Antebellum America as an Egalitarian Society

It is generally believed that, following the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the American Revolution and the drafting of the United States Constitution in 1789, the United States was forged as a free-market capitalist democracy that offered equality of opportunity to all its citizens. And it is true that the United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom and democratic ideals. But an analysis of the political and economic forces driving antebellum America, defined as the period from 1776 to 1861 when the Civil War began, tells a different story. This paper will argue that the true story of antebellum America is not one of an immediately egalitarian society but rather one of a transition from a politically elitist society dominated by the power of inherited wealth to an emerging capitalist democracy that still had not realized its full potential either at the start or the end of the War Between the States.

Generally, the political dominance of the Revolutionary generation is generally believed to have declined following the disputed presidential election of 1824 between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Although Adams won the 1824 showdown, political, social and economic forces that would pass the torch to a generation of Americans who either experienced the Revolution as children or were born in the first years of independence were already in motion. In essence, the elitist republi

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needed to have a legal stake in the system, which could mean property ownership or some economic equivalent (Altschuler & Blumin 855). However, almost all historians agree that, as economic tensions escalated during the market revolution of the early 1800s, political engagement became both widespread and deeply felt within the electorate (Altschuler & Blumin 855). Now, local and state offices that had earlier been appointive became elective. Suffrage was expanded as property and other restrictions on voting were reduced or abandoned in most states. For example, the freehold requirement that had denied voting to all but holders of real estate was almost everywhere discarded before 1820, while the taxpaying qualification was also removed, if more slowly and gradually (Britannica 2000). Moreover, conventions of elected delegates increasingly replaced legislative or congressional caucuses as the agencies for making party nominations (Britannica 2000). The Presidential Elections of 1828 The presidential elections of 1828 marked a watershed in US politics. The popular vote for president surpassed the one million mark for the first time, more than three times the 1824 total (Altschuler & Blumin 855). This reflected both an i
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Approximate Word count = 3775
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)