America in 1857
America in 1857

Author: Kenneth M. Stampp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1992-04-30

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 0199729034

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It was a year packed with unsettling events. The Panic of 1857 closed every bank in New York City, ruined thousands of businesses, and caused widespread unemployment among industrial workers. The Mormons in Utah Territory threatened rebellion when federal troops approached with a non-Mormon governor to replace Brigham Young. The Supreme Court outraged northern Republicans and abolitionists with the Dred Scott decision ("a breathtaking example of judicial activism"). And when a proslavery minority in Kansas Territory tried to foist a proslavery constitution on a large antislavery majority, President Buchanan reneged on a crucial commitment and supported the minority, a disastrous miscalculation which ultimately split the Democratic party in two. In America in 1857, eminent American historian Kenneth Stampp offers a sweeping narrative of this eventful year, covering all the major crises while providing readers with a vivid portrait of America at mid-century. Stampp gives us a fascinating account of the attempt by William Walker and his band of filibusters to conquer Nicaragua and make it a slave state, of crime and corruption, and of street riots by urban gangs such as New York's Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys and Baltimore's Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs. But the focus continually returns to Kansas. He examines the outrageous political frauds perpetrated by proslavery Kansans, Buchanan's calamitous response and Stephen Douglas's break with the President (a rare event in American politics, a major party leader repudiating the president he helped elect), and the whirl of congressional votes and dramatic debates that led to a settlement humiliating to Buchanan--and devastating to the Democrats. 1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. Stampp's intensely focused look at this pivotal year illuminates the forces at work and the mood of the nation as it plummeted toward disaster.

America in 1857
America in 1857

Author: Kenneth Milton Stampp

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9786610441587

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It was a year packed with unsettling events. The Panic of 1857 closed every bank in New York City, ruined thousands of businesses, and caused widespread unemployment among industrial workers. The Mormons in Utah Territory threatened rebellion when federal troops approached with a non-Mormon governor to replace Brigham Young. The Supreme Court outraged northern Republicans and abolitionists with the Dred Scott decision ("a breathtaking example of judicial activism"). And when a pro-slavery minority in Kansas Territory tried to foist a pro-slavery constitution on a large anti-slavery majority, President Buchanan reneged on a crucial commitment and supported the minority, a disastrous miscalculation which ultimately split the Democratic party in two. In America in 1857, eminent American historian Kenneth Stampp offers a sweeping narrative of this eventful year, covering all the major crises while providing readers with a vivid portrait of America at mid-century.; Stampp gives us a fascinating account of the attempt by William Walker and his band of filibusters to conquer Nicaragua and make it a slave state, of crime and corruption, and of street riots by urban gangs such as New York's Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys and Baltimore's Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs. But the focus continually returns to Kansas. He examines the outrageous political frauds perpetrated by proslavery Kansans, Buchanan's calamitous response and Stephen Douglas's break with the President (a rare event in American politics, a major party leader repudiating the president he helped elect), and the whirl of congressional votes and dramatic debates that led to a settlement humiliating to Buchanan, and devastating to the Democrats. 1857 marked a turning point, at which sectional conflict spun out of control and the country moved rapidly toward the final violent resolution in the Civil War. Stampp's intensely focused look at this pivotal year illuminates the forces at work and the mood of the nation as it plummeted toward disaster.

The American and British Debate Over Equality, 1776-1920
The American and British Debate Over Equality, 1776-1920

Author: James L. Huston

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2017-10-16

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0807167452

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The American and British Debate Over Equality, 1776–1920 examines comparisons between American ideals of a classless society and the contrasting British class system, which accepted the existence of inequalities. When the United States declared political independence in 1776, they also announced repudiation of social institutions based on inequality, opting instead for (an ill-defined) equality. British travelers to the United States after 1776 and up to 1920 continuously wrote about how equality was faring in the United States and compared it to the operation of inequality in England, Scotland, and Ireland. They laid bare the actual outcomes of a system of equality versus one of inequality; this was no theoretical, intellectual exercise but instead constituted a recording of actual human practices. By the end of the nineteenth century, the defects of a system of inequality became clear in manners, social interchanges between income classes, general education levels, religious convictions, and the general energy of a people. The exploration of these nineteenth-century comparisons has great relevance for today's persistent debates about social inequities and their solutions.