The Emergence of the Whig Party in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1834-1840

8/2/2019 The Emergence of the Whig Party in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1834-1840

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The Emergence of the Whig Party in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1834-1840

Author(s): Henry O. RobertsonSource: Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 33, No. 3(Summer, 1992), pp. 283-316Published by: Louisiana Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4232959 .Accessed: 18/07/2011 15:24

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The Emergence of theWhig Party in Louisiana'sFlorida Parishes, 1834-1840By HENRY 0. ROBERTSON'

In early 1828, the British visitor Mrs. Frances Trollopeboarded a steamboat in New Orleans and headed up theMississippi River. The prim English lady remarked that few ofthe Americans on board would ever receive the title ofgentleman in Europe. Nearly all were roughnecks andabsolutely vulgar in their behavior. On the journey, she wasconfined to a small cabin with the ruffians and had to enduretheir "uncouth" speech as well.' She recalled one incident inparticular:

The little conversation that went forwardwhile we remained in theroom was entirely political, and the respective claims of Adamsand Jackson to the presidency were argued with more oaths andmore vehemence than it had ever been my lot to hear. Once acolonel appeared on the verge of assaulting a major, when a hugeseven-foot Kentuckian gentleman horse-dealer asked of theheavens to confoundthem both, and bade them sit still and be d-d.2

*Anativeof Greenville, outhCarolina,he author s a graduateofRandolph-MaconCollege n Virginia,and is currentlya Master'scandidateat LouisianaStateUniversity-Batonouge.This articlewasawarded he 1992HughRankinPrize. Thisprize s awarded o graduate tudents n History.

'FrancesTrollope,DomesticMannersof theAmericans,n RichardMullen,ed.(Oxford, 984),p. 15.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYUnknowingly, Mrs. Trollope had just heard some of the firststirrings of a second American party system. Andrew Jacksondefeated John Quincy Adams that fall and went on to complete

two terms as president. Before the end of his last term,opposition to his policies and actions crystallized into a newpolitical force, the Whig party. In the 1830s, two-partycompetition expanded beyond those initial jousts of the Adamsand Jackson men. The political struggles of the new partysystem motivated more and more partisans who increasinglyrefused to sit still. The second American party system thusbecame a mass system that at times mirrored the rowdyconfrontation Mrs. Trollope witnessed. Unfortunately, Mrs.Trollope never realized the significance of the arguing sheheard. Her attention was riveted on the manners of thepartisans and not the deeper meaning of their dispute.Mrs. Trollope was on a steamer bound for Natchez and so herlast view of Louisiana came as the boat went up the western edgeof the Florida Parishes.3 By 1832, the area was divided into EastBaton Rouge, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, St. Helena,Livingston, St. Tammany and Washington parishes. PointeCoupee, West Baton Rouge, and Iberville were added to these tomake up the Second Congressional District of Louisiana.4During the years 1834 to 1840, the Whig party emerged in thisdistrict and quickly became a viable opposition to theJacksonian Democrats who had dominated the area.In the 1830s, the Florida Parishes were somewhat differentfrom the rest of Louisiana. Population growth, immigration,and other demographic changes did not radically change thehuman landscape there as was happening in the northern andsouthern parts of the state.6 Most importantly, and in contrast to

3See below for information regarding the origins of the name FloridaParishes.4For all 1830s congressional district boundaries in Louisiana, see KennethMartis, The Historical Atlas of United States CongressionalDistricts 1789-1981

(New York, 1982). The SecondDistrict boundariesstayed the same between 1834to 1840. For all parish boundaries see: John Kyser, "Evolutionof LouisianaParishes in Relation to Population Growth and Movements" (Ph.D.dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1938). Parish boundaries did notchange between 1834 and 1840. The 1838 CatesbyGrahamMap in Hill Memoriallibrary is one of the best maps of Antebellum Louisiana. See also WilliamThorndale and William Dollarhide, Map Guide to the United States FederalCensus, 1790-1920 (Baltimore,Md., 1987).6See tables in D.L.A. Hackett, "The Social Structure of Jacksonian

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYmost of nineteenth-century Louisiana, the number of families ofFrench descent was very small. Only Pointe Coupee, WestBaton Rouge, and Iberville had a significant French-speakingpopulation.6 These three "French" parishes would play animportant though not dominant role in the politics of the region.As Joseph Tregle stated in his path-breaking study ofJacksonian Louisiana, nativity politics were not a factor in thearea because, "nowhere was the control of the Americans socomplete as in the Florida Parishes."7The Americans ruled over a vast and expanding cottonkingdom not an entrenched sugar empire as existed down-river. In the early 1830s, the plantation system was mostevident along the Mississippi, into the Felicianas and throughparts of St. Helena on the edge of the eastern hilly country whereyeomen farmers scratched out a living.8 The planters who livedalong the river, especially those of French descent, usuallysupported the National Republicans. The states-rights plantersand yeomen farmers who initially outnumbered the Adams andClay men typically voted Democratic. Not surprisingly,Andrew Jackson defeated Adams in the area by 1,239 votes, andin 1832 Henry Clay lost by about the same amount.9 AlexanderBarrow, a states-rights planter in West Feliciana, supported

Louisiana,"in Mark T. Carleton, et al., eds., Readings in Louisiana Politics(BatonRouge, 1988),p. 158.6Ibid.,148.7JosephG. Tregle, "Louisiana n the Age of Jackson: A Study in Ego Politics"(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1954), p. 66.8See Perry H. Howard, Political Tendencies in Louisiana (Baton Rouge,1971), p. 10. Other overviews of the area may be found in Lewis Gray,History ofAgriculture in the Southern United States to 1860, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.,1933), p. 899; Amy Quick, "The History of Bogalusa, the 'Magic City' ofLouisiana," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXIX(1946), 86; and several localhistories: Frederick S. Ellis, St. Tammany Parish: L'Autre Cot4 du Lac.(Gretna, La., 1981); Edward Livingston Historical Association, History BookCommittee, History of Livingston Parish (Dallas, Tex., 1986); ElizabethKellough and Leona Mayeux, Chronicles of West Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge,1979); James P. Banghman, "A Southern Spa: Antebellum LakePontchartrain,"Louisiana History, HI (1962), 5-32.'The vote totals for the 1828 and 1832presidentialraces in the Floridaparishesmay be found in Leslie Norton, "Origins of the Whig Party in Louisiana,"(M.A. Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933), p. 117.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYJackson in both contests. In 1824 when Jackson was firstadvanced as a candidate for president, Barrow wrote to assureWilliam S. Hamilton, a Democratic leader in West Feliciana,that, "I am thoroughly persuaded in favor of Jackson."10 In lessthan a decade, Barrow would lose the Jacksonian persuasion.In these early days when Barrow was a Democrat, anti-Jackson sentiment was not entirely absent from the FloridaParishes (see Table A). West Baton Rouge gave over sixty per-

TABLEACOMBINED PERCENTAGEOF TOTAL VOTES CAST AGAINST ANDREWJACKSONFROMTHEPRESIDENTIAL LECTIONSOF 1828AND 1832

PARISH'PC WBR IBR EBR33 62 31 40H

WF31 EF STF LIV12 24 20L 1832

NOTES: H=highest, L=lowest and 1832 was the first year thatLivingstonheld a presidentialelection. The anti-Jacksonpercentage was calculated by adding the total votes of Adams in1828 to the total votes of Clay in 1832 andthen dividingthatcombinedAdams-Claytotal byall the votes cast in both the 1828 and 1832 elections. As a formula for each parish:Totalvotes of Adams, 1828 + Total votes of Clay, 1832

Total Votes of 1828 + TotalVotes of 1832*PARISHKEY

PC ............PointeCoupeeWBR ........West BatonRougeIBR ..........IbervilleEBR ........EastBatonRougeWF ..........West Feliciana

EF ..............East FelicianaSTT ............... St. TammanyLIV ....................LivingstonSTH ...................St. HelenaWHN .............. Washington

cent of its combined votes of 1828 and 1832 to the NationalRepublican candidates.11 The other two parishes that had

"William S. Hamilton Papers, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi ValleyCollections, Louisiana State University Libraries, Louisiana State University.LetterofJuly 9, 1824."Table A was constructedusing election returns from the Norton thesis. Seenote 9 above.

