The Rise of American Democracy/Sean Wilentz

Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times

December 19, 2005 10:47 am

— The Rise of American Democracy/Sean Wilentz

Several books have linked the promise of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence to the resolve of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The correlation is the Declaration's promise that all men are created equal and the Address' determination to make that proposition ring more true after the bloody crucible of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Historian Garry Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg" makes this case, based primarily on a study of Lincoln's word choices in the Address. Pauline Maier's "American Scripture," on the other hand, implies that Lincoln's Address, and his policies, didn't so much reinforce the promise of the Declaration but shanghaied it to give constitutional weight to the proposition of equality. Sean Wilentz's "The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln" also looks at the rhetoric and documents, but this massive tome spends most of its bulk on every aspect of American politics and society that came during Jefferson's penning of the Declaration up to Lincoln's presidency. Through meticulous research and detail, Wilentz charts the convoluted course of how the United States went from being a partially slave-owning republic with the vague promise, in a non-constitutional document, that all men are created equal (as long as they were white, male landowners) to a sprawling democracy where still only white males could vote, but the wheels were set into motion for a more universal participation in the American government and American possibilities. Wilentz looks at the changing nature of electing American presidents in this era as more states go from the legislature determining support for a candidate to residents voting for a presidential choice; the move from a Hamiltonian federalist aristocracy to Jeffersonian republicanism; the rise of organized labor as an economic and political force; the democratic appeal of Andrew Jackson, whose presidency marked a sea change in the development of an American democracy; the different ideals of what makes a democracy from growing divisions in the North and South. Wilentz looks under every pertinent stone in his pursuit to chart the growing democracy movement from the age of Jefferson to Lincoln. Still, he creates a readable and cohesive narrative throughout this volume. Do not step into "The Rise of American Democracy" lightly, however. It is an overwhelming book of approximately 800 crowded pages of narrative followed by more than 200 additional pages of footnotes, sources, and index. Anyone wishing to delve into a solid, researched volume on how the United States went from the revolution of 1776 to the new democratic revolution of the Civil War, Sean Wilentz has the book for you.