Download 18th century 3 - Endicott College

Creating of an American Culture
1775-1800
Secrets of the Founding Fathers
(History Channel)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otUlf-3ivvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojMdSKBVQ84&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWgliE9TlYY&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UEDXBN_hoI&feature=relmfu
&noredirect=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJGB8l2IWO0&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rje_1yZcXkw&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQJr2YEZGdk&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7saRmrw95oQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHf3zF8Gh7k&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xknHP21Cgww&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgp-sWmD-o&feature=relmfu
Quick and Fun Quiz
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1. What are the 13 original colonies?
2. What are the years that mark the American Revolution?
3. Who are the “Founding Fathers?’” Where do they come from?
4. What are the first official documents created to run the United
States after the colonies win the American Revolution?
5. Who are the 3 authors of the Federalist Papers?
6. Who is responsible to the creation of the Constitution?
7. What are the major differences between the Article of
Confederation and the Constitution
8. Who is responsible for adding the Bill of Rights to the
Constitution?
9. What are the first 10 Amendments?
10. Who are the first 5 presidents of the United States and what
years do they serve?
Answers to Quiz
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1. What are the 13 original colonies? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-thirteen-original-states.html
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2. What are the years that mark the American Revolution? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-caused-the-americanrevolution.html http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-caused-the-american-revolution.html
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3. Who are the “Founding Fathers?’” Where do they come from? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-thirteenoriginal-states.html
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4. What are the first official documents created to run the United States after the colonies win the American Revolution?
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/articles-of-confederation-summary.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-thirteen-original-states.html
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5. Who are the 3 authors of the Federalist Papers? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-wrote-the-federalist-papers.html
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6. Who is responsible to the creation of the Constitution? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-wrote-the-constitution.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-signed-the-constitution.html
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7. What are the major differences between the Article of Confederation and the Constitution
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/articles-of-confederation-vs-constitution.html
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8. Who is responsible for adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-wrote-the-billof-rights.html
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9. What are the first 10 Amendments? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-first-10amendments-to-the-usconstitution.html
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10. Who are the first 5 presidents of the United States and what years do they serve? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-ofpresidents-of-usa.html
The 13 Original Colonies
• http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/wis/teac
hers/dtewhey/webquest/colonial/13_original
_colonies.htm
• Years Colonies Founded Map:
http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/wis/tea
chers/dtewhey/webquest/colonial/map_of_
13_colonies.htm
The American Revolutionary War
• http://www.revolutionarywar.n2genealogy.co
m/
• http://www.britishbattles.com/americanrevolution.htm
The American Revolution
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Between 1775-1787
American engaged in a conflict that was in part a cause of what historians call an “age of
revolutions.”
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The immediate goals of the Enlightenment- derived uprising as to win a war, make a peace,
and create ideologically sound governments on both the state and national levels.
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By the end of the era, there was little doubt that they had accomplished the first 2 goals, but
serious questions were raised concerning success of the last.
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Washington was in charge of the armed forces
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The Continental Congress was in charge of foreign policy – a success with the FrancoAmerican Alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
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But once the war ended – what do you do next? States’ rights…centralized power?
Economic dislocation
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The role of Women, African-Americans, Indians, and other minorities
Common Sense
• Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged
the authority of the British government and
the royal monarchy.
• The plain language that Paine used spoke to
the common people of America and was the
first work to openly ask for independence
from Great Britain.
Common Sense is a pamphlet written
by Thomas Paine.
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It was first published
anonymously on January 10,
1776, during the American
Revolution.
• Common Sense, signed
"Written by an Englishman",
became an immediate success.
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In relation to the population of
the Colonies at that time, it had
the largest sale and circulation
of any book in American
history.
• Common Sense presented the
American colonists with an argument
for freedom from British rule at a time
when the question of independence
was still undecided.
• Paine wrote and reasoned in a style
that common people understood;
forgoing the philosophy and Latin
references used by Enlightenment era
writers, Paine structured Common
Sense like a sermon and relied on
Biblical references to make his case to
the people.