STH12LWHN18

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYsignificant "French" populations gave over thirty percent oftheir votes to Adams and Clay as did East Baton Rouge and WestFeliciana, commercial parishes along the Mississippi River.The anti-Jackson forces thus had a viable base on which to builda major opposition party from the old National Republicansupporters. In "Who Were the Southern Whigs?", CharlesSellers wrote that the Whig party in Louisiana was essentiallythe old National Republicans under a different name.'2 TheSellers thesis holds true for the early members who formed theWhig party in the Florida Parishes.'3 Yet to win elections in thearea, as the Whigs eventually did, many more people besides theold National Republicans would have to join the anti-Jacksonfold.One of the most prominent National Republicans and earlymembers of the Whig party was the old hero of the West FloridaRebellion, Gen. Philemon Thomas. Thomas had led a band ofrevolutionaries against the Spanish garrison at Baton Rougeback in 1810.14 The Florida Parishes won a short-livedindependence and became more than just a geographic areaafter they joined the United States. The people there shared apolitical identity and a common history with Thomas as their"GeorgeWashington." A fervent patriot who had also fought inthe American Revolution, Thomas believed in nationalistpolicies such as the American System that his old friend HenryClay devised.'5 Along with Thomas, many other Louisianianssupported the American System's trinity of the tariff, internalimprovements, and a national bank.

The tariff was especially favored in Louisiana because themain staple, sugar, had foreign competition. The state's sugar"2CharlesG. Sellers, "WhoWere the Southern Whigs?"American HistoricalReview,LIX(1954), 344.'3Leslie Norton, "Origins of the Whig Party in Louisiana" (M.A. thesis,Louisiana State University, 1933). Norton argued that the early Whig party inLouisiana drew its membership almost entirely from supportersof the NationalRepublicans.14Bennett Wall, et al., Louisiana: A History (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1990),pp. 102-103. Also see Eugene Sterks, "The Military and Political Career ofPhilemon Thomas"(M.A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1946), p. 14."5Thomashad lived in Kentucky and knew Clay quite well. See "Thomas,Philemon," in Glenn R. Conraded., Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, 2 vols.(New Orleans, 1988), II, 788; and Sterks, "PhilemonThomas,"passim.


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LOUISIANA HISTORYplanters appreciated any protection the government gave them.Interest in a vigorous program of internal improvements nodoubt arose because the state's many waterways served as majortransportation routes and any improvement in their qualitybenefited all, especially commercial interests.16 As early as1826, Louisiana had a board of internal improvements and spenta significant portion of its state budget on public works.17 By1833, commerce in Louisiana had expanded and moreimprovements were desired by the proponents of commerce. Themajor port in the state, New Orleans, was also the mostextensive commercial and banking center in the South.Planters and merchants across the state benefited greatly fromits several state-chartered banks and also from the NewOrleans branch of the Bank of the United States.18 As WilliamAdams argues in The Whig Party of Louisiana, the destructionof the national bank was the main catalyst for the formation ofthe Whig party in Louisiana because many people were hurt bythe loss of the bank and the Jacksonian assault upon the "moneyinterest." In point of fact, Louisiana was one of the few Southernstates to instruct its congressional representatives to makeevery effort to pass the recharterbill.'9Around the time of the bank's difficulties, Philemon Thomaswas elected to Congress. He defeated an anti-bank Democrat,Gen. Eleazer W. Ripley, for the second district seat.20In an 1832letter to the Baton Rouge Gazette, Thomas made his position onthe bank clear:

On the incidental preliminaryquestion connectedwith the'6John C. L. Andreassen, "Internal Improvements in Louisiana 1824-1837,"Louisiana Historical Quarterly,XXX (1947), 15-16.17Ibid., 4.'8Forthe best banking histories of antebellum Louisiana see George Green,Finance and Economic Development in the Old South: Louisiana Banking,1804-1861 (Palo Alto, Calif., 1972). Also see LarryE. Schweikart, Banking inthe American South From the Age of Jackson to Reconstruction (Baton Rouge,1987) and Stephen Caldwell, A Banking History of Louisiana (Baton Rouge,1935)."9WilliamH. Adams, The WhigParty of Louisiana (Lafayette, La., 1973), pp.54-55. This book is indispensableto the study of the Whig party.20"Ripley,Eleazer W.,"in Conrad,ed., Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, I,78.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYBank, I have generally voted with the friends of the institution,from the conviction of its great and paramount usefulness bothto the ends and objects of Government, and to the commercialenterprise of individuals. I should regard its destruction as anational calamity, and as detrimental to the interest of ourstate.21

Thomas and other friends of the bank could do little to save itafter the veto and the removal of its funds. Most Whigssubsequently supported banks on the state level to make up forthe loss of the national institution.22The destruction of the national bank did not anger too manyDemocrats in Louisiana. Alexander Barrow, still a Democrat,probably applauded its demise. In 1833, Barrow was first electedto the state house where he played a key role for most of thedecade.23 The old National Republicans or emerging Whigshad control of the house that session and Barrow was not happywith many of the bills under consideration. He wrote to hisfriend, Hamilton: "The legislature has been in session six

weeks, and nothing has been done beneficial for the state butmuch is being done, that will prove a course among other itemsof mischief."24 Barrow singled out a state bank charter as one ofthe three worst bills that was passed after he left the chamber atthe end of the session.26 Barrow did not agree with the bankingpolicies of the emerging Whig party. Yet as it turned out, hispolitical opinions were changing and very shortly thereafter hisviews became compatible with the new party that was takingshape.In that same letter to Hamilton, Barrowsaid that his support ofSouth Carolina in the recent nullification controversy had wonhim ill favor with most legislators. He wrote, "I am now putunder the house . . . denounced as a nullifier."26 Most

2'Quotedin Sterks, "PhilemonThomas,"p. 82.22Sellers,"SouthernWhigs,"34123"Barrow,Alexander,"in Conrad, ed., Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, I,42.24WilliamS. Hamilton Papers, letter of February 19, 1833.25Ibid.26Ibid.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYLouisianians, such as a group that met at Baton Rouge,condemned nullification.27 In the letter, Barrow was verycritical of Andrew Jackson's strong-arm tactics and tramplingof states' rights. Barrow's emotions flared as his pen scratchedin fearful anger: "All my sympathies are with them and as thenullifiers are contending against laws which areunconstitutional, unjust, oppressive, and ruinous to the South, Inever will consent to sir them but by military force."28 Barrowhad become so upset with Jackson that only a short time later hereferred to the president as "Andrewthe first."29Barrow left theDemocratic party in disgust and found a new political homewith the emerging Whigs who shared his anti-Jacksonsentiments. The new convert would eventually rise in the partyranks to the post of senator from Louisiana.30 In the FloridaParishes, the Whig party was born as men like AlexanderBarrow and Philemon Thomas found common cause byopposing the policies and actions of Jackson and all hisstalwarts.The new party debuted in the state elections of 1834.31 Ingeneral, the Whigs did well. They won the legislature, thegovernor'srace, and almost all other contests except those in theDemocratic bastion of the Florida Parishes.32 The defeats therewere not a great setback for the new party and, if anything, thecontests signaled to the Democrats that a new and determinedfoe was active. One disadvantage the Whigs had in 1834 wasthat a local favorite, John B. Dawson of West Feliciana, wasrunning for governor against Edward D. White, a resident ofthe lower part of the state. The local candidate was sure to getmany more votes.While the Whigs had a dim chance of winning thegubernatorial election in the area, their chances in the

27BatonRougeGazette,January 26, 1833.28HamiltonPapers, letter of February19, 1833.291bid.,etter of January 1, 1834.30New Orleans Bee, July 10, 1840. Barrow served in the U. S. Senate fromMarch4, 1841,until his death on December29, 1846.3"For lection returns of the 1834 races across the state see local newspapersaroundJuly 1834.32Adams,WhigParty, p. 65.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYcongressional race would have been better had only twocandidates been running. Philemon Thomas decided to retirerather than run for a second term.33 His old opponent, Gen.Eleazer W. Ripley, ran again and a much more extremeDemocrat, James Bradford, also joined the fray. The Whigswere represented by the sugar planter Thomas W. Chinn ofWest Baton Rouge Parish. A friend of Chinn's, ClarkWoodruff, also ran.34Early in the 1834 campaign, Edward D. White attempted torekindle an old feud that had its origins in the 1826impeachment proceedings of Judge Thomas W. Chinn. Whiteremembered that John Dawson (and Alexander Barrow) hadassisted the prosecution in Chinn's trial and both had nearlyfought a duel with Chinn's attorney, Clark Woodruff.35 Dawsonwas appointed to Chinn's vacant judgeship after the affair, sobad feelings between Chinn and Dawson must have run deep.36If White could get Chinn and Woodruff to attack Dawson or busyDawson with attacking the others, he stood a better chance oflessening the assaults from Dawson and possibly makinginroads among Democratic voters.White's scheme failed. Chinn and Dawson did not attackeach other at all.37 In fact, Chinn endorsed Dawson forgovernor.38The National Intelligencer was startled that a Whigwould do such a thing and asserted that Chinn lost his own racebecause of this indiscretion.39Knowing as he did that Dawsonwas the home-town favorite, Chinn was probablyvery shrewd tocome out in favor of his mortal enemy. Chinn needed votes andan easy way to win them, or keep from losing them, was tosupport the Democratic favorite. The National Intelligencer did

