Martin Meenagh blog

  Presidential election flaws before 2000. The Constitution of the United States prescribes that the president will be elected by a combination of popular vote and elite ‘filtering,’ normally though the electoral college, but in exceptional cases through the Congress. In 1788, The Federalist Papers (No 68) which was written to try to persuade and reassure New Yorkers of the sense of the Constitution, said that this process would ‘afford little opportunity to tumult and disorder’ and that it was a practical obstacle to ‘cabal, intrigue, and corruption.’ This model did not even hold for the first presidential election, as Alexander Hamilton intrigued behind the scenes to humiliate John Adams, who was nevertheless elected vice-president. Processes on paper run alongside regimes, the acceptable and perceived ways of doing things, in the minds and activities of the individuals and communities involved. This is especially true when processes are set out in a document as simple and ...

My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

  The period after the American civil war was marked by third parties. From 1870 to 1896, Greenbackers pursuing fiat money, Farmer’s candidates associated with the Granger movement, Union Labour candidates, Liberal Republicans, and People’s Party candidates all contended with the Democratic and Republican parties for election. Though there was a clear evolutionary link between these parties, it is important that they be distinguished from each other. In addition, various reform movements swept across the plains and west, even reaching the developed urban areas of the East. These included religious revivalists, prohibitionists, bimetallists, workplace reformers, anti-corruption campaigners, and pro-democracy activists seeking womens’ suffrage and the direct election of the United States Senate, as well as wider use of referenda. The common theme uniting most of these movements and parties was a reaction against monopolies and cartels, particularly railroad trusts and Banks. Th...

  Andrew Jackson was one of the most consequential of American presidents, but also had a great impact on the republic before his presidency. The Battle of New Orleans, which he commanded, for instance, was a rare British defeat following the events of the War of 1812 and, though won after the peace was signed at a distance, allowed white Americans to attempt to salvage some dignity from the humiliation. Jackson’s campaign in the ‘Creek War’ associated with the larger 1812 conflict was also part of a move into West Florida which was very much a Jacksonian initiative and unimaginable without him. It strengthened forces in Georgia and the wider southeast in the confrontation with Tecumseh and Tenkswatawa’s confederacy which later produced a momentum for Indian removal and nullification in the region. This drive also allowed for President Monroe and John Quincy Adams to negotiate with Spain in 1820 for the West Florida territory, producing an agreement which created a boundary for...

    The Spanish American War, conducted across a little under four months in the Summer of 1898, has often been seen as the inauguration of he twentieth-century power of the United States. In this telling, the American media and administration, armed with a growing Navy, overwhelmed a decaying European power and established dominance in the Caribbean, associated itself with democratic movements in Cuba, and colonised the Philippines as the consequence of a form of republican Imperialism. This energised the American economy after the panic of 1893, and helped heal the wounds of the Civil War amongst white Americans. As so often with historical events, the commonly understood narrative is in itself a product of some of the contingent needs of tellers. The War could in fact be contextualised as the culmination of Gilded Age trends which speak as much to the past as the future. For example, both Secretary of State Blaine and President Harrison, in office between 1889 and 1893, wer...