The New Wave

IT WAS A strange election. For the first time in decades, there was a real third-party presidential challenge, and its candidate got about 20 per cent of the vote. The new President was elected with only a plurality of the popular vote, but his party once again could claim the Presidency and both Houses of Congress. So, in spite of the rancor and uncertainty, the pundits persuaded themselves that the system still worked. Harper’s even said after the election: “… how complete is the calm that succeeds the gale! We claim it a credit to our national system of government.”

This was Harper’s Weekly, the first issue of 1857, just four years before the Civil War. People had no idea of what lay ahead, and certainly no sense that it was so close at hand. American politics today may again be on the edge of upheaval, as happened in 1860, and also in 1828, 1896, and 1932.

MV

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Michael Vlahos

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Presidential Election

IT WAS A strange election. For the first time in decades, there was a real third-party presidential challenge, and its candidate got about 20 per cent of the vote. The new President was elected with only a plurality of the popular vote, but his party once again could claim the Presidency and both Houses of Congress. So, in spite of the rancor and uncertainty, the pundits persuaded themselves that the system still worked. Harper’s even said after the election: “… how complete is the calm that succeeds the gale! We claim it a credit to our national system of government.”

This was Harper’s Weekly, the first issue of 1857, just four years before the Civil War. People had no idea of what lay ahead, and certainly no sense that it was so close at hand. American politics today may again be on the edge of upheaval, as happened in 1860, and also in 1828, 1896, and 1932.