33Sterks,"PhilemonThomas," 104.34Adams,Whig Party, p. 66.35ElrieRobinson, Early Feliciana Politics (St. Francisville, La., 1936), p. 20.36"Dawson, John Bennett," in Conrad, ed., Dictionary of LouisianaBiography,I, 220.37Diedrich Ramke, "Edward Douglas White, Sr., Governor of Louisiana,1835-1839,"Louisiana Historical Quarterly,XIX(1936), 291.38Leslie Norton, "A History of the Whig Party in Louisiana" (Ph.D.dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1940), pp. 100-101.39Ibid.


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LOUISIANA HISTORYnot understand the political situation in the Florida Parishes.The Whigs were a minority and had to win the favor of votersany way possible.Chinn's race was not an easy one because Woodruff drew offvotes and his main Democratic opponent, Ripley, was a popularlawyer and hero of the War of 1812.40 Chinn made an earlyappeal to the voters in a letter to the Whig paper, the Baton RougeGazette. His appeal revealed much about the issues that Whigsin 1834 thought were important, though Chinn may have cateredhis letter to a Democratic audience. Chinn addressed the tariffissue first. Instead of approaching it from a sugar planter'spoint of view, he argued for the tariff as a means to nationalprosperity. He wrote, "Ihave always thought, and still do, thatCongress has the power under the Constitution of the UnitedStates, of enacting laws for the protection and encouragement ofour domestic manufactures . . . I am a matter of fact man. Ihave been accustomed to look at things and to Judge of them bytheir results." Chinn judged that the tariff was a success becauseit brought a visible "degreeof prosperity and happiness withoutparallel" to the nation. Chinn also remarked that he would notlabor to change the compromise tariff that had settled thenullification controversy.41Chinn even announced that he opposed nullification, thoughhe was quick to add that the nullifiers were "good men andindeed worthier of a better cause." Chinn argued thatconstitutional questions such as nullification should be resolvedby judges, ballot boxes, or all states in convention. By makingthis broad pronouncement, Chinn avoided the controversialissue because he offered many ways a constitutional questioncould be addressed, and not the way he preferred. On internalimprovements, Chinn was equally vague and tried to appeal to awide range of voters. He argued, "that Congress couldappropriate any portion of Revenues of the country to any otherpurposes of internal improvement which they may deemexpedient providedthey do not encroach upon the reserved rightsof the States." Chinn did not elaborate on what the "reservedrights of the states" were, and he only went on to say that of allthe states in the Union, Louisiana would benefit most by

40Tregle,"Louisiana in the Age of Jackson,"p. 209.41BatonRougeGazette,April2, 1834.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYinternal improvements. Chinn cloaked his views on the bankissue as well. He asserted that a national bank was desirable,necessary, and that Congress could create one. He did notmention that he was strongly in favor of a bank because thisopinion might hurt his candidacy in this heavily Democraticdistrict. Overall, his letter was a positive plea designed topresent views that would appeal to both Whig and Democraticvoters. This strategy and some other schemes he tried were notentirely successful.42On April 26, 1834, the Baton Rouge Gazette,reportedthat L. H.Moore, T. G. Davidson, and A. Penn had endorsed Chinn astheir candidate for Congress. These three men were some of themost powerful Democratic legislators in the district. Theeditors of the Louisiana Democrat were stunned that thesefaithful Jacksonians would abandon their party so easily. TheBaton Rouge Gazette responded with some anti-party rhetoricand praise for the three.43 The endorsements of these prominentJacksonians may not have been entirely sincere because inJune the Baton Rouge Gazette was defending Chinn fromattacks by the editors of the Iberville Gazette. The Ibervillenewspaper charged that Chinn, a director of the branch Bank ofLouisiana in Baton Rouge, arranged a special "loan" forDavidson in exchange for that Democrat's support. Chinn'sviews from his April letter were also questioned. The Ibervilleeditors rightly claimed that he was evasive on the issues of theday.4 Chinn was obviously on the defensive and struggling ashis plans to get Democrats to vote for him crumbled.

General Ripley's views were highlighted in the May 3 issue ofthe Baton Rouge Gazette. The Gazette argued that Ripley's anti-bank opinions, "encourag[ed] destruction of currency and theruin of national industry."45 Chinn's views were summed upagain as well. The Gazette said Chinn advocated domesticeconomy, industry, enterprise, and the rights of the statesaccordingto the spirit of the Constitution. The paper added thatChinn was in favor of a literal interpretation of the Constitution42Ibid.43Ibid.,April 26, 1834.44Ibid.,June 7, 1834.45Ibid.,May 3, 1834.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYnot a broad one. Accordingto the Gazette, Chinn was friendly toinstitutions but opposed party intrigue, nullification, andsecession.46 Again, Chinn was appealing to Democratic voterswith strict-constructionist views and no mention of his supportfor the national bank. Back in 1827, Chinn had led a WestBaton Rouge convention that endorsed John Quincy Adams forpresident. Chinn was not a new convert to Whig views or aWhig who held only anti-Jackson opinions.47 Chinn was adedicated Whig with shrewd, though unsuccessful campaigntactics.The final vote totals of the 1834 elections showed that only WestBaton Rouge was strongly Whig with White and Chinnobtaining large majorities there (See Tables D and E).48 YetIberville and Pointe Coupee gave the Whigs many votes as well.The National Republicans in West Baton Rouge, Iberville, andPointe Coupee easily transferred their allegiance to the Whigs.The election results in the other Florida Parishes were not aspromising. White and Chinn lost in most other parishes yetChinn made a good showing in the commercial parishes of EastBaton Rouge, West Feliciana, and St. Tammany. The future ofthe Whig party in the Florida Parishes was bright and itssupporters could take comfort in their victories in the rest of thestate.For the first two years of White's administration, 1835-1836,the state experienced significant economic growth.49 Thelegislature approved many charters of banking, railroad andother commercial ventures. The Whigs were not alone insupporting the ventures and promoting internal improvements.The Democrats sponsored many charters too and no great effortswere made to restrict or control the growth of new companies.50

46Ibid.47Ibid., uly 14, 1827."The 1834 election returns were taken from the Bee,July 11 and 12, 1834, andLouisiana House Journal, Twelfth Legislature, first session (1835).49MerlReed, "Boom or Bust-Louisiana's Economy during the 1830's," inMark T. Carleton, et al., eds., Readings in Louisiana Politics (Baton Rouge,1988),passim.50Thisstatement is based on a survey of the legislative journals for the 1830s.See Louisiana Senate Journal 12th Legislature, 1st Session, 21, and LouisianaSenate Journal 12th Legislature, 1st Session, 12, for examples of Democrats andWhigs proposing and supporting bills of a similar nature.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYLand speculation increased, and the banking system stretchedits resources to meet the capital needs of planters andmerchants. The legislature helped by approving six new banksthat were incorporated at some sixteen million dollars.5" Thelegislature did not carefully regulate banking practices in the1830s, though after 1837, the Democrats and Whigs movedtowards reform.62As for internal improvements in the 1830s, the legislativerecord was similar to the banking issue. Some partisanshipexisted in the legislature, such as with expensive ventures, yetmen in both parties offered bills for projects at one point oranother. The Whig governor, Edward White, even came intooffice with an anti-internal improvement stance because hethought that most of the projectswere too costly.53Improvementofroads and grants of ferry privileges got the most attention fromthe legislature and from police juries that administered localimprovements.Most plans for local internal improvements such as bridges orroad maintenance passed through the juries unanimously andso it was difficult to determine if great partisanship existed inthe functions of the jury. Most of the business the jury conductedwas routine administrative work done almost by consensus."4Astudy of the police jury records from most of the Florida Parishesindicated that partisanship was not greatly evident in policejury activities, or if such conflicts went on, they were notcarefully recorded.55 Most Whig and Democratic politicians

5"Joseph G. Tregle, "Edward Douglas White," in Joseph Dawson, ed.,Iberville to Edwards(BatonRouge, 1990),p. 116.52George Green, Finance and Economic Development in the Old South:Louisiana Banking, 1804-1861 (Palo Alto, Calif., 1972), p. 26.53Andreassen, "Internal Improvements," 49; Ramke, "Edward DouglasWhite," 310.54The 1830s police jury records of the Florida Parishes are scattered andfragmentary. One notable characteristic of the police juries was that they rarelymet at their scheduled time. Usually members were tardy and the meetingswere postponed a day or two for lack of a quorum. See in particular the EastBaton Rouge Police Jury Records. The records do not give any clear evidence ofparty competition.55Thisstatement comes from a survey of the East Baton Rouge police juryminutes 1827-1834, 1837-1840; he East Feliciana minutes 1839, the St. Tammany

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LOUISIANA HISTORYserved on a jury early in their careers. The elite of both partieswere also trustees of most of the area's educational institutions.An examination of six major colleges and academies revealedthat the number of Whigs and Democrats on the boards wereabout even.56 A similar conclusion came from looking at the tworail lines built in the parishes during the 1830s. Both Democratsand Whigs supported the endeavors, served as trustees, and sawthe completion of the lines.57As official legislative representation went, the FloridaParishes continually sent a majority of Democrats to eachsession. This trend continued through the late 1830s.58 A broadsurvey of the socioeconomic status of the legislators andcandidates of each party found that all of the men who ran foroffice were wealthy.59Constitutional requirements for holding office were partlyresponsible for this characteristic.60 From this brief survey ofthe activities and status of the party leaders, one could state that

minutes 1833, and the West Feliciana minutes 1840. Most were located at HillMemorial Library,Louisiana State University and their respective courthouses.56The six institutions were the College of Louisiana, the College of BatonRouge, Clinton Female Academy, Montpelier Academy in St. Helena Parish,Franklin Academy in Washington Parish, and Academy of Baton Rouge. Listsare in Henry A. Bullard and Thomas Curry, eds., A New Digest of the StatueLaws of theState ofLouisiana(New Orleans, 1842),pp.294, 305, 316, 317, 311. Forthe Franklin Academy list see Quick, "TheHistory of Bogalusa,"p. 84.57MerlReed, New Orleans and the Railroads: The Struggle for CommercialEmpire (Baton Rouge, 1966), p. 11. Also see Elizabeth Dart, "Workingon theRailroad: The West Feliciana, 1828-1842" Louisiana History, XXV (1984), 29-56.68Asurvey of the membership of Louisiana House and Senate members wasdone to arrive at this conclusion. See house and senate journals for the twelfththrough the fourteenth sessions for actual listings of Florida Parishrepresentatives. The July 28, 1836, issue of the New Orleans Bee listed all thelegislators who were Van Buren men. A comparisonof that list and the FloridaParish representatives confirmed that the vast majority of the area'srepresentatives were Democrats.59Abroad survey of slaveholding, land purchases and occupation was done ofthe majorcandidates mentioned in this essay to arrive at this conclusion.60Adams, Whig Party, pp. 5-6. The 1812 Constitution prescribing largeproperty requirements for holding office may be found in Benjamin W. Dart,Constitutionsof the State of Louisiana and Selected Federal Laws (Indianapolis,1932).


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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYthe conclusions of Thomas B. Alexander about Alabama Whigswould probably apply to the Whig party in the Florida Parishes.61The party gained support from all economic levels with riverplanters inclined to vote Whig more often. The great differencebetween the Whigs and Democrats appeared to rest in theirpolitical beliefs not in their wealth or social activities.The economic boom that brought prosperity to Louisiana'sriver planters also produced anxieties about the slavepopulation. As the economy expanded, slave labor intensified,bringing more tension into the master-slave relationship. Themaster worked his slaves hard and altered his work force atwill to maximize profit.62Ann Patton Malone has demonstratedthat the slave trade kept pace with the expansion of agriculture.In the 1830s, only thirty-nine percent of slaves in the state livedin a nuclear family. That number had been around fifty-onepercent before the boom.63The internal cohesion of the slavecommunity was thus much less and the chances of restlessnessamong the slaves was likely much greater. Slaveholders fearedchallenge-especially from these slave communities that wereunsTable. The specter of the Nat Turner rebellion, the growingabolitionist criticism from the North, and the large number ofslaves in their midst became concerns that began to make manyLouisianians feel uneasy.Most residents of the Florida Parishes owned slaves. Only inLivingston did less than forty percent of the families haveslaves. In Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge and Iberville, thenumber of slave-owning families was often as high as seventy-two percent of the white population.64n 1835, white males in theFlorida Parishes were outnumbered by male slaves by almosttwo to one (see Table B). By comparing white males to slavemales rather than comparing all whites to all slaves, a moreaccurate sense of anxiety comes through, because the white

61Thomas B. Alexander, "Who Were the Alabama Whigs?" AlabamaReview,XVI(1963), 5-19.62Theconceptual framework for this section on slavery and the politics of theFlorida Parishes comes from ideas presented by William J. Cooper,Jr., in TheSouth and the Politics of Slavery (Baton Rouge, 1978), and James Oakes inSlavery and Freedom:An Interpretationof the Old South (New York, 1990).63AnnPatton Malone, "Searchingfor the Family and Household Structure ofRural Louisiana Slaves, 1810-1864,"Louisiana History,XXVII(1987), 367.64Hackett,"SocialStructure,"154.


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LOUISIANA HISTORYmales were the ones who would have to confront the potentiallydangerous male slave force if rebellion rocked the FloridaParishes. The anxiety over the threat of slave rebellion was

TABLEBCOMPARISON F WHITEMALESTOSLAVEMALES NTHEFLORIDAPARISHES, 1835

White Males Slave Males Ratioages 18-45 ages 17-55

PC* 306 (12)** 1228 4.01WBR 214 662 3.09IBR 596 (270) 1452 2.43EBR 838 (129) 914 1.09WF 643 (86) 1598 2.48EF 786 (182) 1107 1.40STT 293 507 1.73STH 530 287 .54WHN 285 119 .414491 7874From: "TabularStatement referred to in the AdjutantGeneral'sReport."Louisiana SenateJournal, 12thlegislature1stsession.NOTES: *ParishKey (from Table A). **Indicatesnumber of men who were underarmsatlast inspection. No returns given for Livingston. Figures reveal that slave malesoutnumberedwhite males by almost 2 to 1 in the area. "Ratio" s numberof slave malesdividedby the numberof white males. As a formula:

Slave Males = RatioWhiteMales

heightened by a series of events demonstrating that slaveryhaunted the mind of the white Southerner.In 1835, the American Anti-slavery Society sent some twentyto fifty thousand pieces of abolitionist propaganda South forseveral weeks.65Many of the "incendiary"publications arrivedin Louisiana. The Whig governor, Edward White, brought themail to the legislature and roundly condemned theabolitionists. He raved that the abolitionists, "were plottingtreason against the state and using the shield of the freedom of65Charles Sydnor, The Development of Southern Sectionalism, 1819-1848 (1948;reprinted., BatonRouge, 1968),p. 232.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYthe press intended for the protection of liberty as an agency forher destruction."6 Several resolutions were unanimouslyadopted in support of the governor's condemnation.67 TheDemocrats and Whigs closed ranks and were eager to defendtheir way of life.The fear of insurrection grew during the mail campaign andthat summer the paranoia surfaced in Mississippi with therumor of a great slave rebellion-the Murrell Conspiracy.68Some itinerant doctors implicated in the supposed plot werearrested and hysteria swept Madison and Hinds counties whenone suspect admitted that a Christmas day revolt was planned.69What followed was, as William Freehling described it, "anever-to-be-broken antebellum record for lynching."70The totalnumber of people killed may never be known. Whites, slaves,and any other suspicious folk were beaten and hanged asofficials became obsessed with rooting out the legendaryMurrell gang.71 The fear spread south. In Baton Rouge and St.Helena, whites and slaves were flogged and hanged too.72Laterthat December in East Feliciana, a supposed plot was uncoveredand several slaves were hanged. The morbid tragedy of thewhole affair was that the conspiracy was a hoax. An accompliceof John Murrell, at best a petty thief, wrote a pamphletfabricating the whole plot.73 The violence that a mere rumorproduced illustrated that slavery had a deep influence onslaveholders as the 1836 elections came around the next year.The defense of slavery quickly became the dynamic of

