W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1993 The Richmond Junto and politics in Jacksonian Virginia Wade Lee Shaffer College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Shaffer, Wade Lee, "The Richmond Junto and politics in Jacksonian Virginia" (1993). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623830. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-48hj-j617 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. THE RICHMOND JUNTO AND POLITICS IN JACKSONIAN VIRGINIA A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Wade Lee Shaffer 1993 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ----------- Approved, April 1993 Martin Boyd CoyrferXjr.m 1 dwell HJ/Johnson, III John EKf Selby Edward P. (prapol Peter C . Stewart/, Radford University ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To Monica, who taught me about love and life and baseball Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................ V ABSTRACT .................................... vi INTRODUCTION .................................... 2 CHAPTER I. "SENTINELS OF LIBERTY": THE REVIVAL OF STATE RIGHTS, 1815-1824 ............... 25 CHAPTER II. "JACKSON AND REFORM": 1825-1828 .... 73 CHAPTER III. RUMBLINGS IN THE ATMOSPHERE: 1829-1833 123 CHAPTER IV. PARTY WARFARE: 1834-1840 184 CONCLUSION: THE RICHMOND JUNTO AND POLITICS IN JACKSONIAN VIRGINIA ................. 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................. 245 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Everyone should write a dissertation. During the years that I spent researching and writing this work, I made dozens of new friends and married the woman I love. I also came to know my strengths, my limitations, and my faults. In this regard, I arrived at the end of my intellectual journey into 19th century Virginia a wiser and humbler person. Everyone should write a dissertation. To acknowledge all those who helped me in the course of completing this work would be a Herculean task. But I would be remiss if I did not thank my advisor, Boyd Coyner, and the other members of my dissertation committee, Ludwell Johnson, John Selby, Ed Crapol, and Pete Stewart, for their guidance, gentle criticism, and extreme patience. A special word of thanks goes to Judy Ewell, who helped me in so many ways that I'm sure I will never be able to repay her fully. I would also like to thank all my friends at William and Mary, but especially John Barrington, Tom Legg, and Chris Hendricks, for their advice and friendship. They made me realize that I should strive to be not only a better historian, but a better person as well. Finally, my family - - Monica, Kay, Randy, Debi, and Ron — provided me with all the support and love I needed to finish this work. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation offers the first full-length study of the Richmond Junto and its role in shaping politics in Virginia between 1815 and 1845. The Junto led the Jacksonian movement in Virginia and worked successfully to keep the state allied with the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren until the early 1840s. The Junto represented an influential force in Virginia politics during this transitional period, and to a certain extent this small group of men, led by Thomas Ritchie, Peter V. Daniel, Andrew Stevenson, William H. Roane, and Richard E. Parker, epitomized the state's response to the turbulent events of the era. Its actions were expressive of the way in which Virginians chose to come to terms with the changes in American politics and society during the Age of Jackson. The Junto's course was marked by ambivalence. It sought, for instance, to preserve both the rights of the states and a strong federal Union, and to revive Virginia's influence at the national level without compromising the state's political principles. To achieve these goals, the group consistently articulated a traditional states' rights position, but also moved to adopt the modern features of the second party system. This strategy produced mixed results. The Junto managed to maintain influence in the state for nearly three decades, and Virginia never cast its presidential ballot for a Whig candidate. At the same time, bitter factionalism and violent partisan debate came to characterize Virginia politics in the years after 1832. The goal of this study is to reveal the pivotal role played by the Richmond Junto in defining and shaping political debate in Jacksonian Virginia. It offers an analysis of the group's political ideology and its methods of operation, as well as a discussion of the Junto's objectives, accomplishments, and failures. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE RICHMOND JUNTO AND POLITICS IN JACKSONIAN VIRGINIA W Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction This dissertation offers the first full-length study of the Richmond Junto and its role in shaping politics in Virginia between 1815 and 1845. The Junto led the Jacksonian movement in Virginia and worked successfully to keep the state allied with the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren until the early 1840s. The Junto represented an influential force in Virginia politics during this transitional period, and to a certain extent this small group of six to eight men epitomized the state's response to the turbulent events of the era. Its actions were expressive of the way in which Virginians chose to come to terms with the changes in American politics and society during the Age of Jackson. The members of the Junto viewed themselves as caught between two worlds: the older, traditional world of their fathers, the revolutionary generation, and a new world of democratic change and economic expansion that they found both appealing and foreboding. In confronting these new political, economic, and social realities, the Junto consistently used the yardstick of the past to measure the strange new world unfolding before them. To a certain * extent, the members of the clique remained rooted in the world of their fathers and devoted