Party politics in the Continental Congress

by H. James Henderson

Reexamines the immense documentation still extant for the Congress, and judiciously evaluates the Congress's accomplishments and points out its frailties. The book's most distinctive feature is its focus on congressional politics and factions. The author examines the voting patterns and personal and geographical divisions existing in the Continental Congress, uncovering all the elements of a concealed party system taking form as early as 1774. Originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1974.

475 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This academic, hardcover book released in honor of the Bicentennial is probably not for everyone, but if you are interested in the details of the workings of the Continental Congress, as I am, this is a great resource! It does require a basic grounding in the major issues and personalities in the Congress though, not bothering to give the basic contexts.

What's particularly interesting is that it focuses on politics and the development of parties, which common sense dictates would develop in such a body. Too many people have proclaimed that there were no parties until the Adams-Jefferson election in 1796, which is completely incorrect.

In the early days of Congress there were three parties, Conservatives who wanted no truck with revolution and would become Tories, Radicals who desired revolution, and Moderates who thought there was a way to find a compromise.

Once revolution had been decided, there were regional parties: New England (called the Eastern party), the Middle states, and the South.

Later on, as the weakness of the Articles of Confederation became apparent, there arose a Nationalist and an Anti-Nationalist party. Interestingly, for those who like to say that Jefferson seduced Madison away from Hamilton when he returned to the States, Madison voted with the Nationalists, but not always. He opposed, for example, the Robert Morris-planned Bank of North America, just as he would later oppose Hamilton's Bank of the United States. In fact, for those who proclaim Hamilton an economic genius who thought up all kinds of ways to improve the economy and financial structure, there's not much of substance he did at Treasury that Morris had not already done or tried to do before him (assume the debt-check; create a bank-check; tax imports-check; create a sinking fund-no, but that failed anyway).

[Evan Þ. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henderson proves, by analysis of voting records, there were distinct factions in the Continental Congress. They were largely founded in geography, but not entirely - we have some Northerners voting with the Southern or Middle states, and visa versa. What's more, the factions - being very informal, and roundly hidden from most outside observers - were very susceptible to friendships or great oratory luring someone to another side. What's more, as the war and diplomacy went on, changes in issues led to new factional alignments.

I love this book for its close look at the details of Revolutionary politics: both how the Revolution grew out of such politics, and how the men involved consciously strove to (at least publicly) imitate a higher ideal above geographic or factional alignments.