The Loco-Foco Movement was a political coalition of rogues and rag-tags as well as writers and intellectuals, who were cobbled together by variations of the core beliefs of classical liberalism, individualism, and laissez-faire economics. While never truly reaching the highest stage as a political party, their beliefs permeated the national discussion; opposition to the national bank, internal improvements, tariffs, monopolies, and eventually slavery were topics that the movement harnessed through their influential editorials, such as William Leggett’s New York Evening Post -among others- and politicians who shared a portion of their views, such as Martin Van Buren and Samuel Tilden. It is the objective of this study to follow the paths of two of its most prominent thinkers and determine the political entities into which they dissipated.
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