Dennis 1Dennis 1

Kelly Dennis

Gail S. Terry

HST 182

January 30, 2013

Backlashing Success

Rosemarie Zagaris Revolutionary Backlash; Women and Politics in the Early American Republic outlines the rise and fall of womens activity in politics from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. She exemplifies the shift of womens political activity from being socially unjust and irregular to a time when feminine activity in politics was widely accepted, only to have the right to vote taken away soon after. In her fourth chapter of the book, Zagarri explains how and why women distanced themselves from politics in the early 19th century and the new ideals that were brought up because of it.

The book begins with the rise of womens political representation. This began with the rise of literacy rates among women and print culture, leading to a significant amount of magazines being published that were widely accessible to the common woman. These readings contained anything from entertainment to current events and politics, thus heightening the awareness of the political world to the women that read them. This increase in consciousness led to the emergence of the Republican wife and the female politician. Both of these positions influenced politics in their own way. A Republican wife was to influence their political view through their husbands and sons; the hope was to be that the womens influence at home would be enough to shine through their family members. The female politician, on the other hand, was a woman who was physically present at political events throughout the community. These female politicians did not stay around long. As the Federalists and (Democratic)-Republicans developed, so did their stark differences; this was evident in the women as well as the men. This can be most obviously exemplified by the War of 1812. Women of the Republican party were very supportive, knitting socks, bedding, and even rallying funds for the troops; similar to the activity in Revolutionary times. Federalist women, on the other hand , opposed the war and did not show their patriotism. Partisan conflict peaked during the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1812. The political solution to the party conflict was to take women out of the political scene, distancing themselves so that they could solve the partisan problems at a domestic level. Effects of this move is evident in the Panic of 1819 where women from either party did not participate in political support or debates. Soon after, Biological Essentialism closed the book on women in politics legally, stating that women were not apt for that kind of intellectual thinking. As she states, Rosemarie Zagarie believes that The revolution created new opportunities for women to participate, at least informally to how these activities continued, but then soon backlashed conservatively(Zagarie 2).

In her fourth chapter, Women and the War of Politics, Zagarie shows the beginnings of the backlash aspect of her thesis. The chapter shows the rise and fall of partisan relations in the early 19th century and how it affected womens participation in politics in a negative way. Partisan tension that ultimately led to the idea of liberal politics is what led to the absence of women in politics. She begins the chapter by describing the tension that present between the Federalist and (Democratic) Republican parties. Zagarie explains that relations were so hostile because of the religious-like quality that the partisan debate took on; neither side acknowledged the other and believed that the opposing beliefs were rooted from evil. America was bleeding from the inside.

Partisan conflict was consuming the political war and was often resulting in violence. Some began to realize that partisan relationships should be liberal, as in more open. If people accepted political differences as a matter of opinion rather than a dispute over fundamental truth, then reason replace passion in public debate,(Zagarri 123). Men quickly realized that they were not the ones who would instill this liberal approach to politics, convinced that they were too emotionally involved in the subject. Women, specifically Republican wives, had already showed how strong their influence could be over on a community or family without being formally involved. Soon after the turn of the century, the notion that women would heal partisan wounds with their femininity became popular. They were encouraged to play with their husbands emotional weaknesses to essentially guilt them into playing nicely when it came to political matters. Women became political mediators. This role has been disputed as both appropriate and degrading by many historians. No matter, it is obvious that although women were supposed to be saving partisan conflicts, their political ideas were still insignificant. They were separate, but equal; the idea of separate spheres.

Although some men continued to invite women to political events, women were almost nonexistent in political debate after the notion of separate spheres arose. Women were supposedly separate, but equal, however it seemed like the playing field that men and women were on were at different levels of importance. As the idea of separate spheres became more well known among people of the time, women disappeared from politics completely and the idea of the female politician negative connotation instead of a positive one. Zagarri describes womens absence from politics one that was prescriptive; they didnt do it because they were told to, however there was a constant stream of rhetoric that was of women to do so. By the time of the Panic of 1819, women were mostly absent from politics. Unlike the War of 1812 where only the Federalists party women sat out of patriotic events, both parties went on with life as if nothing was happening. This could be attested to the fact that the Panic of 1819 was an internal conflict instead of a foreign one, however Zagarri believes that all outlets that women could have expressed their political thoughts had been disbanded. Instead, women devoted their time to charitable events such as raising money for government offices. After the Panic, women made a point to distance themselves from political parties and from male politics, thus ending most female political activity.

Zagarri uses an abundance of magazines, specifically womens, as many of her primary sources for this chapter. These magazines were used in the to urge women to become the mediator of the domestic political world in the early 19th century. She uses the magazines to help exemplify the strong influence that these magazines had over women, and the notion that men and women were separate, but equal. Zagarri also uses memoirs, letters, and presidential speeches as other primary sources. All of these are used to depict the social scene that was set during the time and how it affected the women of the time. As she stated in her introduction, the bias of both her book and of these primary sources, is that they are from the view of white-upperclass, well-educated people. We are missing the memoirs of those less fortunate women and their role in the womens political revolution. Zagarri uses secondary sources such as academic journals to further develop well documented events such as the Panic of 1819 and specific areas of womens rights. The problem with these and with all secondary sources, is that there can be no stoic representation of how events affected women around them since no one was physically there. As with the primary sources, the secondary sources share the bias that they were both written and intended for an educated person, leaving the lower class out of the picture.

Women and the War of Politics from Revolutionary Backlash; Women and Politics in the Early American Republic thoroughly explains the genesis of the revolutionary backlash that Zagarri outlines in her thesis. The revolution created new opportunities for women to participate, at least informally to how these activities continued, but then soon backlashed conservatively(Zagarri 2). After years of casual political interaction, women were called to become mediators and to distance themselves from politics. The Republican wife was used against the female political movement to support the idea that women should fix the partisan turmoil that America was suffering from, not from voicing their political ideas, but by their femininity in the common household. Not soon after this new idea was sparked, women were absent from politics, causing laws keeping women from the political community passed easily without much debate. It is shocking that following a time of so much political success in the world of womens politics such as increased visibility and the heightened acceptance of female politicians that a simple notion of liberal politics can make progress shift. This shift was so extreme that the success of the political revolution in the late 18th century was forgotten by many until it was brought up again by womens suffrage in the early 1900s. Surely one must question how our country would be structured if women had the succeeded in their political revolution in the early 19th century, however, no country was created perfectly and although women lost all political respect during revolutionary times, it would make 19th amendment even more ratifying.