Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Messmates' Union: Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 1845-1861

Messmates' Union: Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 1845-1861 rac h el a. sh elden Messmates’ Union Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 1845–1861 For generations, political historians and other scholars have considered antebellum Washington a place of division and violence. Reading through the annals of the Congressional Globe, one can fi nd it diffi cult to see how federal politicians from the two sections or parties could come together on any major issue, let alone solve problems involving slavery and race. The language is frequently combative, insulting, even threatening. When combined with the images of Preston Brooks’s caning of Charles Sumner in 1856 or the heated speakership battle of 1859, when members carried guns and bowie knives in their pockets on the fl oor of the House, our pic- ture of Washington in the mid-nineteenth century has been of a downright vicious place. Yet, in a substantial way, this picture of Washington has obscured our understanding of federal politics in the mid-nineteenth century. Digging deeper into the social environment in which congressmen operated illus- trates that intersectional sociability in the capital was actually a critical element of the normal political process. Ultimately, the key to understand- ing this normal political process is to look http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of the Civil War Era University of North Carolina Press

Messmates' Union: Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 1845-1861

Shelden, Rachel A.
The Journal of the Civil War Era , Volume 1 (4) – Nov 17, 2011
Download PDF
28 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-north-carolina-press/messmates-apos-union-friendship-politics-and-living-arrangements-in-tJDQvYBmjp

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright @ The University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
2159-9807

Abstract

rac h el a. sh elden Messmates’ Union Friendship, Politics, and Living Arrangements in the Capital City, 1845–1861 For generations, political historians and other scholars have considered antebellum Washington a place of division and violence. Reading through the annals of the Congressional Globe, one can fi nd it diffi cult to see how federal politicians from the two sections or parties could come together on any major issue, let alone solve problems involving slavery and race. The language is frequently combative, insulting, even threatening. When combined with the images of Preston Brooks’s caning of Charles Sumner in 1856 or the heated speakership battle of 1859, when members carried guns and bowie knives in their pockets on the fl oor of the House, our pic- ture of Washington in the mid-nineteenth century has been of a downright vicious place. Yet, in a substantial way, this picture of Washington has obscured our understanding of federal politics in the mid-nineteenth century. Digging deeper into the social environment in which congressmen operated illus- trates that intersectional sociability in the capital was actually a critical element of the normal political process. Ultimately, the key to understand- ing this normal political process is to look

Journal

The Journal of the Civil War Era – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Nov 17, 2011

There are no references for this article.