The Politics of Individualism: Social Character and Political Parties in the Age of Jackson.

This study of political rhetoric contained in newspapers, journals and speeches suggests that the political parties of the Jacksonian era represented at base neither economic classes nor ethno-cultural groups, but individuals whose partisan loyalties were determined by their orientation toward a new view of human relations which Alexis de Tocqueville called "individualism." The process of modernization in America freed the individual from the tight web of traditional human relationships. The public world of nineteenth-century man became a wide-flung net of limited, impersonal and temporary ties. Such a world troubled those who still looked to traditional authority to guide their lives. Those whose "social character" was, as David Riesman has termed it, "inner-directed" were more resilient. The inner-directed man guides his life by a kind of "internal gyroscope" which consists of values internalized in youth. When Tocqueville said the American's "feelings are turned toward himself alone," he was describing the inner-directed man. With the emergence of this new type of man arose also a new social philosophy of individualism. Its proponents maintained, "They owe nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man." Creating a new social order of such men was the problem which confronted the Jacksonian generation. This problem was complicated by the fact that there were few men who were truly inner-directed, most having retained some traces of more traditional outlooks on human relations. In fact, Americans were strung out on a long continuum ranging from strongly tradition-directed to strongly inner-directed. An individual's position on this continuum shaped his response to the changes which were transforming his society. Those toward each end of the scale experienced characteristic problems of adjustment to the new order. The characteristic problems gave birth to two distinctive outlooks on life: the Jacksonian and the Whig world views. The Jacksonian was still entangled in the traditional web of personal relations. Though his rhetoric often sounds modern, at its heart lay a profound distrust of modern ways. His bristly independence revealed a desire to respond to an individualistic world, but it also disclosed his frustration in the attempt. Jacksonian political programs, for all their emphasis upon individualism, often became defensive reactions to the emergence of individualistic institutions, attempts to protect traditional relationships from the transforming effects of modernity. The Whig had moved further along the continuum toward inner-direction. He was more comfortable with impersonal relations. His was the world of contracts and constitutions, corporations and voluntary associations. The Whig, however, was not free of anxiety. Though his means were flexible, his values could not sanction the narrow ends of an individualistic society. He needed to believe that his individual striving, at least indirectly, served communal purposes. After an introductory chapter, two chapters outline the Jacksonian and the Whig world views. Chapters 4 through 6 describe how these views shaped the partisan dialogue on the public good, order and equality. A concluding chapter summarizes the thesis of the study through the concepts of selfishness and sacrifice.Ph.D.American historyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/157775/1/8017300.pd