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James Madison and the Natural History of the Democratic Party
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James Madison and the Natural History of the Democratic Party
David Brian Robertson
University of Missouri - St. Louis
ABSTRACT
The Democratic Party owes a great deal to a striking reversal by James Madison. Between 1787 and 1793, Madison turned against strong national powers, embraced states’ rights and began to construct a broad, interstate political coalition that evolved into the Democratic-Republican Party. I argue that his reversal marked a tactical shift in pursuit of a consistent policy strategy. Madison was an outcome-driven politician. He consistently pursued a policy strategy of advancing the nation’s international comparative advantage in agricultural commodities, a strategy that made it possible for him to promote simultaneously the national interest, Virginia’s interests, and republicanism. Madison sought consistently to strengthen national powers to achieve the policy outcomes he preferred, and to weaken those national powers to pursue policies he opposed. In 1787, this strategy required a national government with stronger commercial and taxing powers. In a pivotal role in the first Congress in 1789, Madison built a centrist coalition supportive of economic nationalism, using tariffs aggressively to promote economic development driven by agriculture. Beginning in 1790, however, Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed a policy strategy inimical to Madison’s, one that would centralize capital away from the south, reduce the nation’s dependence on agriculture, and expand economic development driven by urban capital, manufacturing, and the division of labor within the U.S. Madison was forced to shift to oppositional tactics, turning to strict Constitutional construction, states’ rights, and ultimately party-building to resist Hamilton’s agenda. Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and their allies hit upon a policy platform of market-driven economic development based on commodity exports that could unite the material interests of a large number of voters in the south, the west, and the northern hinterlands. “States’ rights” would protect this majority by permitting the national party to pursue a limited national agenda and to avoid divisive issues like slavery that could fatally fracture their anti-Hamilton alliance. This formula could unite diverse, far-flung and self-governing agricultural constituencies in opposition to Hamilton’s centralizing commercial pretensions without directly threatening the distinct political orders constructed in each state. Madison’s tactical adjustment illuminates the way populism, markets, merit and states’ rights naturally became complementary planks of the emerging Democratic-Republican platform.
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James Madison and the Natural History of the Democratic Party
David Brian Robertson
University of Missouri - St. Louis
ABSTRACT
The Democratic Party owes a great deal to a striking reversal by James Madison.
Between 1787 and 1793, Madison turned against strong national powers, embraced
states’ rights and began to construct a broad, interstate political coalition that evolved
into the Democratic-Republican Party. I argue that his reversal marked a tactical shift in
pursuit of a consistent policy strategy. Madison was an outcome-driven politician. He
consistently pursued a policy strategy of advancing the nation’s international
comparative advantage in agricultural commodities, a strategy that made it possible for
him to promote simultaneously the national interest, Virginia’s interests, and
republicanism. Madison sought consistently to strengthen national powers to achieve
the policy outcomes he preferred, and to weaken those national powers to pursue
policies he opposed. In 1787, this strategy required a national government with stronger
commercial and taxing powers. In a pivotal role in the first Congress in 1789, Madison
built a centrist coalition supportive of economic nationalism, using tariffs aggressively to
promote economic development driven by agriculture. Beginning in 1790, however,
Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed a policy strategy inimical to Madison’s, one that
would centralize capital away from the south, reduce the nation’s dependence on
agriculture, and expand economic development driven by urban capital, manufacturing,
and the division of labor within the U.S. Madison was forced to shift to oppositional
tactics, turning to strict Constitutional construction, states’ rights, and ultimately party-
building to resist Hamilton’s agenda. Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and their allies hit
upon a policy platform of market-driven economic development based on commodity
exports that could unite the material interests of a large number of voters in the south,
the west, and the northern hinterlands. “States’ rights” would protect this majority by
permitting the national party to pursue a limited national agenda and to avoid divisive
issues like slavery that could fatally fracture their anti-Hamilton alliance. This formula
could unite diverse, far-flung and self-governing agricultural constituencies in opposition
to Hamilton’s centralizing commercial pretensions without directly threatening the
distinct political orders constructed in each state. Madison’s tactical adjustment
illuminates the way populism, markets, merit and states’ rights naturally became
complementary planks of the emerging Democratic-Republican platform.
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