Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  My thoughts are turning ever more of late to the process by which the reigning Democratic-Republican Party broke up in the 1830s, with the Jacksonian Democrats on the one and the Whigs on the other. I think I have explained in this place WHY my thoughts are turning so much to that point. But the short version is: we may be entering another Era of Good Feelings. The Democratic Party may once again have a period of dominance. I hope it is a brief period, and I hope the Whigs are more competent that the Republicans have been for a long time now.  For the curious, here are the basics:   Whig Party - Definition, Beliefs & Leaders - HISTORY The Whig Part was born in 1834.  It lost its first national election to Martin Van Buren in 1836. But it won in its second effort, electing William Henry Harrison in 1840. Harrison goes down in the history books for two pieces of trivia: (a) shortest term as president, dead after 32 days in office, and (b) half of the only grandfa...

  Looking again at Lundberg's book on Greeley. The Tribune's first printing was a run of 5,000 copies, only about 500 of them sold. That was only one of the snowballs of bad news that nearly buried the new project at its start.  This was 1841. Greeley had enthusiastically supported William Henry Harrison's campaign for President the previous year. But that victory turned sour when Harrison, barely inaugurated, took ill and, weeks later, died.  When the company started its life in the red, Greeley looked to political allies for help. But he was caught between two sets of Whigs -- an Albany-centered crowd associated with the state government and the New York City crowd -- and neither was solidly behind the new project. Fortunately, help came. In May.  Greeley found a business-savvy partner: Thomas McElrath. McElrath infused an immediate $2000 and took over management duties, leaving to Greeley all decisions about content.  Fourteen years later, an enthusiastic adm...