• Historian Gordon S. Wood described
Common Sense as, "the most
incendiary and popular pamphlet of
the entire revolutionary era.”
• According to Alfred F. Young’s article “The Framers of the
Constitution and the ‘Genius’ of the People,” Radical History
Review (vol.42, 1988)…
• Thomas Paine was the most influential radical democrat of the
Revolutionary Era. In 1776 Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense
(which sold at least 150,000 copies), in arguing for independence,
rejected not only king George III but the principles of monarchy
and the so-called checks and balances of the unwritten English
constitution.
• In its place he offered a vision of democratic government in which
a single legislature would be supreme, the executive minimal, and
the representatives would be elected from small districts by a
broad electorate for short terms so they could “return and mix
again with the voters.”
• John Adams considered Common Sense too “democratically,”
without even an attempt at “mixed government” that would
balance “democracy” with “aristocracy.”
• Young asserts that the Constitution was written by
an elite group of people to strengthen the powers
of the national government against those of the
people in his article…he notes that radical
Democrats such as Thomas Paine and others
forced the Founding Fathers to support such
concepts as:
• universal male suffrage,
• a House of representatives directly elected by the
people every two years,
• and a bill of rights to protect the individual
liberties of people from tyrannical government
The Declaration of Independence
• Perhaps the most self-evident truth in
American history is that the Declaration of
Independence is one of our founding
documents and classic texts…
• A classic, by definition, contains seminal
insights; and by implication an American
classic contains wisdom about our history that
each generation needs to examine and
reexamine and rediscover it…
• We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving
their powers from the consent of the governed…
The Declaration of Independence
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-was-thedeclaration-of-independence-written.html
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-wrotethe-declaration-of-independence.html
• Although legal scholars who embrace the doctrine of “original
intent” are usually referring to the Constitution, it is in fact
the Declaration of Independence that captures the essence
of America’s original promise to itself and the world.
• Every reform group in American history has harkened back to
its language and liberal message.
• It has served as the inspiration for many…
• Beyond our national borders, the Declaration has also
enjoyed extraordinary influence.
• Its justification of rebellion in colonial rule has made it’s a
favorite source among indigenous leaders in emerging
nations throughout the world…even Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam)
quoted from it in 1945…
• A compelling case can be made that the Declaration is the best known and
most influential political document in both American and world history.
• The Declaration has achieved mythical potency – the American Creed
• The reality…On May 15, 1776, Virginia took the lead by instructing its
delegates in the Continental Congress to propose complete American
independence from Britain
• By then British and American forces had already clashed at Lexington,
Concord, and Bunker Hill.
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For all intents and purposes, the war for independence had started in the
spring of 1775, but the formal declaration of American separation from the
British Empire had not occurred.
• Thomas Paine’s highly influential Common Sense had appeared in January
1776m for the first time denouncing not just Parliament's authority but also
the legitimacy of monarchy itself…
Founding Fathers:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-were-the-foundingfathers-of-the-united-states.html
http://www.foundingfathers.info/documents/decinde
p.html The Declaration of Independence
http://www.foundingfathers.info/documents/constitu
tion.html
The U S Constitution
http://www.foundingfathers.info/documents/billright
s.html The Bill of Rights
The Declaration
• Various states and local communities throughout the 13 colonies
were busy drafting resolutions and manifestos in favor of
independence.
• The more moderate members of the Continental Congress still
held out hope that the king would come to his senses and offer
some conciliatory proposal that might put a halt to the fighting
and avert a final break.
• But such hopes proved illusory.
• Allegiance to the king was the final obstacle to declaring American
independence.
• It was gradually expiring throughout the spring of 1776.
Richard Henry Lee
• On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of VA moved the
resolution “that these United Colonies are, and of
right ought to be , free and independent States…”
• The Congress delayed vote on Lee’s resolution until July
1, in deference to several delegations that were still
divided or needed to confer w/ their respected colonial
legislatures.
