The First Presidential Contest : 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy

Jeffrey L Pasley

ISBN 10: 0700619070 / ISBN 13: 9780700619078

Published by University Press Of Kansas Mai 2013, 2013

About this Item

Neuware - This is the first study in half a century to focus on the election of 1796. The first contested presidential election offered neither a structured campaign the candidates did not even deign to participate nor an analysable national vote. Not only were political parties not yet institutionalised, they were ignored by the Constitution and frowned upon by the Founders. Pasley contends, however, that 1796 set the stage for all of American politics to follow.Challenging much of the conventional understanding of this election, Pasley argues that Federalist and Democratic-Republican were deeply meaningful categories for politicians and citizens of the 1790s, even if the names could be inconsistent and the institutional presence lacking. He treats the 1796 election as a rough draft of the democratic presidential campaigns that came later rather than as the personal squabble depicted by other historians. It set the geographic pattern of New England competing with the South at the two extremes of American politics, and it established the basic ideological dynamic of a liberal, rights-spreading American left arrayed against a conservative, society-protecting right, each with its own competing model of leadership. Rather than the inner thoughts and personal lives of the Founders, covered in so many other volumes, Pasley focuses on images of Adams and Jefferson created by supporters and detractors through the press, capturing the way that ordinary citizens in 1796 would have actually experienced candidates they never heard speak. Newspaper editors, minor officials, now forgotten congressman, and individual elector candidates all take a leading role in the story to show how politics of the day actually worked. Pasley s cogent study rescues the election of 1796 from the shadow of 1800 and invites us to rethink how we view that campaign and the origins of American politics.

Seller Inventory # 9780700619078

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First Presidential Contest : 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy
• Publisher: University Press Of Kansas Mai 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700619070
• ISBN 13: 9780700619078
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 236W x 160H x 43D millimeters 236 millimeters width by 160 millimeters height by 43 millimeters depth
• Weight: 953 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This is the first study in half a century to focus on the election of 1796. At first glance, the first presidential contest looks unfamiliar—parties were frowned upon, there was no national vote, and the candidates did not even participate (the political mores of the day forbade it). Yet for all that, Jeffrey L. Pasley contends, the election of 1796 was "absolutely seminal," setting the stage for all of American politics to follow.

Challenging much of the conventional understanding of this election, Pasley argues that Federalist and Democratic-Republican were deeply meaningful categories for politicians and citizens of the 1790s, even if the names could be inconsistent and the institutional presence lacking. He treats the 1796 election as a rough draft of the democratic presidential campaigns that came later rather than as the personal squabble depicted by other historians. It set the geographic pattern of New England competing with the South at the two extremes of American politics, and it established the basic ideological dynamic of a liberal, rights-spreading American left arrayed against a conservative, society-protecting right, each with its own competing model of leadership.

Rather than the inner thoughts and personal lives of the Founders, covered in so many other volumes, Pasley focuses on images of Adams and Jefferson created by supporters-and detractors-through the press, capturing the way that ordinary citizens in 1796 would have actually experienced candidates they never heard speak. Newspaper editors, minor officials, now forgotten congressman, and individual elector candidates all take a leading role in the story to show how politics of the day actually worked.

Pasley's cogent study rescues the election of 1796 from the shadow of 1800 and invites us to rethink how we view that campaign and the origins of American politics.

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Pasley is associate professor of history at the University of Missouri. He is the author of The Tyranny of Printers : Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic and coeditor of Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic.