William Leggett

By: Anthony Comegna

& the

Locofoco Paradigm

Overview

• Leggett & his Locofocos• Leggett’s Thought:– Democracy– Radical Anti-monopoly– Radical Laissez-faire– Radical antislavery

• The Locofoco Paradigm• Conclusion

Leggett & His Locofocos• Jacksonian editor of

the New York Evening Post.

• Undisputed intellectual founder of the Locofoco Party.

• Locofoco=friction match

• Party platform: equity under the law, or “Equal Rights.”

Leggett’s Thought: Democracy

• Not an end in itself, but a means to greater liberty

• Politicians, too, are mere means, not ends

• Democracy is incompatible with managed markets and slavery

Leggett’s Thought: Anti-Monopoly• Opposed the granting of

corporate charters• Opposed public enterprises

(public ferries, docks, wharves, piers, schools, asylums, coinage, banking, etc.)

• Worst Monopoly: National & State Banks!

• Opposed “Intellectual Property”

Leggett’s Thought: Laissez-faire!• Direct Taxes• Absolute minimum (i.e.

practically no) government regulation of the market

• Free Banking!!!• Private coinage• Radical localism—care for

the poor, sick, and uneducated

Leggett’s Thought: Antislavery

• Began writing career as lukewarm slavery apologist

• Steady radicalization• Culminated in:– Immediatism– Favored Enfranchisement– Northern Abolitionism(!)

The Locofoco Paradigm

• An intellectual-political movement favoring free markets, liberty-expanding politics, and antislavery activism

• Directly Formulated by William Leggett• Extended, through Leggett, from the Locofoco

party of NY into the Van Buren administration• Directly led to the Jacksonian creation of the

Free Soil party in the wake of the 1844 election.

Conclusion: Paradigmatic Clashes & Historical Consequences

• Election of 1844—Calhounism v. Van Burenism• An electoral triumph for the quasi-free market,

pro-slavery Calhounist paradigm• Split the Democrat and Whig parties, creating the

Free Soil Party.• Free Soil agitation ignited North-South conflicts

over slavery• Free Soilers spill into Republican ranks…• 600,000+ dead