6 - “This Is Essentially a People’s Contest”

Summary

Embarrassing as it is to acknowledge, the issue of slavery was initially largely perceived as an economic rather than a moral one. The main cause of division was the proper interpretation of the Constitution and, implicitly, of what people’s sovereignty actually entailed: who were the much-invoked “people”? It took decades for the practice of deferential politics to disappear and for politicians to abandon the rhetoric of an aristocracy of merit in favor of a more egalitarian one. The rapid disappearance of property requirements and the ensuing expansion of electoral franchise to all white males marked the beginning of mass politics and the emergence of the first mass party system. Yet these democratic developments came with a price—the emergence of identity politics. The idea of a political people, encompassing all other identities, came under attack. Threats of secession ensued. When the Civil War erupted, it was, in Lincoln’s words, “essentially a people’s contest.” Once the war was over, no one questioned any longer if there was one American people. Nevertheless, the quest for the elusive American people’s two bodies was – and still is – far from over.