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Democracy and slavery collided in the early American republic, nowhere more so than in the Democratic-Republican party, the political coalition that elected Thomas Jefferson president in 1800 and governed the United States into the 1820's. Joining southern slaveholders and northern advocates of democracy, the coalition facilitated a dramatic expansion of American slavery and generated ideological conflict over slaveholder power in national politics. Slavery was not an exception to the rise of American democracy, Padraig Riley argues, but was instead central to the formation of democratic institutions and ideals. Slavery and the Democratic Conscience explains how northern men both confronted and accommodated slavery as they joined the Democratic-Republican cause. Although many northern Jeffersonians opposed slavery, they helped build a complex political movement that defended the rights of white men to self-government, American citizenship, and equality and protected the master's right to enslave. Dissenters challenged this consensus, but they faced significant obstacles. Slaveholders resisted interference with slavery, while committed Jeffersonians built an aggressive American nationalism, consolidating an ideological accord between white freedom and slaveholder power. By the onset of the Missouri Crisis in 1819, democracy itself had become an obstacle to antislavery politics, insofar as it bound together northern aspirations for freedom and the institutional power of slavery. That fundamental compromise had a deep influence on democratic political culture in the United States for decades to come.

Political parties --- Slavery --- Abolition of slavery --- Antislavery --- Enslavement --- Mui tsai --- Ownership of slaves --- Servitude --- Slave keeping --- Slave system --- Slaveholding --- Thralldom --- Crimes against humanity --- Serfdom --- Slaveholders --- Slaves --- History. --- Political aspects --- Jefferson, Thomas, --- Federal Party (U.S.) --- Republican Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Jeffersonian Republicans (Political party : U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Democratic-Republican Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- French Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Anti-Federalist Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Democratic Party (U.S.) --- Federalist Party (U.S.) --- United States --- Politics and government --- Enslaved persons --- American History. --- American Studies.

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"In the 1790s, the Jeffersonian Republicans were the party of 'no.' They opposed attempts to expand the government's role in society. They criticized the Washington Administration's national bank and railed against a standing army. They bemoaned the spirit of the Federalist regime, which, they claimed, favored the wealthy over ordinary Americans. Thus Thomas Jefferson's conviction that his election as President in 1801 was a 'revolution.' With Jeffersonians in power, the nation could be set right. The government could be stripped down in size and strength. But there was a paradox at the heart of this image. Maintaining the security, stability, and prosperity of the republic required aggressive statecraft--to open trade channels and create freer markets and to expand westward onto land claimed by Native Americans and European empires. Jeffersonians deployed state power to reduce taxes and the debt, enforcing a shipping embargo, going to war, and ultimately supporting a national bank during Madison's administration. This book explores this paradox to understand the logic and logistics of Jeffersonian statecraft. 'Jeffersonians in Power' aims at a middle ground. Focusing on statecraft in action, it explores the meeting place of ideology and policy as Jeffersonians shifted from being an oppositional party to exercising power as the ruling coalition"--

Federal government --- Opposition (Political science) --- Political opposition --- Political science --- Divided government --- History. --- History --- Jefferson, Thomas, --- Republican Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Democratic Party (U.S.) --- Jeffersonian Republicans (Political party : U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Democratic-Republican Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- French Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- Anti-Federalist Party (U.S. : 1792-1828) --- United States --- Politics and government