8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119018/19th-century-map-shows-uss-politicial-polarization?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=TNR%2… 1/10 HISTORY AUGUST 9, 2014 The Story Behind the Ancient Map That Invented Red and Blue States The country was just as polarized 125 years ago—except the colors were upside down e live in what is endlessly described as an era of unprecedented partisanship, with Americans polarized into red and blue camps and no convergence in sight. But much of the nation’s history was characterized by intense political rivalry, especially the late nineteenth century. In 1876 the United States celebrated its centennial in the midst of a terrible depression sparked by the Panic of 1873. In some cities unemployment reached 25 percent, casting a significant pall over the celebration mounted in Philadelphia that spring. The mood worsened after the November presidential elections, which left Democrat Samuel Tilden in an electoral tie with Republican Rutherford Hayes. The atmosphere was chaotic, with accusations of voter suppression, rigged ballots, questionable returns, and eleventh-hour statehood for Colorado, which threw three crucial electoral votes to Photo: Courtesy of Library of Congress By Susan Schulten W
10
Embed
The 19th Century Map Tha...rization | New Republic
Everything old is new again -- setting contemporary American political polarization in a historical context (specifically the electoral controversy of 1876 that put RB Hayes in the Oval Office despite his popular vote loss to SJ Tilden).
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic
measured the popular support for the party with comparatively thicker or thinnerlines. The party occupying the White House is always placed on top.
The detail below captures the runup to the Civil War, when the decline of the Whigsand the erosion of the Democrats created a vacuum filled by a new Republican party,devoted to halting the extension of slavery into the territories.
Houghton’s “conspectus” of political history caught on, and was copied and updatedthrough the end of the century. Like so many other timelines and charts made tocommemorate the nation’s centennial, it resonated with readers as an attempt to seesome order—or at least form—in the chaos of history.
At the same time that Houghton was charting the evolution of political behavior, theCensus Office released an ambitious effort to map the nation’s electoral history. In 1883,Census Superintendent Henry Gannett published the massive Scribner’s StatisticalAtlas, which included maps of each presidential election. The series ended with anunprecedented attempt to map the returns of the 1880 presidential election not just atthe state but the county level.
)
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic
Focus on the outcome by states—the only measure that matters in the ElectoralCollege—and the map shows a nation that seems hopelessly divided along a north-south axis, still fighting the Civil War by other means. Democrats control the formerslave states, while Republicans hold an edge in the northeast and Midwest, as the insetcaptures.
And in a move that would have impressed Nate Silver, Superintendent Gannett rankedeach of these states according to the decisiveness of party victory, from least to mostpartisan.
)
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic
But Gannett realized that though the state outcomes determined the presidentialelection, a far more nuanced picture of voter behavior could be captured at the countylevel. For this reason he relegated the Electoral College map to an inset in order tofeature a much larger map of county outcomes. Take a look again at the larger map,and notice the variation. Though the “solid south” had already materialized, a fewpockets of support for Garfield endured, as in eastern Tennessee, where anti-Confederate sentiment during the Civil War translated into Republican countiesthereafter. Further south, blacks enfranchised by the Fifteenth Amendment created a
)
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic
few small Republican strongholds along the cotton belt, though these disappearedonce the black vote was effectively suppressed by poll taxes and other tools. Across thecountry, the map showed just how much variation the Electoral College concealed.
Then Gannett went even further with his geovisual adventure: it was not enough just tosort the nation into red and blue counties, so he designed a scale of shade to measurenot just victory but depth of victory. In any given county one could see not just whowon, but how handily.
)
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic
The light pink areas of the upper south indicated that while the Democrats hadprevailed, their control was relatively weak. Conversely, light blue areas throughoutthe northeast—such as in Pennsylvania below—indicated a Republican partystruggling to maintain its hold over regions of massive immigration, industrial turmoil,and growing class conflict. In fact, even though Garfield easily won the Electoral
)
8/11/2014 The 19th Century Map That Shows the U.S.'s Politicial Polarization | New Republic