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Essay on The Jacksonian Era, 1824-1845
In the eleven years since the publication of The Age of Jackson, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., as the interest of students of the Jacksonian era has been turned to a closer examination of the social complexion and ideology of the reform movement which allegedly coalesced around the person and the program of President Jackson, important questions have been raised about the labor movement of that period.
1On the one hand, Joseph Dorfman, challenging what he calls the Jackson wage-earner thesis, has questioned both the authenticity of the movement and the radicalism and anticapitalism attributed to its leaders. On the other hand, the long popular thesis that eastern workingmen constituted an important part of the Jacksonian coalition and that their votes were instrumental in Jackson's political victories has also come under serious criticism. Recent studies have shown that urban workers, organized and unorganized, often voted against Jackson and candidates supporting him. 2This conclusion, when complemented by proof that Jackson was a "strikebreaker," 3suggests not only that Old Hickory was no friend to the workingman and that the fact was known to them, but further that pro-Jackson parties or movements professing to represent the workers actually did not do so.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the independent attitude of the early labor leaders toward the Jacksonian political movement is afforded by their comment on politics. Almost all of them believed that both the political system in general and the major parties in particular benefited the wealthy classes at the expense of the workingmen. According to them, politics was simply another facet through which was expressed the class antagonism rending society, and the major parties simply instruments of plunder. Nor did they confine such talk to generalities. Douglas advised a workingmen's convention that the "working class belonged to no party; they were neither disciples of Jacksonism nor Clayism......
