The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities
Return to Comparison Statements: Political Activists

In Franklin, Democratic and Republican activists were strikingly similar in their relative household wealth, farm size, and farm values, but had different occupational and social profiles, with the Republicans appearing more 'respectable.'

Democratic Party activists, identified in the newspapers, were more prevalent than Republicans, 57 percent to 43 percent respectively. Neither had an advantage in wealth, farm value, farm size, or proximity to town. Almost 74 percent of both Democrats and Republicans lived within 1 mile of a town.

Republican activists had a higher proportion of farmers (26 percent) and professionals (28 percent) in their ranks than Democrats. Democratic activists conversely had a higher proportion of laborers (10 percent), artisans (29 percent), and businessmen (19.5 percent) in their ranks than did Republicans. The average age of Democratic activists was slightly lower at thirty-nine years old than the Republicans' forty-three years. Republican activists had a higher percentage of household heads, while Democratic activists included a higher percentage of boarders.

But the younger Republican activists were more organized than their Democratic counterparts. The "Wide-Awakes" organized across the North for the 1860 election. A hundred Franklin men joined the local unit and marched at every opportunity. Each Wide-Awake wore a black glazed cap and cape and carried "a neat, convenient torch--a swinging lamp, on a pole about six feet long." The Chambersburg men "erected a nice pole, over an hundred feet high" in front of the Transcript's office. "From the top of the pole floats a small streamer composed of red, white and blue ribbons. About twelve feet from the top there is a pretty blue Streamer with the names of our candidates--LINCOLN, HAMLIN, CURTIN,--thereon, in white letters. Some twelve feet lower down is suspended a handsome national flag."

The Democrats, of course, made fun of the Wide-Awakes. "Many of them, if we may judge from appearance, will not be able to vote unless they begin at 19," the Valley Spirit laughed. "The Wide Awakes about here consist principally of capes, a small cap, a broom handle with a lamp tied to one, and a youthful aspirant to citizenship at the other. They spend their evenings in drilling, and learning to carry their torches perpendicular, when their bodies ought to be horizontal." Young Republicans tossed such criticisms aside. Representative Edward McPherson's nephew wrote his uncle that "I have often heard that politics is a very dangerous subject for a 'Young American' to meddle with. If that be true, I am afraid I am pretty far gone. But lest it might lead to evil, I will close this subject by saying 'Hurrah for Lincoln.'"

A native of Perry County in central Pennsylvania, Alexander K. McClure became Franklin County's Republican leader by the age of thirty. As a young man McClure abandoned an apprenticeship as a tanner for a life in journalism and politics. By his nineteenth birthday he had begun publication of a small newspaper in Perry County and served in small political offices. In 1852 he purchased the Franklin "Repository," and began to move up in the state Whig ranks. After an unsuccessful campaign for state auditor-general in 1855, he became an attorney by reading law with a local lawyer. In 1857 he was one of a handful of Pennsylvania Republicans elected to the state legislature, and in 1859 he became a state senator. In these years McClure turned the Repository into one of the state's first Republican newspapers and became one of Franklin County's leading trial lawyers. McClure's law offices, and often the courthouse steps, became Franklin County's unofficial Republican Party headquarters. In 1860 McClure capped his young political career with an appointment as Chairman of the State Republican Committee. From this office he masterminded Andrew Curtin's successful campaign for Governor of Pennsylvania. The shrewd McClure helped Curtin outmaneuver rival Republican factions, including one led by Simon Cameron, and win the governorship in 1860.

In Franklin McClure's Whigs and later Republicans included many of the locally prominent men of Chambersburg, such as George Eyster and John Stoufer. Their organization criticized the Democrats as disorganized, divided, proslavery, and misguided on economic development. Democrats in Franklin campaigned to equalize the tax burden, defend Catholics, and back candidates in the boroughs outside of Chambersburg.

Supporting Evidence

Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1856 Election (map)

Age and Party Affiliation, and Precinct Voting in 1860, Franklin County (table)

Party Affiliation, Franklin County (table)

Political Activists in Augusta and Franklin Counties (table)

Alexander K. McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, 1905

Related Historiography

Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).


Citation: Key = TA34
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