Factions & Fraternalism’ Hayes exhibit shows political parties weren’t always ‘us vs. them’

‘        In 1796, outgoing President George Washington warned succeeding generations about the rise of “factions” (political parties) through which “cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”
        With yet another contentious presidential election looming this fall, American voters have become accustomed to seeing their political landscape drawn in stark battle lines of “us vs. them.” However, this has not always been the case.
        The United States has a rich history of political parties rising and falling, merging and splitting, third parties forming around the issues of the day and even a brief period of national unity where the country had seemingly moved beyond rival parties.
        The Hayes Presidential Library & Museums’ next special exhibit. “Factions & Fraternalism: A History of America’s Presidential Parties,” explores the dynamic ways in which Americans have sorted themselves around complex political issues and the shared values between the parties that enabled them to work together to propel the country forward.
        The exhibit opens to the public at 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and will remain on display through Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. Access is included with regular admission, and Hayes Presidential members are admitted for free.
        “Despite Washington’s warnings, factions have become a defining feature of American democracy,” said Kevin Moore, Hayes Presidential curator of artifacts. “Americans have always expressed their hopes, concerns, beliefs and, oftentimes, fears through political parties. Members across these parties, whether it be 19th-century Whigs or modern-day Greens, have shared in the fraternal (and sororal) belief that by organizing themselves and using the political process, they could steer the country in the direction they thought was best, although they have seldom ever agreed on what that direction should be.”
        The exhibit features campaign materials, political party memorabilia and artifacts related to the ever-evolving act of voting from throughout American history. Among some of the historical parties explored in the exhibit are the Whigs, Democratic-Republicans, the Progressive Bull-Moose Party, the Prohibition Party and the Loco-Focos.
        Campaign materials include new acquisitions of pins from elections dating back to 1896, which complete Hayes Presidential’s extensive collection of 20th-century election memorabilia, and handkerchiefs, ribbons and medallions from Hayes Presidential’s collections.
        One of the voting artifacts on display is the ballot box that President Rutherford B. Hayes’ regiment used to vote in the field while serving in the Civil War. Hayes Presidential’s copy of the 1880 book “Conspectus of American Politics,” which includes a fold-out chart showing the evolution of American political parties, is also on display.        “When we think of politics today, we think of our two-party system,” Moore said. “It’s the Republicans and the Democrats…and perhaps the occasional third party that no one really has high expectations for. For most of us, that’s just the way it’s always been. But American political history is vibrant and robust with majoring parties shifting and evolving and offshoot parties popping up all the time. Politics have ebbed and flowed between long periods of party stability interspersed with short periods of rapid change. In fact, some political scientists speculate we may even be living in such a period today.”
        The exhibit will be open during regular museum hours. For updated hours, visit rbhayes.org.
        “Factions & Fraternalism” is part of Hayes Presidential’s 2024 Democracy Programming, sponsored by Albrechta & Liebold, Ltd., Attorneys at Law; Randolph J. & Estelle M. Dorn Foundation and KF Construction & Excavating.                The Hayes Presidential Library & Museums is located at Spiegel Grove at the corner of Hayes and Buckland avenues, Fremont. America’s first presidential library and the forerunner of the federal presidential library system, it is partially funded by the state of Ohio and is affiliated with the Ohio History Connection.
        For information, call 419-332-2081 or visit rbhayes.org. Like HPLM on Facebook at @rbhayespres and follow on Twitter and Instagram at @rbhayespres for updates.
 
 
 
 
This ticket showing Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 election bid will be on display in Hayes Presidential’s upcoming exhibit, “Factions & Fraternalism.” (Submitted photo)