Southern Values and the 1844 Election in South Carolina Newspapers

Abstract

The first scholarly exploration of how South Carolina newspapers covered the 1844 presidential election, this article reveals that the state's editors devoted ample energy to the presidential campaign and actively supported presidential candidates even though the state's electorate did not vote for president. However, by the time of this election, South Carolina newspapers largely had strayed from the partisan function that had been ascribed to the press since the prior century. A majority of the editors displayed a deep concern for the South above all, and they advocated for candidates based on adherence to southern values rather than political party. Furthermore, this paper argues that the tariff was the primary campaign issue for South Carolina editors, contrary to prior historians' assertions that President Polk won the South based on his support for the annexation of Texas.

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Erika J. Pribanic-Smith

ERIKA J. PRIBANIC-SMITH, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Texas at Arlington, specializing in research on nineteenth-century political journalism. She originally presented research for this article at the 2014 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Montreal, Canada.