• The delegates appointed a committee to draft a
document implementing Lee’s resolution so that, if and
when it was approved, the Congress could move
forward…
• John Adams convened the committee on June 11.
– It also included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,
Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman.
• The committee delegated the drafting to Adams and
Jefferson, and Adams turned it over to Jefferson.
• Year later, in his autobiography, Adams recalled that he
chose Jefferson because of his reputation as a stylist
and also because Adam’s own prominence as a leader
of the radical faction in the Congress would have
subjected the document to greater scrutiny and
criticism.
• Jefferson, according to this account, was more
appropriate because he was more innocuous.
• Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of
Independence quickly – Adams claimed only a day or
two – and then showed it to Adams and Franklin.
• They made minor changes…and presented it to the
committee on June 28…
• after 2 days of debate, the Congress passed Lee’s
resolution on JULY 2…
• It then began two more days of debating over the final
wording…
• after 2 more days, the final version was approved on
July 4 and sent it to the printer…it was signed by the
member on August 2.
• Thomas Jefferson was not initially regarded as the
author of the Declaration, which was instead
considered a collective effort – the work of an entire
Congress- rather than the product of 1 individual…
• Also, the Declaration articulated a profoundly liberal
message about individual freedom and equality was
not really recognized…rather, it was seen as a
statement about American politics – American
political independence from Britain, not as America’s
primal political creed.
• Also…The sense of deep significance we bring to the
document did not exist for those who composed,
edited, and signed it…they were primarily concerned
with military and strategic considerations in the
summer of 1776…
Founding Fathers of the Articles of
Confederation
• http://www.usconstitution.net/articles.html
• The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union, was the first written constitution of the United States of
America and specified how the national government was to operate.
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The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the
Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in
November 1777.
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In practice, the Articles were in use beginning in 1777.
• The ratification process was completed in March 1781.
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Under the Articles, the states retained sovereignty over all governmental
functions not specifically relinquished to the national government.
• On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft of
the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved
to appoint a committee of 13 to prepare a draft of a constitution for a union
of the states.
• The final draft of the Articles was prepared in the summer of 1777 and the
Second Continental Congress approved them for ratification by the states
on November 15, 1777, after a year of debate.
• In practice, the final draft of the Articles served as the de facto system of
government used by the Congress ("the United States in Congress
assembled") until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781;
at which point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation.
• The Articles set the rules for operations of the United States government. It
was capable of making war, negotiating diplomatic agreements, and
resolving issues regarding the western territories.
• Article XIII stipulated that "their provisions shall be inviolably observed by
every state" and "the Union shall be perpetual”.
• The Articles were created by the representatives of the states in
the Second Continental Congress out of a perceived need to have
"a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty,
and independence of the United States."
• After the war nationalists, especially those who had been active in
the Continental Army, complained that the Articles was too weak
for an effective government.
• There was no president, no executive agencies, no judiciary and
no tax base.
• The absence of tax base meant that there was no way to pay off
state and national debts from the war years except by requesting
money from the states, which seldom arrived.
• In 1788, with the approval of Congress, the Articles were replaced
by the United States Constitution and the new government began
operations in 1789.
The Articles
• As the Patriots moved toward independence
in 1776, they envisioned a central government
with limited powers.
• Carter Braxton of VA thought the Continental
Congress should have the power to
– “regulate the affairs of trade, war, peace,
alliances, &c.” but “should by no means have
authority to interfere with the internal police
[governance] or domestic concerns of the
Colony.”
• That thinking-that the powers of the central government
should be limited-informed the Articles of Confederation,
which were passed by the continental Congress in Nov 1777.
• The first national constitution, the Articles provided for a
loose confederation- “The United States of America”- in
which “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
independence.”
• Still, the Articles gave the Confederation government
considerable authority:
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It could declare war and peace,
make treaties with foreign governments/nations,
adjudicate disputes between the states,
borrow and print money,
and requisition funds from the states “for the common defense
or general welfare.”
