We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Party Formation through Petitions: The Whigs and the Bank War of 1832–1834.
- Authors
Carpenter, Daniel; Schneer, Benjamin
- Abstract
When President Andrew Jackson removed the public deposits from the Bank of the United States, he set off an economic and political crisis from which, scholars agree, the Whig Party emerged. We argue that petitioning in response to removal of the deposits shaped the emergence of the Whig Party, crystallizing a new line of Jacksonian opposition and dispensing with older lines of National Republican rhetoric and organization. Where petitioning against removal of the deposits was higher, the Whigs were more likely to emerge with organization and votes in the coming years. We test this implication empirically by using a new database of petitions sent to Congress during the banking crisis. We find that petitioning activity in 1834 is predictive of increased support for Whig Party candidates in subsequent presidential elections as well as stronger state Whig Party organization.
- Subjects
WHIG Party (U.S.); PETITIONS; BANKING industry; UNITED States political parties -- History; JACKSON, Andrew, 1767-1845; POLITICAL development; EIGHTEENTH century; HISTORY of political parties; HISTORY
- Publication
Studies in American Political Development, 2015, Vol 29, Issue 2, p213
- ISSN
0898-588X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0898588X15000073