ethnocultural historians have contended that religion, place of birth, and a person's cultural outlook shaped party lines. This paper looks at the northern states, and contends that the Progressives were right: wealth was the key factor shaping the composition of the Whigs and Democrats.

The paper examines Presidential voting between 1840 and 1852 and shows that Whigs predominated in the wealthiest farming and manufacturing areas. Democratic strongholds were in the less developed parts of the North. The paper uses individual-level data as well as county returns.

Finally, the talk suggests that the Second Party System was characterized by the politics of class. The issues separating the parties for example, banking, currency, and debtor relief were ones that divided wealthier citizens from poorer. But the politics of class allowed cooperation between sections. Only in the 1850s as new parties formed were the politics of class replaced by the politics of sectionalism.