• These powers would be exercised by a central
legislature, the Congress, in which each state had
one vote regardless of its population or wealth.
• Important laws needed the approval of at least
nine of the 13 states, and changes in the Articles of
Confederation required the consent of all the
states.
• In the Confederation government, there was
neither a separate executive not a judiciary
• Disputes over western lands delayed ratification of
the Articles until 1781.
• Many states-including VA, MA, and CT-claimed that
their royal charters gave them boundaries that
stretched to the Pacific Ocean.
• States without western claims-Maryland and PArefused to accept the Articles until the land rich
states relinquished their claims.
• Maryland was the last hold out for ratification.
• Formal ratification of the Articles was anticlimactic.
• The Confederation did have a major weakness: it lacked the
authority to tax the either the state or the people.
• By 1780, the central government was nearly bankrupt, and
General Washington was calling urgently for a national
system of taxation.
• In response, nationalist-minded members of Congress tried to
expand the Confederation’s authority.
• Robert Morris, who became superintendent of finance in
1781, persuaded Congress to charter the bank of North
America, a private institute in Philadelphia, arguing that’s its
notes would stabilize the inflated Continental currency
Robert Morris
• Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775,
• Appointed Special Commissioner of Finance, 1776;
• Author of the plan for a National Bank, 1781;
• Financial Agent of the United States, 1781;
• Delegate to the Pennsylvania Legislature, ca. 1783;
• Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, 1787;
• United States Senator, 1789-95;
• Appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 1789.
Robert Morris
• Morris, almost single handed, saw to the financing of the Revolutionary
War, and the establishment of the Bank of the United States after.
• Morris also set up a comprehensive financial system to handle army
expenditures, apportion war expenses among the states, and centralize the
foreign debt.
• He hoped that the existence of a “national” debt would underline the
Confederation’s need for an import duty to pay it off.
• However, RI and NY rejected Morris’s proposal for a tax of 5% on imports.
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NY’s representative told Morris that his state had opposed British-imposed
duties and would not accept them from Congress.
Shay’s Rebellion
• The economic condition of the state governments was equally fragile, a
function of political conflicts over large war debts.
• On one side were the speculators-mostly wealthy merchants and
landowners-who had purchased huge quantities of state debt certificates
from farmers and soldiers for far less than their face value.
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The demanded that the state governments redeem the bonds quickly and
at full value, a policy that would require high taxes.
• On the other side were the elected members of the state legislatures, now
the dominant branch of government.
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Because the new state constitutions apportioned seats on the basis of
population, they increased the number of representatives from rural and
western communities, many of whom were men of “middling
circumstances” who knew “the wants of the poor.”
What to do…what to do…http://www.calliope.org/shays/shays2.html
• Taxes....Debts…Tariffs
• All of these dominated the postwar political agenda.
• We need a stronger CENTRAL GOVERNMENT!
• Advocates such as: George Washington, Robert Morris, Benjamin
Franklin, john Jay, and John Adams demanded that the states give
Congress the power to control foreign commerce and impose
tariffs.
• James Madison in 1786 says…we have to do something…and called
a convention – only 5 states showed up and sent delegates – the
meeting took place in Maryland, the issue of Shays’ Rebellion is a
HOT issue…the next convention will be ion Philadelphia in 1787
• Daniel Shays was a poor farmhand from Massachusetts
when the Revolution broke out.
• He joined the Continental Army where he fought at
Battle of Lexington, Battle of Bunker Hill, and Battle of
Saratoga, and was eventually wounded in action.
• In 1780, he resigned from the army unpaid and went
home to find himself in court for the nonpayment of
debts.
• He soon found that he was not alone in being unable
to pay his debts, and once even saw a sick woman who
had her bed taken out from under her because she was
also unable to pay.
• http://johnjay.net/
• Video on John Jay
Who Wrote the U S Consitituion
• A man named Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania was in charge
of the committee to draft the final copy of the Constitution.