66Ramke,"EdwardDouglas White," 305-306.67Norton,"AHistory of the Whig Party,"110-113.68D. L. A. Hackett, "'The Days of this Republic Will Be Numbered:Abolitionism, Slavery and the Election of 1836,"Louisiana Studies, XVI (1976),140-141.6Ibid.70William Freehling, The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854(Oxford,England, 1990), p. 110.7Ibid.72 James Penick, The Great Western Land Pirate: John L. Murrell in Legendand History (Columbia,Mo., 1981),p. 150.73Ibid.,p. 27.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYcompetition that the Whigs and Democrats adopted in 1836because the voters were concerned about the previous year'sthreats and no other political issue of great importance could beharnessed for electoral advantage. As William J. Cooper, Jr.,has argued in his study of antebellum Southern politics, eachparty tried to prove that they could defend slavery better thantheir opponents.74 William Freehling recently wrote that, "theWhigs and Democrats in the South did brawl and brawl aboutwho was true-blue to slavery."75 Loyalty to the South andallegiance to slavery thus became paramount to the success ofeach party. The parties tried to stir up excitement at charges oftreason or disloyalty to the South's way of life.76The defense of slavery was then a crucial element thatassisted in the formation of the Whig party in the South andLouisiana. The Whigs gained a deeper motive to organize andshow that they, and not their opponents, were more faithful to theSouth. The agitation of the slave community in the 1830s, therising paranoia of the South, and the emergence of the Whigparty were all linked. The Whigs learned, as the Democratsdid, that electoral success came from channeling the tensions,fears, and energy of the "flush times" into mass parties wherepent-up anxieties and strong emotions could be vented in therage of political competition. Joseph G. Baldwin, a formerAlabama legislator and author who coined the term "flushtimes," wrote that indeed, "politics are the safety-valves that letoff the discontent, and the surplus energies of our people."77The Whigs had no national strategy for their firstpresidential election. Several candidates ran with HughLawson White as the Southern contender. The Whigs ranWhite and an anti-abolitionist campaign to unify theirsupporters.78 White was an anti-Jacksonian who held states-rights, anti-bank, and anti-tariff views.79 The Whigs who

74William . Cooper,Jr., The South and the Politics of Slavery (Baton Rouge,1978).7?Freehling,Road to Disunion, p. 299.76lbid.,pp.301-302.77JosephG. Baldwin,Party Leaders(New York, 1855), p. 279.78RichardP. McCormick,"Was There a Whig Strategy in 1836?"Journal ofthe Early Republic, IV (1984), 70. Also see Cooper,Slavery, p. 58.79Cooper, lavery, pp. 78-79;and ArthurCole,TheWhigParty in the South, pp.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYnominated him at the Louisiana state convention were notenthusiastic about their candidate.80 White did not support theeconomic issues they held dear. The Whigs chose AlexanderBarrow as one of their electors probablybecause his states rights,anti-Jackson opinions made him closer to the presidentialnominee than any other Whig.8'The Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren. The NewOrleans Bee mentioned that many Whigs were disgruntled withWhite and some had even attended a Martin Van Burenmeeting.82 The Louisiana campaigns that year were a curiousmix of furious attacks in which each side charged the other wasnot true to slavery, and empty, almost apathetic, lulls ofinactivity. That summer, the Bee commented that its editorswere "at a loss to know what source to attribute the presentinactivity on both sides."83 The congressional race in theFlorida Parishes was equally quiet with the Clinton Democratreporting that General Ripley would be re-elected by"acclamation."84 He may well have been given that honorconsidering no known election returns for the 1836 racesurvive.That fall, Bennett Barrow, a cotton planter in West Feliciana,went to town to vote. He wrote in his diary on November 8:"Voted yesterday for Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee forPresident of the U. States-& John Tyler of Virginia for VicePresident states rights candidates Martin Van Buren ElectedPresident and R. M. Johnson Vice President stronggovernment men."85 Barrow was a Whig, though a Whig

41-42.80William H. Adams, "The Whig Party of Louisiana," (Ph.D. dissertation,Louisiana State University 1960), p. 91. (All other Adams references are to hisbook.)81Ibid.82NewOrleansBee, October20, 1836.SIbid.,July 11, 1836.84Reported n Planters Intelligencer and Rapide Avoyelles and CatahoulaAdvertiser,May 25, 1836.8SEdwinDavis, Plantation Life in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana: TheDiary of BennettBarrow (New York, 1943),p. 183.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYsimilar in opinion to his distant relative Alexander Barrow.86He was not very different from any other planter in WestFeliciana, though he was somewhat atypical in his politicalchoice that fall. Only ninety-seven other voters in his parishcast a ballot for White and Tyler.Van Buren won the election and the Florida Parishes, thoughhe did not win them by as great a margin as Jackson had in 1828or 1832.87 Hugh White lost badly in all the parishes except theWhig bastion of West Baton Rouge. White's total vote, 855, wasnonetheless much larger than what either Clay or Adams hadever obtained. The election returns for the presidential contestrevealed that Whig support grew beyond the old NationalRepublican base (see Table C). In each parish, the Whig percentof the total vote was higher than the calculated anti-Jacksonsentiment (see Tables A and C). The overall vote totals for bothparties in the 1836 election were, however, very low and probablyreflected apathy the voters had with the two candidates, one aNortherner, and the other an opponent of the American system.

TABLECWHIGPERCENTAGE FTOTALVOTES NFLORIDA ARISHPRESIDENTIALELECTIONS,1828-1840.

PARISHPC* WBR IBR EBR WF EF ST LIV STH WHN1828 42 47 26 38 30 15 22 - 15 171832 15 82 38 43 31 8 25 20 7 171836 36 74 45 44 39 34 24 50 19 171840 51 69 52 51 47 46 72 38 42 52

NOTES: *ParishKey (fromTable A). Livingstonwas not a parishin 1828. Its 1836 returnsare inconsistent and thereforedubious. The 1828-1836 returnsfrom Washingtonparisharedubious too. Notice the socioeconomic dichotomy of western versus easternparishes thatsurvived into the second party system. The returns indicate that the early Whigs hadsustained supportfrom the more commercial parishes along the Mississippi river while theinteriorparishes remainedlargely Democratic.

`Ibid., pp. 13-14.87The 1836 presidential election returns can be found in Walter DeanBurnham, comp., Presidential Ballots, 1836-1892 (Baltimore, 1955), pp. 490499.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYThe slavery issue did not generate a large number of votes foreither party. The electorate was concerned about slavery, yet notexcited enough to turn out in mass. Issues of political economy,

that had previously motivated voters, were not at stake in the1836 election. If the Whigs could bring those issues back into thepolitical arena and make an urgent appeal for votes, theirNational Republican faction would come out strong and theoverall excitement might generate even wider support. The nextyear, Louisiana's economy deteriorated and Whig prospectsbrightened.In the spring of 1837, a tidal wave of economic distress hit NewOrleans after soaking markets in both London and New York.Prices plunged, credit disappeared, and most banks suspendedspecie payments.88 An economic depression followed. Manypeople blamed the previous years of speculative mania for thecrash.89 The New Orleans banks had been much moreconservative in their financial policies than other banks in thecountry, and Louisiana was not hit as hard as the rest of theUnion.90Still, the panic ended prosperoustimes. The people wholived during the panic did not have access, as historians dotoday, to elaborate Tables and charts explaining the causes of thedistress, so the Whigs and Democrats were free to blame theother party for the hard times. As with the slavery issue, the twoparties brawled and brawled over who was responsible for thelatest calamity.The Whigs had the advantage of their long opposition toJacksonian banking policies. The party was quick to blame theDemocrats and all of Jackson's banking "experiments," suchas the specie circular, for the distress. The Democrats were aneasy target, but they did not stand still for long. That summer inClinton, the parish seat of East Feliciana, the newspaper TheLouisianian began publication. In one of its early issues, the

88DennisBurge,"LouisianaUnderGovernorAndreBienvenuRoman,1831-1835;1839-1843"M.A. hesis,Louisiana tateUniversity,1937)pp.73-74. Alsosee Green, Finance and Economic Development; and Peter Temin, TheJacksonian Economy(New York, 1969).

