A group of wealthy families bound together by marriage and financial interests, the Boston Associates controlled extensive sectors of the antebellum Massachusetts economy. As leading figures in the Whig party, they also dominated politics in the Commonwealth. While the Associates remained a powerful force in Bay State economic life through most of the nineteenth century, their political authority had been sharply curtailed by the time of the Civil War. In this Insightful volume, William F. Hartford breaks new ground by asking how the Associates and their Federalist forebears maintained their dominance for as long as they did. He argues that the reasons for the elite group's early successes in establishing political leadership provide the key to understanding the demise of Massachusetts Whiggery. Hartford explains how the Associates secured and preserved power by crafting a compelling political appeal that garnered the support of broad segments of the electorate.
The Ideological framework of that appeal rested on two overarching principles: a strong defense of regional economic interests forged by linking merchant and manufacturer fortunes to those of regional farmers, mechanics, and other "middling classes," and a spirited assertion of regional values that allowed the Associates to pose as credible defenders of New England civilization. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Associates' rule was being challenged by dissident views, first expressed by labor radicals who raised troubling questions about the elite's commitment to the doctrine of social interdependence. More importantly, the Associates' equivocal response to the growing slave crises, beginning with the annexation of Texas, gave rise to charges that the group was more concerned about promoting its own interests than protecting the Commonwealth from the aggressions of a malevolent slaveholding aristocracy. As these perceptions spread, Boston's elite lost the moral authority to command popular support and their political dominance ultimately came to an end with the Know-Nothing insurrection of 1854.
Enlivened with sketches of leading figures of the period, this in-depth study of the rise and fall of Massachusetts Whiggery offers a fresh vista on the political and social history of antebellum America.