Party politics in Alabama from 1850 through 1860

446 Pages·1935·4.09 MB·English

by  Lewy Dorman

Party Politics in Alabama From 1850 Through
1860

Party Politics in Alabama From 1850
title:
Through 1860 Library of Alabama Classics
author: Dorman, Lewy.
publisher: University of Alabama Press
isbn10 | asin: 081730780X
print isbn13: 9780817307806
ebook isbn13: 9780585225821
language: English
Alabama--Politics and government--To
subject
1865.
publication date: 1995
lcc: F326.D67 1995eb
ddc: 320.9761/09/034
Alabama--Politics and government--To
subject:
1865.
Page ii
The Library of Alabama Classics,
reprint editions of works important
to the history, literature, and culture of
Alabama, is dedicated to the memory of
Rucker Agee
whose pioneering work in the fields
of Alabama history and historical geography
continues to be the standard of
scholarly achievement.
Page iii
Party Politics in Alabama From 1850 Through
1860
Lewy Dorman
With an Introduction by Leah Rawls Atkins
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa & London
Introduction copyright © 1995
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
Originally issued in 1935 by the Alabama State Department of Archives and History,
Historical and Patriotic Series No. 13
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dorman, Lewy, 1887-
Party politics in Alabama from 1850 through 1860 / Lewy Dorman with an introduction
by Leah Rawls Atkins.
p. cm. (Library of Alabama classics)
Originally published: Montgomery, Ala.: Alabama State Department of Archives and
History, 1935, in series: Historical and patriotic series.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-8173-0780-X (alk. paper)
1. AlabamaPolitics and governmentTo 1865. I. Title. II. Series.
F326.D7 1995 320.9761\09\034-dc20 94-
35291
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available
Page v
Contents
List of Maps vi
Introduction vii
Leah Rawls Atkins
Letter of Transmittal 5
Preface 7
Chapter 1. Alabama in 1850 11
Chapter 2. Preliminary Survey of Parties, 1847-49 27
Chapter 3. The Secession Movement and the 43
Disintegration of the Old Parties, 1850-51
Chapter 4. The Reorganization of Parties, 1851-52 65
Chapter 5. Democratic Party Sucessess, 1852-54 77
Chapter 6. The Know Nothing Campaign of 1855 101
Chapter 7. The Presidential Campaign of 1856 125
Chapter 8. Transition to the One-Party System in 137
Alabama, 1857-59
Chapter 9. Disruption of the Democratic Party in 1860 154
Chapter 10. Conclusion 170
Appendix A. Tables of Election Figures
Presidential Elections, 1848-60 176
Congressional Elections, 1847-59 178
Gubernatorial Elections, 1847-59 192
For Delegates to the Secession Convention 194
Appendix B. Roll of Members of the Alabama Legislature
The House 198
The Senate 208
Maps and Charts, 1850-60 215
Bibliography 229
Index 236
Page vi
List of Maps
Density Map of Alabama, 1850 215
Distribution of Slaves in Alabama, 1850 216
Native States of the People of Alabama, 1870 217
Presidential Election in 1848 218
Congressional Elections in 1851 219
Composition of the Lower House of the Legislature in 220
1851
Presidential Election in 1852 221
Vote in the Senate to Change from the White Basis 222
Principle of Representation, 1854
Gubernatorial Election in 1855 223
Vote in the Lower House for United State Senator in 1855 224
Presidential Election in 1856 225
Presidential Election in 1860 226
Election for Delegates to the Secession Convention, 227
December 1860
Page vii
Introduction
by
Leah Rawls Atkins
The smoke from Alabama cotton set ablaze in 1865 to keep it from
falling into Union hands had hardly cleared when the decade leading
up to Alabama's decision to leave the Union on January 11, 1861, was
being analyzed and the causes of secession and war debated. Walter L.
Fleming was the first Alabama historian to write about the period in a
major monograph; he specifically addresses the causes of the war in
the introduction of his 1905 Columbia University dissertation, Civil
War and Reconstruction in Alabama. Fleming had been a student of
George Petrie at Auburn. After receiving his master's degree from
what was then called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Alabama, he entered Columbia to study under William A. Dunning,
and the influence of Dunning is evident in his work.
1 In Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, Fleming concludes
that the spread of abolitionist activity and such national political
developments as the demise of the Whig party and the founding (as its
northern successor) of the Republican party, which opposed the
extension of slavery, had increased Alabama's support for the radical
states'-rights position advocated by William L. Yancey.2
In 1926 Fleming was serving as head of the History Department at
Vanderbilt University when a young man from Clayton, Alabama,
Lewy Dorman, transferred his graduate credits from the University of
Chicago and entered the Vanderbilt doctoral program. Fleming had no
trouble interesting Dorman in Alabama topics, for the native of
Barbour County had written his master's thesis at the University of
Alabama on free blacks in Alabama and had been researching
Alabama subjects at Chicago under William E. Dodd. Frank L.
Owsley, Sr, another former student of Petrie at Auburn and of Dodd at
Chicago, was also teaching at Vanderbilt and inspired Dorman.
The doctoral dissertation Dorman completed under the direction of
Fleming and Owsley, Party Politics in Alabama From 1850 Through
1860, became the definitive monograph on politics in Alabama during
the decade of the 1850s once it was published by the Alabama State
Department of Archives and History in 1935.3 Dorman's book has
long been out of print, and existing copies at public and university
libraries are frayed and worn, while those copies offered for sale
infrequently by rare book dealers command high prices.
Lewy Dorman was born in Clayton, in Barbour County, Alabama, on
September 12, 1887, the son of Alexander Alpheus Dorman and
Martha Isabella