89For ennettBarrow's iewof the panicseeDavis,PlantationLife,p. 170.90SeeThomasRedard,"Economic istoryof the Portof New Orleans1820-1860" Ph.D.dissertation,LouisianaState University,1985),pp. 93-97for anassessmentof the bankpanicon the state. Chapters ourandfiveconcerningcommercen New Orleansare alsohelpful n assessingthe economicmpactofthe panic.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYnewspaper attacked the Whig plan for a national bank as aninadequate way to solve the economic distress. The newspaperrailed on the privilege a bank bestowed and denounced it as a"monstrous monopoly."91 The opening salvos of the 1838elections had begun.The elections that year were significant because only twocandidates ran in each race.92 Mass participation was high and1838 marked the arrival of the second American party system toLouisiana. Andre Roman returned to politics as the Whigcandidate for governor and many voters remembered hissuccessful term as governor in the early 1830s. His election wasassured. Roman ran on a platform of public education, internalimprovements, and the protective tariff. He conspicuouslyavoided the bank issue.93 His Democratic opponent was ofFrench descent, too, and the "French"population divided theirsupport. Thomas W. Chinn returned for another try at thecongressional seat. General Ripley had been ill the past twoyears and was in no condition to run for office in 1838. He diedthe day before his second term ended in 1839.94Chinn faced acapable state legislator from East Feliciana, and Ripley's newson-in-law, Thornton Lawson.95 In The Louisianian, Chinnbegan an aggressive campaign. He started by callingLawson's supporters "resin heels," a particularly pejorativeterm since many of the heavily Democratic parishes such as St.Helena and Livingston had vast pine forests.96 The Democratsresponded with equal nastiness, boasting that Chinn and his"blue-light" principles "will lose many votes and dance behindthem."97 Harry L. Watson found "blue light" in the politicalrhetoric of Cumberland County, North Carolina. That term

9"Louisianian,August 23, 1837.92RichardP. McCormick, The Second American Party System (New York,1966),p. 318.93Adams,Whig Party, p. 85; and New Orleans Bee, May 1838.94Louisianian, January 12, 1838, reported his sickness. Charles Corning,"EleazerWheelock Ripley,"typescript in Louisiana State Museum, p. 1.95NotarialRecordI, p. 374, East Feliciana Parish Courthouse,Clinton, La.96Louisianian,March30, 1838.97Ibid.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYlinked its bearer to the Northern men who attended the infamousHartford Convention in 1815.98 The Democrats had learnedmuch from the 1836 contests. They knew that labeling Chinn aman of Northern sympathies would make him close to a traitorto many Southerners.The Louisianian strengthened the stigma and lambastedChinn's nationalist outlook. In a diatribe signed "Jefferson,"the Whig candidate was called a Federalist and "politicalbrother of the N.E. abolitionists." He was criticized forsupporting the American system and even the tariff. The writerthen sniped at Chinn's checkered past by decrying theopportunismhe displayed as a judge when he bent to help the poorand orphans.99With each charge the Democrats heightened thecontest to the level of a personal battle that caught the interest ofvoters.In June, both candidates wrote letters to the Louisianian.Lawson fervently opposed a national bank. He thought that itwas a monopoly that benefited only a few people.100The letterChinn wrote contrasted greatly with the one he had sent to theBaton Rouge Gazette in his first bid for Congress. Chinn cameout in favor of a national bank and a national paper currency.He wanted a bank so that the nation's financial affairs would behealthy and so its commercial operations would run well.Chinn expressed faith in a strong government because hebelieved that only it could take control of financial affairs anddeliver the country from the current distress. No strict-constructionist or states-rights views clouded his message.101Chinn expressed his true opinions and had little fear that indoing so he might lose votes. The political environment hadchanged in the last four years, particularly since the panic. TheWhig party presented its ideas to an audience more receptive tonew plans and criticisms of the Jacksonians.In a piece entitled "The Times No. 3," "Antaeus" explainedexactly what the Whigs told voters. His description of the Whig

98Harry L. Watson, Jacksonian Politics And Community Conflict: TheEmergenceof the Second AmericanParty System in CumberlandCounty, NorthCarolina (Baton Rouge, 1981), p. 125.99Louisianian, May 4, 1838.lIbid., June 2, 1838."Ibid., June 15, 1838.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYcampaign tactics that year is worth full quotation:

The Federal Whigs knowing the smallness of their numbersin the District, and aware that if they recruit at all, they mustrecruit from the ranks of the democraticparty, have adoptedthefollowing technique: When the Whigs meet a poorman in debtwhoknows not a lot about finances the Whigtells him that thereis one way out of his situation, and one way to make cotton 20 apound and 'that is by the re-establishment of the United StatesBank. All will go well and the poorman'sdebt will be paid inthe twinkling of a bad post.' It is rather amusing to see a Whigactually grinding the last dollar out of the poor devils pocketsaying 'Oh! my good friend, Jackson and Van Buren are thecause of these hard times, they tamperedwith the currency,theybrought about all this distress, they have ruined you, and if youdon'tquit them and vote the Whig ticket, you'll be a beggar allthe days of your life.102

The Louisianian reported that Roman and Chinn were makingvisits in the district and the two probably gave similararguments from the stump.103 The Democratic author explainedthat the people of the district were too smart for this Whigsophistry. The yeomen knew that the only way out of debt wasthrough industry and honesty.On election day, July 4, Bennett Barrow wrote in his diary thathe "went to town to vote for members to Congress Governor &legislature." Barrow recorded that he voted, "Roman forGovernor" and that Judge Chinn and Lawson were running forCongress. Barrow explained that, "Chinn's a rank Federalist& Lawson any thing Can't vote for either."104 In thecongressional race, Barrow's abstention made little difference.Chinn won a stunning victory by over five hundred votes.10Roman won his race, yet, he lost in the Florida Parishes by aslim 59 votes. The Whigs even recaptured the legislature that

'02Ibid., ay25,1838."Ibid.,April13,June22,1838."'4Davis,lantationLife,p. 121.l05Electioneturns orthe 1838racesmaybe found n the July 1838 ssues ofNew Orleans Bee, Woodvillle,Mississippi, Republican, the ClintonLouisianian,andfromLouisianaHouseJournal,14thLegislature,1st session,(1839).

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYthey had lost in 1836.106 The elections of 1838 were thus asmashing victory for the Whig party. On July 6, ClintonDemocrats lamented, "we are beat."107A comparison of the gubernatorial results from the 1834 and1838 campaigns revealed an increase in Whig party support andgreater voter participation in the electoral process. Almost 430more people voted in the 1838 gubernatorial race than had in1834. The increase in votes in each parish was often small, suchas in St. Tammany where only six more votes were cast. EastBaton Rougehad the largest increase in total votes cast, 111. Theaverage increase in votes between 1834 and 1838 for all theparishes was 42.9. The mass party system brought more votersto the polls, though not in tremendous numbers. The severeconstitutional restrictions on the franchise account for the smallincreases in the total number of new voters.108Louisiana was one of the few states which did not relax itsvoting qualifications in the 1820s or 1830s. Its first constitution,drawn up in 1812, remained in effect until 1845.19Only whitemales at least twenty-one years of age who had been residents ofa parish for one year and who had paid a state tax six monthsprior to the election could vote.110More than half of the adultwhite males were disenfranchised, and by 1840, a mere fifty-onepercent could satisfy all the requirements.11 A brief look at oneparish will illustrate that despite the restrictions, an electoraltransformation occurred in the Florida Parishes.In St. Tammany Parish, where several voter poll bookssurvive, the number of men on the 1833 rolls was 288. Thatnumber actually fell to 221 in 1837. The number of men on thesheriffs list of ineligible voters, however, stayed about thesame, sixty-two in 1833 and sixty-five in 1837.112 An interesting

