Courthouse clique

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A courthouse clique, courthouse machine, courthouse ring, courthouse gang, or courthouse crowd is a type of political machine in the United States principally composed of county-level public officials. Historically, they were especially predominant in the South until the mid-20th century.

Historical era

Rise

During the

War of the Regulation in North Carolina.[3]

19th century democratic reforms

The court system in the South remained relatively unchanged until the early 1800s. In that time the number of court officials had burgeoned so that some counties had as many 90 justices at once.[4] Meanwhile, the incumbent officers were increasingly criticized by the public for alleged inefficiency, incompetence, and corruption. Professional lawyers spearheaded demands for reform by attacking the planter-justices' lack of legal education. The proliferation of Jacksonian democracy as a political philosophy also challenged the position of the appointed court officers. State legislatures created new statutes and wrote new constitutions which dispensed of the justices and empowered themselves or the citizens of a given county to elect judges for fixed terms. By 1861 most citizens in the South could elect their sheriffs, coroners, constables, and other county officials. Planters still held many local offices but were forced to reckon with the demands of common voters.[5]

Post-Reconstruction consolidation

In the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War in the South, the systems of choosing local officials was further democratized. However, by the 1870s the planter class, well-embedded in the Democratic Party, began a campaign to "redeem" the South from the control of Radical Republicans, which had disrupted the previous social order and elevated the political prominence of black freedmen, "carpetbaggers", and "scalawags". Allying themselves with emerging industrialists, the planters moved to quickly curtail any further disruption. In Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina the Democrats successfully stripped the ability of citizens to choose their local governments and made such choices the purview of either the state legislature or governor. Violence and electoral fraud, aided by county-level politicians, helped secure Democratic control of the "Solid South" elsewhere.[6] Courthouse cliques also became entrenched in Kentucky county politics.[7]

The Madison County Courthouse in Marshall, North Carolina. Madison County was home to the Ponder machine, a courthouse clique run by a sheriff and his brother. It was the most well-known machine in North Carolina during its existence from the 1950s until the 1980s.[8]

Under Democratic dominance in the South, most county-level offices were filled by Democratic candidates who were selected at local conventions, often nominating a single candidate for a post who would go on to win formal election. Almost all candidates were white men.

probate judges were generally the most powerful county figures, while in Virginia circuit court judges were the most privileged. In Louisiana and Mississippi the control of county politics often rested with sheriffs, who monitored gambling and bootlegging in their jurisdictions.[6] Some county political leaders in the South from both the Democratic Party and Republican Party practiced vote buying to ensure the election of their preferred candidates.[12] The Democratic dominance of the South provoked the ire of Republicans and independents, who frequently complained of courthouse cliques wielding control of public affairs.[6] The perception of county political machine control also upset poor white farmers and contributed to the growth of the Populist movement in the 1890s and its demands for reform.[13] Others became apathetic towards politics, feeling that their votes made little difference in the outcome of elections and government decisions.[14]

While the South was under Democratic Party dominance throughout the first half of the 20th century, the power and influence of courthouse cliques varied across the region. They generally wielded more control in lowland areas—historically the site of plantations—than in the more economically egalitarian Piedmont and mountainous areas. By the 1930s and 1940s courthouse machines in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia generally aligned themselves with a dominant faction within their respective state Democratic Party organizations. In other states, particularly Georgia, the cliques would form ad hoc alliances to shape the outcome of state elections.[6] Nationwide, the general trend of apportioning state representatives to individual counties gave political organizations in rural counties outsized influence in state affairs.[15] Courthouse cliques maintained a high degree of influence over Southern politics through the 1950s.[16]

Decline

Corruption in county governments led civic groups such as the National Short Ballot Organization to begin calling for reform in the early 20th century.[17] In response to the Great Depression in the 1930s, the United States federal government initiated a series of programs known as the New Deal, greatly contributing to the growth of federal and state bureaucracies and thereby challenging the courthouse cliques' positions as centers of political power. In the post-World War II era the South underwent significant social change.[16] Returning war veterans made efforts to eject local political machines, which they viewed as obstacles to economic growth. In the "Battle of Athens" of 1946, armed veterans in McMinn County, Tennessee engaged in a shootout with sheriff's deputies in the employ of the local courthouse ring during an election dispute, forcing them to surrender ballot boxes and ousting the local government.[18]

Across the South urbanization, industrialization, and immigration from the North increased. Educational opportunities increased and improvements in mass communication were made. These changes cultivated the growth of a cosmopolitan culture in the South and boosted the strength of the Republican Party.

top-down, institutionalized party structure with a professional, permanent staff.[20] Southern candidates stopped seeking the endorsement of local politicians and their networks and instead began appealing directly to the electorate through mass media for support.[21]

Legacy

Journalistic exposés, scholarly works, movies, fictional writings have emphasized the historical importance of courthouse cliques in Southern politics and led to the creation of a stereotype portraying county governments in the South as dominated by corrupt politicians who use undemocratic methods to protect their power and their wealthy allies.[1] While no longer forming extensive political networks or wielding wide influence, county office-holders still retain a significant amount of responsibility for law enforcement and the delivery of public services in their jurisdictions.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Moore 2014, p. 173.
  2. ^ Moore 2014, pp. 173–174.
  3. ^ Norris, David A. (2006). "Courthouse Ring". NCPedia. North Carolina Government & Heritage Library. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  4. ^ Moore 2014, p. 174.
  5. ^ Moore 2014, pp. 174–175.
  6. ^ a b c d Moore 2014, p. 175.
  7. ^ Campbell 2010, pp. 8–10.
  8. ^ Christensen 2010, p. 245.
  9. ^ Ayers 2007, p. 36.
  10. ^ Ayers 2007, pp. 35–36.
  11. ^ Woodard 2006, p. 380.
  12. ^ Ayers 2007, pp. 40–41.
  13. ^ Ayers 2007, pp. 35–36, 282.
  14. ^ Ayers 2007, pp. 36–37.
  15. ^ Coppa 2000, p. 14.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Moore 2014, p. 176.
  17. ^ Coppa 2000, p. 26.
  18. ^ Brooks, Jennifer E. (October 8, 2017). "Battle of Athens". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  19. ^ Coppa 2000, pp. 14–15.
  20. ^ Moody 2017, Chapter 9: The Democratic Party Cul-de-sac.
  21. ^ Woodard 2006, p. 73.

Works cited

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