Ohio's gallant fight: Northern state politics during the Reconstruction era, 1865--1878

The following study examines Ohio party politics during the Reconstruction era, from 1865 to 1878. Throughout this period, Ohio's Republican and Democratic parties attempted to mobilize full turnouts of their traditional supporters in state legislative and gubernatorial elections by espousing sharply contrasting positions on national policy issues. Initially, during the state election races of the late 1860s and early 1870s, the two major parties strove to energize their electoral bases by battling over Reconstruction policy and the mode of repaying the federal government's huge Civil War debt. Later, during the second half of the 1870s, the Republicans and Democrats fought vigorously over the issue of federal redemption of the nation's paper money in specie. The parties' heavy focus on national policy during state election campaigns resulted from the shortage of party-polarizing state policy issues. An analysis of roll-call votes in the Ohio legislature during the late 1860s and 1870s reveals that very few state policies generated partisan conflict; the vast majority of policies were supported by both parties. Ultimately, the Republicans and Democrats turned to federal policy issues to compensate for the dearth of controversial state issues. The intense conflict between the parties over national policy galvanized voters, stimulating huge turnouts in Ohio's state elections.