It was the politics
of ambiguity - speaking for the lower and middle classes to get their support
in times of rapid growth and potential turmoil. The two-party system came into
its own in this time. To give people a choice between two different parties and
allow them, in a period of rebellion, to choose the slightly more democratic
one was an ingenious mode of control.
Both major parties
were controlled largely by men of wealth and ambition. Lawyers, newspaper
editors, merchants, industrialists, large landowners, and speculators dominated
the Democrats as well as the Whigs.
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