• Other men who had much to do with writing the Constitution
included John Dickinson, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Thomas Paine, Edmund Randolph, James Madison,
Roger Sherman, James Wilson, and George Wythe.
• Morris was given the task of putting all the convention's
resolutions and decisions into polished form.
• Morris actually "wrote" the Constitution.
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The U.S. Constitution is the work of several men, directly and indirectly. The three most
notable persons whose work influenced the Constitution but who were not involved in its
writing are Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Thomas Paine.
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The group of men involved in the writing of the Constitution are generally referred to as the
"framers".
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No single individual wrote it.
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Twelve of the thirteen states sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention to revise the
Articles of Confederation and the entire convention worked on it.
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After the political questions were hashed out a 'committee of style' was formed to put the
ideas into formal words. It is generally accepted that Gouverneur Morris created most of the
actual wording included in the final draft from the Committee of Style.
The person most associated with authoring the US Constitution was James Madison, the
fourth President of the United States.
Primary Author: James Madison (drafted the Virginia Plan).
He is known as "The Father of the Constitution." James Madison wrote the Constitution in
1787.
The constitution wasn't passed until 1788.
The Differences Between the Articles
and the Constitution
• http://www.usconstitution.net/constconart.ht
ml
The Federalist Papers
• http://johnjay.net/
• Video on John Jay
The Bill of Rights
• James Madison is credited with writing the Bill of Rights.
• During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents
repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to
tyranny by the central government.
• Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights
before and during the Revolution.
• They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of
individual citizens.
• Several state conventions in their formal ratification of the Constitution
asked for such amendments; others ratified the Constitution with the
understanding that the amendments would be offered.
• On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the
United States therefore proposed to the state
legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that
met arguments most frequently advanced against it.
• The first two proposed amendments, which concerned
the number of constituents for each Representative
and the compensation of Congressmen, were not
ratified.
• Articles 3 to 12, however, ratified by three-fourths of
the state legislatures, constitute the first 10
amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of
Rights.
The American Revolution
•
•
Between 1775-1787
American engaged in a conflict that was in part a cause of what historians call an “age of
revolutions.”
•
The immediate goals of the Enlightenment- derived uprising as to win a war, make a
peace, and create ideologically sound governments on both the state and national levels.
•
By the end of the era, there was little doubt that they had accomplished the first 2 goals,
but serious questions were raised concerning success of the last.
•
Washington was in charge of the armed forces
•
The Continental Congress was in charge of foreign policy – a success with the FrancoAmerican Alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
•
But once the war ended – what do you do next? States’ rights…centralized power?
Economic dislocation
•
The role of Women, African-Americans, Indians, and other minorities….
The Franco-American Alliance 1778
• http://countrystudies.us/unitedstates/history-30.htm
• http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/
alliance.html
The Treaty Of Paris 1783
• http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash
=true&doc=6
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_
%281783%29
The Constitution and the New
Republic
• The period between 1785-1800 was one of the most politically
productive in America and American history.
• During these 15 yrs, the nation, guided by some of the most talented
men in history, reorganized itself under a new framework of government
and then struggled to define-for itself as well as for others-just what had
been created.
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It was a period marked by the rise of a party – The Federalists, although
the philosophy it espoused was, as its opponents were quick to point
out, more “nationalist” in emphasis.
• Arguing that in order to prosper, the United States had best follow the
economic and political example of the Great Britain, these Federalists,
led by Hamilton, injected foreign policy into domestic differences and
set the stage for one of the earliest and most serious assaults by the
government on individual civil liberties.
• Seeing their less elitist, proagriculture,
Republican opponents as supporters of France
in an undeclared war between that national
and the U S, the Federalists set pout to
suppress dissent and those who promoted it.
This assault brought a swift response and so
heightened tensions
Noah Webster
http://www.lexrex.com/bios/nwebster.htm
• “Americans, unshackle your minds and act like independent
beings,” Noah Webster urged his countrymen in 1788.