'6Norton, WhigParty," 132.l7Louisianian,July 6, 1838.08For the actual text citing qualifications see Benjamin W. Dart,Constitutionsof the State of Louisiana and Selected Federal Laws (Indianapolis,1932).'09McCormick, he Second American, p. 312."nDart,Constitutions,p. 500."'McCormick,The Second American, p. 312."2Martin Holden, "St. Tammany Parish Louisiana Miscellaneous Records,"

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LOUISIANA HISTORYconclusion is derived when one compares the number ofqualified voters in both 1833 and 1837 to the actual number ofvotes cast in the 1834 and 1838 gubernatorial races. By makingsuch a comparison, one sees that more men who were eligible tovote in 1838 actually voted than those who were eligible in 1834.In 1834, seventy-four percent of the men qualified to vote cast aballot in the governor's race. In 1838, that percentage rose to99.5.113 Various explanations could be given for the increase invoter turnoutbetween 1834 and 1838.Since similar numbers from all the parishes can not beassembled, any conclusion would be suspect. The calculationsabove indicate that despite restrictions on the franchise, thesecond American party system got underway in St. Tammanynot because great numbers of people came to the polls but becausea greater interest in the outcome of the elections prevailed. Moreeligible voters decided to vote in 1838 than had in 1834. Thepolitical events and issues between 1834 and 1838 obviouslyled toincreased participation in the electoral process, especially afterthe panic. For St. Tammany Parish, the second Americanparty system and the rise of the Whig party occurred withoutextension of the franchise. Concerns about political economyand slavery helped start the new party system not Jacksoniandemocracy.In the 1838 gubernatorial election, the Whigs increased theirshare of votes in almost each parish. They lost votes only in thethree "French"parishes (see Table D). The divisions in thecommunity over the two French gubernatorial candidates likelyaccount for the losses. Elsewhere, the Whigs gained asubstantially higher percentage of votes than they had in thepast, especially in East Feliciana, St. Helena, and Washingtonparishes. In the three most commercial parishes-East BatonRouge, West Feliciana, and St. Tammany-and in EastFeliciana, the Whig percentage rose to about fifty percent of thetotal votes cast. In the three largely Democratic parishes-Livingston, St. Helena, Washington-the Whig total ranged

pp. 128-136, located in Louisiana State Archives.113I ook the total vote of St. TammanyParish in the governor'srace of 1834,214, and divided it by 288, the number of men on the 1833 voter rolls to obtain thepercent of men who voted in 1834. I followedthe same procedurewith the 1837rolls and the 1838 election returns forthe comparison.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYfrom twenty to sixty percent. The wide range of Whig increasesproved that the party gained significant support for theirgubernatorial candidate in 1838 that they did not have in 1834.

TABLEDWHIGPERCENFAGE FTOTALVOTES NGUBERNATORIALLECTIONS F1834 AND 1838.

PC* WBR IBR EBR WF EF STT LIV STH WHN1834 44 88 70 47 12 13 15 17 4 101838 21 69 44 56 48 53 51 26 43 66*ParishKey (fromTable A). Forsources of the election returnsused to constructall Tables,see notes 9, 48, 87, 105, 124, and 132. For the 1832 congressional numbers see EugeneSterks,"TheMilitaryand Political Careerof PhilemonThomas,"92.

A comparison of the congressional races of 1834 and 1838revealed similar patterns as found in the gubernatorial contests(see Table E). Only 177 more men voted in the 1838

TABLEEWHIGPERCENTAGE FTOTALVOTES NFLORIDA ARISHCONGRESSIONALELECTIONS,1832-1840.

PC* WBR IBR EBR WF EF STT LIV STH WHN1832 95 92 61 69 87 29 33 26 37 481834 43 81 51 55 38 13 42 3 46 -1838 80 93 54 58 60 51 77 19 34 -1840 51 69 52 52 40 41 62 48 42 52NOTES: *ParishKey (from Table A). 1836 Congressionalretums for all parishes were notlocated.Washingtonarish etumrnsor 1834and1838aremissing oo.

congressional election than had voted in 1834, not a greatnumber, though an increase. Just as in the gubernatorialcontest, East Baton Rouge had the largest increase in the numberof votes cast, 115, and St. Tammany had the smallest increase atthree. The average increase in votes was 40.5, only two lowerthan the increase in the governor's race. In the 1834congressional race in St. Tammany 72.9 percent of those

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LOUISIANA HISTORYqualified to vote actually cast a ballot. In 1838 that percent rose to96.3 percent. So the congressional race in 1838 drew out a largerpercentage of qualified voters in St. Tammany than had comeout in 1834, just as had happened in the governor's race. Onemay conclude that voter interest in the elections for two differentcontests, governor and congress, with two different sets ofcandidates, increased significantly between 1834 and 1838 withthe Whigs picking up many new supporters.In the two congressional races, the Whig candidate wasThomas W. Chinn. Chinn's percentage of the total voteremained well above fifty percent in the three "French"parishes for both elections (see Table E). His percentage of thetotal vote stayed well below fifty percent in the three mostDemocratic parishes for the two elections. In the commercialparishes of West and East Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, and St.Tammany, Chinn got an average of thirty-seven percent of thetotal vote in 1834. In 1838 that average jumped to 61.5 percent.Since the "French" parishes stayed above fifty percent and theDemocratic parishes well below fifty, the increase in thecommercial parishes made all the difference in why Chinn wonin 1838. The congressional race was more than likely decidedby economic concerns in the commercial parishes. The panic of1837 convinced people to change their votes from the anti-bankmen that the Democrats had in 1834 and 1838 to the pro-bankman, Chinn.Harry Watson argues in his study of Cumberland County,North Carolina that after the panic of 1837, "voters madeeconomic connections between what the national parties did andwhat was happening at home. The politicians had made suchconnections before the panic."114 One of the results of the panic,and an early hallmark of the second American party system inCumberland and the nation, was that politicians brought theeconomic concerns they held to the people to sway them to oneparty or another. Certainly the Whigs in the Florida Parishesdemonstrated their ability to get the people to make connectionsbetween the Jacksonians and the panic. The "Times No. 3" inThe Louisianian was a telling example of the persuasivetechniques the Whigs employed. As shown above, thecommercial parishes were crucial to the election of 1838, acontest where the issues of economic reform were dominant in

"4Watson, Jacksonian Politics, p. 280.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYthe rhetoric of the campaigns. So the panic of 1837 had to be mostresponsible for the growth of the Whigs and the new party systemnot just on a county or parish level, but on this congressionallevel as well.Two years after the 1838 elections, the presidential contestillustrated that the Whig party couldcompete on an equal footingwith the Democrats. The Whigs appealed to the masses as theyhad in 1838 and won many votes. In 1840, Whig strength restedin getting votes from the people by persuasion and increasinglyby organized mobilization. As Michael Holt has argued in"The Election of 1840, Voter Mobilization, and the Emergence ofthe Second American Party System," continuing financialdifficulties were the main issues of the campaigns, and theWhigs again blamed the Democrats and gained manyfollowers.115 In January 1840, the Whigs of the SecondCongressional District re-nominated Thomas W. Chinn astheir standard bearer. In March, Chinn sent Thomas GibbsMorgan, the president of the convention, a printed letter inwhich he regretfully declined the nomination. Chinn cited theWashington climate as too detrimental to his health and wellbeing.116 Chinn's letter then went on for fourteen pages to give adetailed critique of the Van Buren administration and theeconomic troubles that the Jacksonians had caused over the pastdecade.Chinn implored the voters of the Second District to remove themen who had abused their positions in government."7 Hedescribed how the prosperity of the nation was destroyed byJackson's veto of the bank bill, the removal of the deposits, andthe specie circular."8 Chinn concluded that "the history of thefinancial administration of those in power is a record ofcontinual blunders and impostures."ll9 He then took a

"'Michael Holt, "TheElection of 1840, VoterMobilization,and the Emergenceof the Second American Party System" in William J. Cooper, Jr., ed. AMaster's Due: Essays in Honorof David HerbertDonald (Baton Rouge, 1985), p.53.l16Thomas W. Chinn, letter of Thomas W. Chinn to Hon. Thomas GibbsMorgan... (Washington,D. C., 1840), p. 3.7Ibid.,p. 4.

