The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 164
610 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Texas question also symbolized and helped to shape the transi-
tion that occurred in national politics during the 184os. Although the
parties, many of the personalities, and much of the rhetoric remained
the same, the nature of American politics changed dramatically. At the
time of the Texas Revolution in i836, government fiscal policy, federal
internal improvements, and other economic issues provided the po-
litical battleground on which the major parties and their candidates
fought. Within a decade, the importance of national economic issues
diminished sharply and was superceded by the politics of slavery, ex-
pansion, and sectionalism. "Never again during the life of the second
party system," concludes one recent study, "would economics or any
other topic challenge the supremacy of the politics of slavery."" Al-
though a host of specific issues were involved, the Texas question had
been most instrumental in shaping this political transformation. Once
Texas was annexed, Congress turned again in 1846 to the traditional
issues of the tariff, fiscal policy, and federal internal improvements, but
consideration of these issues was soon superceded by the Mexican War
and the controversy over slavery and expansion. First embodied in the
Texas question, these issues now governed American politics and has-
tened the coming of civil war.!' Cooper, The South and the Politics oJ Slavery, 224.
164
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/202/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.