• “You have been children long enough, subject to the control and
subservient to the interest of a haughty parent. You have now an
interest of your own to augment and defend: you have an empire
to raise and support by your exertions and a national character
to establish and extend by your wisdom and virtues.”
• To accomplish all of this, he argued, “Americans must believe and
act from the belief that it is dishonorable to waste life in
mimicking the follies of other nations and basking in the sunshine
of foreign glory.”
• Americans must create a national culture of their own.
• The irascible Connecticut “Schoolmaster to America”
was accustomed to lecturing his readers and was
unafraid to stand alone.
•
But in this case, he enjoyed considerable support.
• His call for independent American culture to form a
“National character” or identity was echoed, less
stridently but no less firmly, by many of the
intellectual leaders of the Revolutionary generation.
• Whether their hopes centered on the creation of an
American language, literature, education or history,
many American intellectuals believed that only a
national culture could give Americans a sense of
identity and unity.
• To achieve these goals, a national culture would have to
overcome more than a century of religious, ethic, and
regional diversity in America.
• The spectrum of settlement in 17th century British America
left the colonies with fundamentally different economic,
social, and political systems and widely varying cultural values
and beliefs.
• The holy experiments of New England and Pennsylvania
rested uneasily on the same continent with the only
materialistic, exploitative colonies to the south.
• Contacts between the various British colonies ion America
were rare and sometimes contentious. The colonial lite were
much more likely to travel “home” to England than to tour
other colonies.
• This spectrum narrowed slightly in the 18th century, as all of the colonies
were drawn more tightly into the British imperial system.
•
Both British economic regulations and imported British culture muted
colonial differences somewhat, as some colonists in different regions
found common ground for the first time- if only through participation in
Britain's Atlantic economy or imitation of British culture.
• The Great Awakening of evangelical Protestantism and the Enlightenment
in America, both based on British cultural models, became the first
significant intercolonial culture movements.
• Far from creating a unified American culture, however, these two
movements shared a few values and beliefs.
• The awakened and enlightened tended to regard each other as misguided
or even dangerous. The appearance of these two movements in the mid18th century marked the birth not of a national culture, but of a deep
cultural division between evangelical enthusiasm and secular ratin9oalsim
in American that has never been erased.
• The coming of the revolution did little to bridge these long-established
cultures fissures.
• Indeed, they became more visible as the revolutionary crisis demanded
individual declarations of identity and loyalty.
• Even those colonists who decided to join the patriots did so with very
different motives and expectations.
• Whereas colonial merchants and lawyers protested imperial restrictions on
American trade and opportunities for the political participation and
advancement of the colonial elite, urban artisans sought the redistribution
of wealth and political power within American’s seaport towns.
• In the countryside, the rural poor hoped to curb the power of local
landlords and unresponsive colonial assemblies.
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The awakened joined the Revolution to restore moral order to their society,
and the enlightened to permit rational progress.
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There was almost as little unity of purpose among the revolutionaries as
between he patriots and loyalists in America.
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The Revolutionary War exacerbated these internal tensions. States, communities, and even
families were torn apart by the war.
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(in one famous example, Franklin’s illegitimate son William, the royal gov of NJ at the start
of the Revolution, became a loyalist, causing his father great anguish.)
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Within states and communities, local issues and concerns often complicated the question of
imperial loyalty.
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Religious, ethic, class, and racial tensions, long simmering in the middle and southern
colonies, bubbled to the surface during the war.
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The ferocity of the fighting within communities – to which both loyalists and patriots militias
contributed through their campaigns of persuasion and coercion directed at civilizations –
made these differences of loyalty impossible to forgive or forget.
•
Particularly in New Jersey and the Carolinians, the conventional war waged by the British
and Continental armies was dwarfed by the terror of the civil war within the communities.
•
In Jew Jersey, arson and rape became tactics of war.
•
In the Carolinas, the militias refused to give each other “quarter”- ton accept surrender
without death. Civilians in these areas quickly learned that neutrality was impossible in a
revolutionary war.