'1Ibid., pp.5-7."9Ibid., p. 9.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYcharacteristically Whig perspective on events, writing that "theadministration of Mr. Adams was charged with extravagance,and was displaced by the Party now in power, who came in on theground of retrenchment and reform. But the expenses of thewhole four years of Mr. Adams's administration were tens ofmillions less than one-half of those of Mr. Van Buren's firstthree years."'20 Chinn then introduced the Whig candidate forpresident.Chinn explained that Gen. William Henry Harrison had notbeen his first choice for a presidential nominee, "I preferredHENRY CLAY,"he wrote. He told the voters of the SecondDistrict that Harrison "has a strong attachment to the South; andwe may rest assured that, under his administration, ourdomestic institutions will ever find in the General Governmenta defender against the encroachments, and interference, andseditious proceedings of the northern fanatics."1'2 The Whigshad learned many lessons from the 1836 campaign. Chinnpromised the voters that he had personally examinedHarrison's views and was convinced that the General was a"zealous supporter of the South."'22 While economic concernsreceived the most attention in Chinn's letter, the politics ofslavery were still an all-important factor that he did not leave tochance.With Chinn out of the race, Thomas Gibbs Morganbecame theWhig nominee for Congress. For some reason, Morgan was notvery popular in the district. The Baton Rouge Gazette endorsedhis opponent, the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate,John B. Dawson.123 No evidence exists to indicate that Chinncame out for Dawson in this race as he had in the 1834governor's race. The bonds of party and Whig strength hadgrown substantially over the years. The new party no longerneeded to beg for Democratic votes. Nevertheless, Morgan losthis race by only 13 votes in the July elections.124 The Baton Rouge

120Ibid., . 11.'2Ibid., p. 13.122Ibid.123BatonRougeGazette,February22, 1840.124Theelection returns for the 1840 race can be found in the New Orleans Beeand the BatonRougeGazette n July 1840.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYGazette reported that there were music and marching in thestreets after the election.126 The Whigs and Democrats wereobviously mobilizing voters with political clubs and mass-participation activities. The excitement that charged theenvironment in July would continue through the fall.As the campaign progressed, log cabin symbols were broughtout, accompanied by many more speeches and conventions heldacross the state. The aged veteran, General Philemon Thomas,even came out of retirement to run for the legislature, attend thebarbecues, and preside at a Whig convention.126 Thomas gave arousing speech to the delegates:

I am an old man-an old Whig! I have borne arms under theWhig flag sixty-one years ago . . . it was Whiggery,gentlemen that won you your independence. Stick to the vessel,gentlemen,as long as the plankis left. Nevergive up the oldWhig shop. . . Teachyourchildren o be Whigs,that they,too,may fight for the inheritanceyou will, if you are true to yourprinciples,bequeath o them. Teachyourchildren o be Whigs!and therepublicwill be safe. 27

Thomas evoked the mystique of the Revolution and the patrioticduty of loyalty to a party that he said would ensure the safety ofthe republic and all its future inhabitants.At an October convention, the Whigs of the Florida Parishesdisplayed banners that conveyed some of the same themes thatThomas delivered in his speech. Each parish had a banner anda motto on it that typified Whig thought in the parish. The WestBaton Rouge banner had a picture of Harrison and the motto,"Our ship is in danger/we want another pilot." Thomas alsoused a ship metaphor in his speech when he described the Whigparty as a vessel that members should stick to as long as itsplanks were in place. These two references to ships illustratesthat a commercial interest was active in the area's Whigparty.128 The banners of West and East Feliciana conveyed

25BatonRougeGazette,July 18, 1840.12Sterks, "PhilemonThomas,"p. 105.127Quotedin ibid., p. 106. Originallyfromthe Baton RougeGazette,March 14,1840.128Baton ougeGazette,October3, 1840.

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LOUISIANA HISTORYmoral messages. The West Feliciana one read, "Truth, honor,and political virtue." East Feliciana had a picture of Harrisonon it and the motto, "Notfor himself, but for his country." Thetheme these two parishes touched on was that the Whigs werevirtuous, and by implication, the Jacksonians were corrupt.The two banners labeled the Democrats as having self-interested candidates because Harrison was running "not forhimself," or a party, but "forhis country." The patriotic appealthat Thomas made was echoed too because the ultimate objectiveof virtue, honesty, and truth was the betterment of the nation.129The other banners gave various messages that would strike achord with the voters who saw the banners or read about them inthe newspaper. The Iberville banner had a picture of a ballot boxand the motto, "All right, go ahead. Sober second thoughts."This motto appealed to Democratic voters who may have hadsecond thoughts about Van Buren and the Democrats. TheIberville Whigs were shrewd to convey this message in adistrict where the Democrats still commanded many votes. TheEast Baton Rouge Whigs used another clever message to appealto voters. Their banner read, "His triumph will be our triumph.The ladies of East Baton Rouge to the Whigs of their parish."The banner insinuated that if Harrison won the election, theladies won and the men who helped in that triumph would bespecial.130The St. Helena banner had a pine tree on it and the motto,"The pine tree district votes for a log cabin candidate." BecauseSt. Helena Parish was a Democratic bastion, its Whigs thoughtit best to give the "resinheels" two symbols they recognized, pinetrees and log cabins. In doing so, they linked a beloved localsymbol, the pine tree, to the national political icon of the Whigparty that year, the log cabin. The link between the two becamecomplete when one realizes that St. Helena yeomen may havebuilt log cabins with pine trees. The Whigs appealed to theDemocratic yeomen of the pine tree parish to help build a sturdyWhig party cabin.131

In November, Harrison won the Florida Parishes by a slim 36129Ibid.13Ibid.1311bid.

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EMERGENCEOF THE WHIGPARTYvotes of some 4,212 cast.'1 The voter turnout was the largest everand the Whigs gained strength in all the parishes, winning thesame ones that Morgan had held in the congressional race backin July (see Tables C and E). For the first time, the Democratslost the presidential contest. Iberville was one of the fiveparishes that went from supporting the Democrats in 1836 tovoting for the Whigs in 1840.133The lberville banner obviouslyhad sent its message to a receptive audience. The 1840 electionconfirmed that the Whigs could change the minds of people onthe national and local level, mobilize the vote, and compete oneven terms in a previously Democratic district.

The 1834 to 1840 election returns for the Florida Parishesdemonstrate that the Whigs slowly gained new voters with theelection of 1840 marking the grand culmination of some sixyears of steady growth. In presidential contests, the Whigpercentage of the total vote grew evenly in the "French"parishes, except in West Baton Rouge, and moderately in thecommercial parishes (see Table C). In the strongly Democraticparishes, the Whigs gained a greater share of the votes cast withincreases in their percentage of the total vote the sharpestbetween 1836 and 1840. The Whigs were thus most successful inwinning converts from the Democratic party, particularly afterthe Panic of 1837. By 1840, the Whigs attained close to fiftypercent of the total vote in the area, a great accomplishmentconsidering the small anti-Jackson sentiment that existed in1828. West Baton Rouge was the major Whig parish with theother "French"parishes forming a strong base for Whigs in allthe elections of the late 1830s. St. Helena, Livingston, andWashington remained the most Democratic parishes despite theimportant inroads made there. The most significant factor tonote in the congressional races was that Whig strength peakedin 1838-after the 1837 panic-and when economic concernsdominated the rhetoric of the election campaigns (see Table E).The "market revolution" of the 1830s was largely responsiblefor creating the issues that sparked party conflict in the FloridaParishes from 1834 to 1840.134 The Whigs and Democrats

132The1840 presidential returns may be found in Burnham, PresidentialBallots, pp.490-499.

133Ibid.,p. 188-189,486.134For a discussion of the effect of the "market revolution" on Jacksonian

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LOUISIANA HISTORYcompeted most over concerns about political economy, especiallya national bank. The rush to defend slavery that began in the1830s also stemmed from the increased commercial activity thatagitated the slave communities. The debate over slavery neverleft a central place in the political dialogue of the new partysystem. The national argument over slavery wouldincreasingly take center stage as the sectional conflict loomed.In early 1849 some twenty years after Mrs. Trollope traveled onthe river, a Florida Parish Whig boarded a steamer headed forWashington. This Whig, President-elect Zachary Taylor,would see the full power of the politics of slavery just before hisuntimely death in 1850.135 The slavery issue would shortlythereafter contribute to the demise of the Whig party and thebreakdown of the second American party system. The FloridaParish Whigs slowly disappeared into other politicalmovements and the coming storm of civil war.

politics, see Harry L. Watson, Libertyand Power (New York, 1990).

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The Emergence of the Whig Party in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1834-1840

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