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Historian Discusses Region's Partisan Politics In 1850s
"Partisan Politics in East Tennessee on the Eve of the Civil War" was the topic of a talk Thursday evening by Dr. Michael Toomey, at right, that attracted an audience of about 50 people. Sun photo by Phil Gentry.
Source: The Greeneville Sun
by Douglas Watson
Date: 2008-01-26
"Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy and the first state to be readmitted to the Union," a historian pointed out Thursday evening in a talk at Tusculum College.
Dr. Michael Toomey, a visiting history professor, discussed how in the 1850s this state and the nation moved from consensus to the outbreak of the Civil War as political parties -- the Whigs, the Know-Nothings, the Democrats, and those in the newly-formed Republican Party -- wrestled with what became a war-igniting issue: slavery.
Toomey's topic was "Partisan Politics in East Tennessee on the Eve of the Civil War."
His lecture was part of the year-long Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johnson, the 17th president and a Greenevillian who had a major role in the political battles within Tennessee and in Washington during the 1850s and 1860s.
Dr. Toomey is managing editor of The Journal of East Tennessee History and an adjunct professor of history at Lincoln Memorial University.
Tennessee's Top Issue
Speaking of the early 1850s, Toomey said, "Tennesseans had already decided what issue is most important to them -- and that is the preservation of the Union."
At that time, he said, "For Tennesseans, slavery was probably not as much an issue."
However, Dr. Toomey continued, the issue of slavery soon became an extremely divisive one not only in Tennessee but throughout the nation, leading to the Civil War's outbreak in 1861.
In the early 1850s in Tennessee, he said, the Whig Party was dominant, having won the last five or six elections, and with the Whigs firmly controlling the state legislature.
The Whigs, who were an active political party from 1833 to 1856, supported the supremacy of Congress over the Executive Branch and favored a program of modernization and economic protectionism.
However, Toomey said, "the issue of slavery," about which the Whigs were divided, resulted in the end of the Whig Party in Tennessee and the nation.
Andrew Johnson's Rise
With the collapse of the Whigs, he said, "The stage is set for the Democrats to reassert themselves," and Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from Greeneville and a U.S. congressman from 1843 to 1853, became their chosen leader.
Toomey said that by 1853, Johnson had already "established himself as a unionist," that is, one who stressed the importance of maintaining the United States as one country.
Johnson, who served as governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, was described by Toomey as "the best known Southern Unionist" during the Civil War.
The Greenevillian was appointed military governor of the state by President Abraham Lincoln and served in that capacity while Tennessee was occupied by Union troops.
President Lincoln tapped him to run as Vice President in 1864, and the Lincoln-Johnson ticket was elected. Johnson was sworn in as vice president in early 1865, shortly before Lincoln was assassinated, thrusting Johnson into his controversial term as president.
'Know Nothings' Role
Toomey pointed out that in the 1850s another political party had arisen in this country, the self-named "Know Nothings," whom he described as "a semi-secret organization based on nativisim, and opposition to foreigners" immigrating to this country, especially Catholics.
Mainly active from 1854-56, the Know Nothings strove to curb immigration and naturalization, although their efforts met with little success. The Know-Nothing Party's largely-middle-class and Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery.
Toomey noted that Johnson, a Democrat, strongly opposed the Know Nothings. His speeches "enraged the Know Nothings," so much so that at one Johnson rally, Toomey said, it was reported that "you could hear pistols cocking in the audience."
Republican Party's Rise
The historian said that, by the late 1850s, the new political force in the United States was the young Republican Party, which in the North was expanding rapidly as a powerful voice in opposition to slavery.
Toomey said that in the late 1850s, "Tennesseans believed that, should the Republicans ever win (the presidency), that would mean the end of the Union."
He said that as the decade of the 1850s neared an end on the eve of the Civil War, Tennessee's geographic divisions -- the divisions between its eastern, middle and western regions -- became even stronger, with many in East Tennessee being opposed to slavery and in favor of this state staying in the Union.
By then, however, the majority of voting residents in Tennessee's two other "grand divisions" had contrary views.
Bicentennial Events
About 50 people attended Dr. Toomey's talk, which was given in Tusculum College's Chalmers Conference Center.
He was introduced by George Collins, director of Tusculum's Department of Museum Program and Studies and curator of the Andrew Johnson Presidential Library at the college, who arranged for the professor's lecture.
The year-long Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration's next two scheduled free public lectures will be:
* on Thursday, Feb. 21 -- "Underground Railroad, the Network to Freedom," a talk by Barbara Tagger, at Friendship Baptist Church; and
* on Tuesday, March 18 -- "Governor (Andrew) Johnson and the Gunboat Navy: Logistics, Morgan and Johnsonville," by Myron "Jack" Smith, at Tusculum College's Chalmers Conference Center.
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