• Meanwhile, the Continental army was poorly supplied and neglected.
•
The initial enthusiasm that had led many men to enlist and many citizens
to provide them with high bounties and supplies quickly waned.
•
One or two years into the war, Gen. Washington's urgent requests for
payment and supplies for his troops went unheeded by the Continental
Congress and the people it was powerless to tax.
•
Most ominously, some Americans sought to profit from the war; some
even sold bad meat and flour to the army.
•
In the eyes of Washington and his officers, the American people seemed
unwilling to sacrifice their individual self-interest for the public good.
•
In their view Benedict Arnold was not the openly traitor to the patriot
cause.
Abigail Adams…”Don’t Forget the
Ladies”
• The Revolutionary turmoil also threaten social order.
•
In 1776 John Adams laughed off his wife’s suggestion
that he “Remember the Ladies” in American's new
Code of Laws. But he laughed nervously.
• “As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot
laugh.”
• http://www.thelizlibrary.org/suffrage/abigail.htm
•
• College students planted liberty trees, joined
armies and militias, and pushed parents and
professors into more radical positions.
• Apprentices were released to fight on one side
or the other, and servants fought side by side
with their masters.
• Many class distinctions between white males
temporarily dissolved in militias and
Revolutionary councils.
Women
• Women assumed men’s roles, responsibilities, and
authority as they managed households, families, farms,
business…
• They made decisions regarding children, servants,
slaves and business decisions.
• Abigail Adams was but one among many such women.
• Women also acquired political ideas, commitments,
and identities and were held accountable for them by
militias and courts alike.
• Even American slaves found their situation altered during the
war. In the northern states, some won freedom by enlisting
in the Continental Army, with their masters’ permission.
• Others, particularly in VA and Maryland, escaped by joining
the British.
• Still, others simply “stole themselves,” melting away in the
confusion of war-devastated s Carolina.
• Their mobility was especially frightening to their masters, but
it also alarmed others of this Revolutionary society.
• Although social disorder actually engulfed very few areas,
some members of America’s intellectual and political elite
feared the imminent collapse of traditional social hierarchies
and cultural authority in the wake of the Revolution
• Their involvement in the Continental army and Congress gave many intellectuals a
continental perspective – perhaps the first American history.
•
As they worked together during the Revolution, political and intellectual leaders
from the north, middle, and southern states began to perceive common interests
and to speak in the same political language.
•
They also shared a growing sense of revulsion at the rancor and divisiveness of
American politics al all levels.
•
Political disagreements among the inexperienced elected officials sometimes
exploded into violence on the floors of the state legislatures, and factions emerged
everywhere.
•
Nor did the course of national politics run smoothly.
• The Confederation Congress was paralyzed by a pervasive distrust of strong central
power, and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 crystallized continuing fears of
centralization.
•
As a party system desired by non emerged out of the Federalist-Antifederalist
debates, the intellectuals’ hopes for national political harmony evaporated.
• The reemergence of local and regional antagonisms on the
1780s and 1790s reminded American intellectuals that a
declaration of independent could not create a coherent
national.
• Shay’s Rebellion of 1786, in which several thousand
impoverished farmers in western MA closed down a country
courthouse and marched on a federal arsenal, spurred
political leaders to strengthen the national govt.
•
When farmers in western PA displayed their disdain for
federal taxation even with representation in the Whiskey
Rebellion of 1794, the elite were convinced that the problem
of national authority had not been solved by the adoption of
the federal Constitution.
•
Intense partisan political strife in the 1790s confirmed their
deepest fears that w/out a national culture, the United States
might fall apart before their very eyes.
• Shays’ Rebellion:
http://www.calliope.org/shays/shays2.html
• The Whiskey Rebellion:
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-whiskeyrebellion
• http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/
milestones/whiskey/
A Poem, On the Rising Glory of
America
• http://mith.umd.edu/eada/html/display.php?
docs=freneau_risingglory.xml&action=show
• Known as “the Poet of the Revolution,” Freneau is
considered one of the most important of the early
American poets.
