Printing Politics: the Emergence of Political Parties in Florida, 1821-1861
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PRINTING POLITICS: THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN FLORIDA, 1821-1861 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Jonathan B Crider May 2017 Examining Committee Members: Andrew Isenberg, Advisory Chair, History Jonathan D. Wells, History Seth C. Bruggeman, History Jessica C. Roney, History Elizabeth R. Varon, External Member, University of Virginia © Copyright 2017 by Jonathan B Crider All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation makes three key arguments regarding politics and print culture in antebellum Florida. First, Florida’s territorial status, historic geographical divisions, and local issues necessitated the use of political parties. Second, Florida’s political parties evolved from a focus on charismatic men and local geographic loyalties to loyalty to party regardless of who was running to national and regional loyalties above local issues and men. Lastly, the central and most consistent aspect of Florida’s political party development was the influence of newspapers and their editors. To understand Florida politics in the nineteenth century it is necessary to recognize how the personal, geographical, and political divisions in Florida’s territorial past remained a critical factor in the development and function of national political parties in Florida. The local divisions within Florida in the 1820s created factions and personal loyalties that would later help characterize national parties in the 1840s. Political leaders, with the help of editors and their newspapers, created factions based more on personal loyalties than on ideology. By the 1850s party loyalty became paramount over personal or regional loyalties. In the last years before the Civil War Democrats linked Southern loyalty to the Democratic party and accused their opposition of treason against the South leading Florida and the nation to Civil War. Yet, throughout these political changes, editors and their newspapers remained central to political success, becoming the voice of political parties and critical to attracting and maintaining potential voters. In addition to understanding how politics functioned in antebellum Florida, this dissertation contributes to our larger understanding of the Second Party System and the iii South. An underlying argument of this dissertation is that while the Democrats tended to be better organized and more ideologically coherent, the Whigs suffered from constant in-fighting and splintering. This led to the Democratic domination of politics and, in the South, the ability of secession supporters to control the public conversation during the Sectional Crisis of the 1850s and lead the nation to war. This dissertation also claims that there is not just one South but many and exposes the myth of a changeless and monolithic South. iv The writing of a dissertation takes a life of its own. I dedicate this work to Aurelia, Zoe, Zane, Elijah, and Eve. They stood by me throughout every word, sentence, paragraph, and page. I thank them for their love and patience. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My journey through graduate school has been a wild ride. I want to thank my professors at Kennesaw State University who instilled a love of history in me as I completed my undergraduate degree. They taught me to question everything and to look for the surprises that history’s mysteries hold. I would be remiss if I did not mention Gretchen A. Adams, my Master’s advisor at Texas Tech University. She helped me see myself as a Ph. D. and prepared me for the work ahead. I owe her much of my success. She encouraged me by letting me know it was OK to be a Southern historian. I want to thank the patience, care, and heavy-handed editing of my Dissertation Committee at Temple, especially Jon Wells and Drew Isenberg who pushed me in new directions and reminded me what it means to be a historian. Thank you to Liz Varon who encouraged me to fight for the project I wanted to do and reminded me of what my project’s central core was. I need to express a special thank you to my eldest daughter, Zoe. She has been with me since I decided to pursue a doctorate. She has sacrificed friends, potential experiences, and stability. I only hope that if she has learned anything from me is that she needs to pursue and work for a life that will bring her joy. Finally, I thank my wife, Aurelia. She suffered through the many years of my education across 5 states and 4 kids. She supported me through the whole process. She was my motivation to get up each day and stare down another blank page. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2. THE EMERGENCE OF FACTIONAL POLITICS ....................................................23 3. JOSEPH WHITE AS DELEGATE .............................................................................67 4. STATEHOOD AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY .......123 5. THE EMERGENCE OF THE WHIG PARTY .........................................................169 6. STATEHOOD TO SECESSION ...............................................................................211 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................275 APPENDIX A. FIGURES ...................................................................................................................288 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. 1845 Map of Florida………………………………………….…………………….288 2. Florida Population 1825-1860..…………………………………………………….289 3. 1822 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..289 4. 1823 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..290 5. 1825 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..290 6. 1827 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..291 7. 1829 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..291 8. 1831 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..292 9. 1833 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..292 10. 1835 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..293 11. 1837 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..293 12. 1837 Election for State and No State...……………………………………………..294 13. 1839 Territorial Delegate Election...………………………………………………..294 14. 1839 Constitutional Vote 1845 Results…………………………………………….295 15. 1841 Territorial Delegate Election...……………………………………………….295 16. 1843 Territorial Delegate Election...……………………………………………….296 17. 1845 Governor Election...………………………………………………………….296 18. 1845 House of Representatives Election..………………………………………….297 19. 1845 House of Representatives Election..………………………………………….297 20. 1846 House of Representatives Election..………………………………………….298 21. 1848 House of Representatives Election..………………………………………….298 22. 1848 Governor Election...…………………………………………………………..299 viii 23. 1850 House of Representatives Election…………………………………………...299 24. 1852 House of Representatives Election…………………………………………...300 25. 1852 Governor Election...…………………………………………………………..300 26. 1854 House of Representatives Election.…………………………………………..301 27. 1856 House of Representatives Election.…………………………………………..301 28. 1856 Governor Election...……………………………………………………..........302 29. 1858 House of Representatives Election..………………………………….............302 30. 1860 House of Representatives Election..………………………………………….303 31. 1860 Governor Election...…………………………………………………………..303 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION On a calm Florida winter afternoon in January 1825, Joseph Mills White, the land office commissioner and future territorial delegate, was walking down a Pensacola street when Peter Alba, Jr., the mayor of the city, brutally attacked him with a stiletto and bludgeon. The attack continued until Alba, scared off by White’s cries for help, left White barely conscious and in a pool of blood from a large gash on his head. Alba had attacked White for his accusations that connected Alba to fraudulent land titles. Even though White was well respected in the city as a lawyer, government official, and planter, Alba viewed him as an inferior and an interloper because he had moved to Pensacola only a few years earlier and not as a settler but as a government official. Alba thus saw no reason to openly challenge him as an equal. Three weeks later a bruised and bandaged White announced his candidacy as a territorial delegate to Congress. The assassination attempt strengthened and consolidated White’s loyal followers, who encouraged him to run for office, though some feared that the election would be determined not “by the people, but by the pistol.”1 The brutal attack on White reflects the perception of frontier Florida held by both scholarly and popular audiences, a place where violence reigned over civilization, where planters ruled both enslaved people as well as common Whites, where disorganization and the scramble for survival impeded the development of stable and healthy political parties. 1 Pensacola Gazette, January, 22, 1825. 1 Previous