New Departure (Democrats)

The New Departure refers to the political strategy used

by the Democratic Party in the United States after 1865 to
distance itself from its pro-slavery and Copperhead history in an eort to broaden its political base, and focus
on issues where it had more of an advantage, especially
economic issues.

tion of Democrats, Republicans and African Americans

who sought the reduction of Virginias pre-war debt. In
Tennessee, Redeemer Democrats supported the Republican governor DeWitt Senter.

3 Georgia
1

History

Georgia Democrats called their program the New Departure starting in 1872, when they regained full control of
the state government. The Party was conservative on issues of race, and vigorously promoted the Henry Grady's
New South dream of promoting economic modernization
through business, railroads, banking, merchandising, and
industry. The New Departure policy made Georgias reconciliation with the business community in the north easier, and facilitated northern investments in the state. The
era ended in 1890, when the Farmers Alliance captured
the Democratic Party.[4]

The Democratic Party was the principal party in power

in the southern United States, before and after the Civil
War (18611865) and had supported secessionism, slavery and the Confederate States of America. An even
greater liability was the accusation repeated by Republicans that most Democrats had been defeatists during
the war and supported Copperhead eorts to lose the
war. The Republicans, who claimed to have fought and
won the war, saving the Union and abolishing slavery,
had the advantage. Radical Republicans hostile to the
white South took control of Congress in 1866, stripped
ex-Confederates of their power in local aairs, and used
4 Ohio
the Army to support Republican parties across the South
during Reconstruction. Democrats opposed Radical ReOn May 18, 1871, Democrats of Montgomery County,
construction, but were ineective.[1]
Ohio met in convention in Dayton to appoint delegates
to the state convention on June 1, 1871. The members
of their Committee on Resolutions were Clement Val2 New Departure
landigham, Dr. A. Geiger, David A. Houk, Dr. John
Kemp, John A. McMahon, Adam Clay, and George V.
By 1870, many Democrats had stopped opposing Re- Naureth. The New Departure resolution of fteen points
construction and many Republican policies in an ef- was adopted. The resolution called for abandoning Civil
fort to improve the fortunes of their party, in a strategy War issues of the Democratic Party thus burying out of
called the New Departure of the Democratic Party.[2][3] sight all that is of the dead past, namely, the right of seDemocrats began asserting that they were just as loyal to cession, slavery, inequality before the law, and political
the United States as the Republicans and now supported inequality; and further, now that reconstruction is comsome civil rights.[2][3] In the South, Democrats who plete, and representation within the Union restored to all
embraced the New Departure called themselves Re- the States and armed states rights. It opposed to all
deemers. Democrats began pushing for economic mod- attempts at centralisation and consolidation of power in
ernization and recovery, alleging that the Republican- the hands of the General Government and advocated to
controlled state governments were inecient and cor- secure universal political rights and equality among both
rupt. As falling cotton prices further increased eco- the white and the colored people of the United States.
nomic depression in the South, Democrats attacked the The resolution called for payment of the public debt at
Republicans as creating unwelcome tax burdens and be- the earliest practicable moment consistent with modering unable to revive the economy.[2][3] A prominent ex- ate taxation and to make the burdens of taxation equal,
ample of New Departure success was the election as uniform, and just with adequate reform in the civil serthe Governor of Virginia of William E. Cameron and vice. For government nances, a strictly revenue tari
of ex-Confederate general William Mahone as U.S. Sen- was advocated, along with all taxation ought to be based
ator from Virginia. Both Cameron and Mahone were on wealth instead of population . . . That specie is the
leaders of the "Readjuster Party", which was a coali- basis of all sound currency, and that the policy requires
1

7 FURTHER READING

as speedy a return to that basis as is practicable without

distress to the debtor-class The resolution stated there is
no necessary or irrepressible conict between labor and
capital. The policy on land grants was: we are totally and
resolutely opposed to the grant of any more of the public
lands . . . holding that these lands ought to be devoted
as homesteads to actual settlers, or sold in small quantities to individuals at a price so low as to induce speedy
occupation and settlement. It advocated holding still to
the good old Democratic doctrine of annexation or acquisition of territory, The Bayonet Bill and the Ku-Klux
Bill passed by Congress were opposed on the grounds
of intermeddling with the exclusively local concerns of
every State. The resolution concluded with a statement
that the Radical party of 1871 as now constituted is not
the Republican party . . . it deserves the emphatic condemnation of the people. [5]
The New Departure policy of Ohio Democrats was endorsed by Salmon P. Chase on May 20, 1871.[6]
The resolution may, or may not have been the origins of
the New Departure policy of the Democratic Party.

Criticism and opposition

The New Departure was strongly opposed by large factions of Democrats in the Deep South, who professed loyalty to the Confederate legacy. Republicans attacked the
Democrats as being insincere about reform, committed to
states rights at the expense of national unity and to white
supremacy at the expense of civil rights.[2]

References

[1] Summers (2009)

[2] Ward McAfee (1998). Religion, race and Reconstruction.
SUNY Press. pp. 2226. ISBN 0-7914-3847-3.
[3] Review of The Democratic Party and The Negro:
Northern and National Politics, 1868-92. Retrieved
2009-07-25.
[4] Judson Clements Ward, Jr., The New Departure
Democrats of Georgia: An Interpretation, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Fall 1957, Vol. 41 Issue 3, pp 227-236
[5] pp. 338-442, Vallandigham, James L. A Life of Clement
L. Vallandigham. Baltimore, MD: Turnbull Brothers,
1872.
[6] p. 446, Vallandigham, James L. A Life of Clement L.
Vallandigham. Baltimore, MD: Turnbull Brothers, 1872.

Further reading
De Santis, Vincent P. Republicans Face the Southern
Question The New Departure Years, 18771897

(1959)
Edward Gambill, Conservative Ordeal: Northern
Democrats and Reconstruction, 1865-1868 (1981)
Summers, Mark Wahlgren. A dangerous stir: fear,
paranoia, and the making of Reconstruction (2009)
Woodward, C. Vann. The Origins of the New South,
1877-1913 (1951)

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