I wrote a couple weeks back about the preponderance of Whigs among the UNC graduation speakers before the Civil War. I'd now like to turn from that quantitative assessment to give a sense of how the speakers' ideologies affected their addresses. Building on the post on William Gaston's political ideology, let me contrast a couple of the addresses: those by Whigs Daniel Barringer in 1840 and Bartholomew Moore in 1846 with an address by Secretary of the Navy John Y. Mason in 1847 .
Now, recall that the Dialectic Society drew disproportionately from the eastern (and Whig) portion of North Carolina and the Philanthropic Society drew disproportionately from the western (and Democratic) portion of North Carolina. I've included a picture, above right, of New East (built in the 1850s), where the Dialectic Society met. There's also a picture below right of New West (also built in the 1850s), where the Philanthropic Society met. They look pretty much the same, don't they? I have a hard time telling them apart, too.
Let me start with Mason's address. Mason came back to the University in 1847, accompanied by President James K. Polk. Mason's wide-ranging address celebrated the wide diffusion of knowledge, made possible by the printing press -- and in particular celebrated the participation of the common person in politics:
He wields the power of elective franchise, and determines by his vote the choice alike of measures and of men; not only who shall rule him, but what shall rule him; he sits in the jury box, and the fortune, the fame, nay, the very life of his neighbor, rest upon his decisions; he is called as a witness, and is sworn to give true testimony on questions involving the deepest interests and the most important results; or, by the suffrages of his fellow citizens, he is clothed with still greater trusts, and summons responsibilities which belong only to the highest station in the gift of the people. A sovereign in his own right, the symbols of his authority are thus constantly before his eyes, and from every new exercise of his power, the American citizen derives fresh excitement to his intellect, and increased dignities to his character.
Mason's appears all the more Democratic when looked at in comparison with Whigs, like Bartholomew Moore or Daniel Barringer in 1840, because Mason celebrates the role the "little person" has in American society. The Whigs addresses were more skeptical of the participation by the little people. In fact, they didn't like that so much. They focused more on the influence that the educated person could -- and should -- exercise over everyone else. Lawyers, actually, were some of the heroes of the Whig addresses, for, as Barringer said in 1840, lawyers “have ever stood in the front rank of the advocates of public liberty; they have always been the friends of public order.” Barringer was big on the control of the public mind by the educated. “The means that produced and control” public opinion, Barringer said, “will, under proper influences, necessarily be ... in the hands of the educated men of our country. Genius and talent will create, as well as direct, the atmosphere in which they live.” Moore was, like Barringer, concerned that educated people follow their dictates, rather than those of the crowd. Where Mason had celebrated the role of common people in setting the agenda for politics and of the positive aspects of print in education of the masses, Moore warned of demagogues and the problems with print.
Where the Whigs -- like Charles Manly -- were concerned about the breakdown of the rule of law, Democrats said what a minute -- this breakdown of the rule of law is overplayed. Democratic lawyer James Biddle Shepard told a UNC audience in 1844, that "though at times we are plagued with faction and riot, and threats of disturbance and disorder–these things serve only to test the firmness of the government, to demonstrate its power to protect property, life an reputation, and to inspire those who made and who contribute to uphold it with an abiding confidence in its complete adaptation to the wishes and desires of mankind.”
Yup, the struggle over applied political theory was taking place before the graduating classes of the University. The speakers advanced the ideas made popular by their political parties, as they debated the meaning of equality, Union, Constitutionalism, and democracy. And as they headed into the 1850s, they especially struggled -- as did the rest of the South -- with the meaning and value of Union.
I have a ton more to say about these contrasts, but I hope this gives you a sense of them. My next post is on one particular way that Whigs and Democrats differed: their attitude towards books.
Update as of July 19: Here's my paper, "The Republics of Liberty and Letters: Progress, Union, and Constitutionalism in Graduation Addresses at the Antebellum University of North Carolina," which is now up on ssrn.
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