• His work exhibits elements of both neoclassicism and
pre-Romanticism, but because much of its subject
matter is so narrowly topical, its chief appeal is as a
historical record of the politics of the American
Revolution and the early days of the republic.
• After the war, Freneau served as editor of the
democratic newspaper the National Gazette, producing
essays and poems that were admired by some and
reviled by others as two distinct factions struggled to
control the direction of the country's new government
• Freneau's reputation as the “Poet of the Revolution” proved a mixed blessing.
•
His poems and essays were considered of interest only as long as their subject
matter remained in the national spotlight, and his work was quickly forgotten once
independence was won and the struggle to establish a new government was
resolved.
•
In terms of style, scholars often position Freneau's poetry at the point of transition
between neoclassicism and Romanticism, with some claiming that its chief value
lies in its similarity to the work of later Romantic poets.
•
Several critics have suggested, for instance, that Freneau's poetry about the sea
anticipates the work of George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Herman Melville, while his
poem “The House of Night” anticipates the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Gilbert L.
Gigliotti insists, however, that critical assessments of such poems as “The
Hurricane” as pre-Romantic and, therefore, superior to Freneau's other works, miss
the fact that the poem reflects a very old classical tradition, the “ship of state”
poem. Other critics, such as Joseph Harrington, have suggested that Freneau's
work was outdated even during his lifetime because it was political rather than
personal.
• Harrington quotes William Cullen Bryant, writing as early as 1818, claiming that
Freneau was “a writer in verse of inferior note … whose pen seems to have been
chiefly employed on political subjects.”
• One of Freneau's most political poems, The British Prison Ship, has drawn a
great deal of critical attention.
•
Richard C. Vitzthum considers the events that inspired the poem a turning
point in Freneau's life and career.
• According to Vitzthum, not only did Freneau's political philosophy change
considerably—he went from a rather passive observer of the American
Revolution to a rabid supporter of it—but his personal view of the world
was also altered. The optimism and idealism that characterized his early
work was replaced by disillusionment, even bitterness.
• Mary Weatherspoon Bowden (see further reading) has studied the many
revisions of the poem between 1780 and 1809 and has called into question
not only the critical consensus regarding the poem's meaning, but also the
factual basis of the events that inspired the poem.
• Bowden has also commented on Freneau's prose writings, claiming that
“too many of his essays are unfocused because they lack a singleness of
purpose. This fault is, perhaps, one of enthusiasm—Freneau wants to
comment on too many things in each essay.”
•
Freneau's most controversial writing was produced during his association with the National
Gazette.
•
Many of his political opponents criticized him for engaging in partisan politics while
employed by the government as a State Department translator.
•
The rival newspaper called Freneau “a spaniel” and “a fawning parasite,” but Samuel E.
Forman, writing in 1902, insisted that Freneau and his newspaper did not deserve this
“unsavory reputation.” According to Forman, “the fear and hatred that [National Gazette]
won for itself arose from the ability with which it was edited.
•
It was supported by the best talent of the age,” including Brackenridge, Madison, and
Jefferson, who believed that Freneau's newspaper had prevented America from drifting
toward monarchy in the early days of nationhood.
•
One of Freneau's major concerns was the British cultural dominance over America, and he is
considered the first American poet to reverse, even in a small way, this trend in literature.
•
Jane Donahue Eberwein asserts that Sir Walter Scott borrowed a line of Freneau's for his
1808 poem “Marmion.” Despite this small victory, Eberwein claims that Freneau's best work
was ignored, while his lighter verse proved popular with his readers.
•
According to Eberwein, his unsophisticated audience encouraged Freneau's often
“bombastic rhetoric, repetition, overstrained humor, and formless doggerel”; but Freneau
“managed to find his own voice at times” and wrote “some of the finest, most timeless
poems in American literature.”