ABSTRACT
The political basis of Jackson's claim was the emergence of the first mass electoral coalitions, which followed on the removal in the various states of the remaining restrictions on universal manhood suffrage. It is true that Jackson's movement was backward looking, it is also true that it contained powerful echoes of prerevolutionary republicanism. A key document in understanding the Jacksonian passion for competition is the decision in the case of Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney Jackson's choice to succeed the great John Marshall. Abraham Lincoln, though a Whig before he became a Republican, absorbed much of the producerist ideology of the Jacksonians. Alexis de Tocqueville provided deep insights into the present condition of American politics. Though Tocqueville believed that the Union would probably survive and that if war came over slavery, it would be between the slaves and their masters, his analysis remains an indispensable prelude to understanding the tragedy of the Civil War.
