Mr. Madison's War and Long-Term Congressional Voting Behavior
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3374044 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rudolph M Bell (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 373 |
| Publication date | 1979-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1943382 |
| OpenAlex | W2316713233 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
N June 4, i8I2, the House of Representatives for the first time voted Q )to declare war upon a foreign nation. The tally was seventy-nine affirmative and forty-nine negative, a comfortable but not overwhelming victory for the Madison administration that only three days earlier had communicated a formal list of grievances to justify this bold step. The roll-call vote on the war and the issues leading to it have been studied at length, some would say ad taedium. Intensive quantitative analysis in recent years proves what was widely understood in i8I2 as well: most Republicans, old and new, voted for war, whereas all Federalists opposed the declaration. No other line of cleavage-geographical, personal, boarding-house fraternity, length of service, or whatever-fits as fully not only with the vote of June 4 but also with roll calls throughout the session.' The narrowly partisan character of legislative behavior in the Twelfth Congress accords well with a related historiographic tradition: that James Madison was a weak executive. The Republican party, this view maintains, compelled Madison to ask for a declaration of war or, more precisely, to present a message stating the justification for this course while stopping just short of explicitly recommending it. Congressional Republicans attempted to preserve their dominant position in electoral politics by rallying their supporters to the only option they claimed was still open short of capitulation to British depredations and an admission that the policies of a decade had failed. For many Republicans, the health and survival of republican government rested on their party's success in the impending national elections. They
Physics · Political science · Politics · Term (time · Voting · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,11 |
| Citation span | 1980 - 2018 (39) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |