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1707 and 1800: a Treaty (Mostly) Honoured and a Treaty Broken

Iain Mclean and Alistair Mcmillan

in What's Wrong with the British Constitution?

Union of England and Scotland 1707: Darien; succession crisis; trading issues; nature of the treaty. Church establishment in both countries. Union of Great Britain and Ireland 1800–1: United Irishmen ... More

Union of England and Scotland 1707: Darien; succession crisis; trading issues; nature of the treaty. Church establishment in both countries. Union of Great Britain and Ireland 1800–1: United Irishmen 1798; French wars; trading issues; Pitt's plan and George III's veto.Less

 Thomas Jefferson and the Separation of Church and State

Gary Scott Smith

in Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush

While many of George Washington’s contemporaries portrayed him as a devout Christian, Thomas Jefferson’s foes depicted him as an infidel and an atheist. Given how similar their religious views and ... More

While many of George Washington’s contemporaries portrayed him as a devout Christian, Thomas Jefferson’s foes depicted him as an infidel and an atheist. Given how similar their religious views and practices were, these radically different appraisals of Washington and Jefferson are ironic. Religion mesmerized, tantalized, alarmed, and sometimes inspired Jefferson, and he discussed religious issues, movements, and leaders often in his conversation and correspondence and occasionally in his addresses and published writings. Religious issues played a major role in Jefferson’s life and presidency. He wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) that disestablished the Episcopal Church, enshrined the principle of freedom of conscience, and helped prepare the way for the First Amendment. Since 1947 his metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state has dominated constitutional debate over the proper place of religion in public life and policy. Although he repudiated much of orthodox Christianity, the Virginian was a deeply religious man. Jefferson’s alleged lack of faith was a major issue in the hotly contested election of 1800. In an effort to discover the historical Jesus, he devised two different editions of the Gospels for his own use that eliminated all miraculous elements and focused on Christ’s ethical teachings. Although his supporters, his opponents, and academicians have, for the past two centuries, debated the nature of his faith and whether he should be labeled an Episcopalian, a deist, or a Unitarian, many scholars do not recognize how important Jefferson’s religious convictions were to his philosophy of government and career. Jefferson’s character and views of slavery are also examined.Less

Foregone and Other Conclusions

Françoise Meltzer

in Dark Lens: Imaging Germany, 1945

The conclusion discusses revenge and forgiveness as fraught problems. Carl Schmitt’s binary of friend/enemy is of import here, as is Vladimir Jankélévitch’s work on the pardon. The conclusion also ... More

The conclusion discusses revenge and forgiveness as fraught problems. Carl Schmitt’s binary of friend/enemy is of import here, as is Vladimir Jankélévitch’s work on the pardon. The conclusion also considers the importance of Romanticism to the Nazis, drawing on “De l'Allemagne, 1800-1938,” a problematic exhibition of German thought and painting sponsored by the French and German governments at the Louvre in 2013. The conclusion asks to what extent a museum exhibit or a painting might provide a way of bypassing horror. Can we bear witness to the suffering of others? How is it that memory and amnesia can work in tandem? To what extent is the targeting of civilians, sworn enemies, acceptable? The book ends with questions that have no obvious answers.Less

‘Let Irishmen remain sulky, grave, prudent and watchful’: William Drennan (1754–1820)

Kenneth R. Johnston

in Unusual Suspects: Pitt's Reign of Alarm and the Lost Generation of the 1790s

Parliamentary reform groups in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales were persecuted more ruthlessly than those in England. William Drennan was an Irish obstetrician educated in Scotland. The example of the ... More

Parliamentary reform groups in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales were persecuted more ruthlessly than those in England. William Drennan was an Irish obstetrician educated in Scotland. The example of the American Revolution inspired him to seek liberal reforms for his native country. His Letters of an Irish Helot of 1785 led Charles James Fox to offer him a post in the Whig opposition, but he declined. He was one of the organizers of the United Irishmen, and the author of its secret oath. Informers gave a copy of his address to the Irish Volunteers to the government, and he stood trial for sedition in Dublin in 1794. Acquitted thanks to his lawyer, John Philpot Curran, Drennan withdrew from political activity, married a rich English lady, became a minor sentimental poet, and confined his political observations to his correspondence with his sister and brother-in-law, valuably collected as The Drennan Letters (1931, 1999).Less

Defining and Testing the Prohibition on Religious Establishments in the Early Republic

Daniel L. Dreisbach

in No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty

This chapter argues that the meanings of the Establishment Clause and the Religious Test Clause were not entirely clear at the time that the Constitution and Bill of Rights were adopted, and the ... More

This chapter argues that the meanings of the Establishment Clause and the Religious Test Clause were not entirely clear at the time that the Constitution and Bill of Rights were adopted, and the meanings were debated in the immediately following years. Most of the founders believed that religion was an important support for society. Some believed that the state should play a role in nurturing and supporting religious institutions (without necessarily favoring religious establishments) while others believed that religious freedom could best be promoted by the separation of church and state (while denying that they were hostile to religion). The debates arose in the context of issues such as the presidential election of 1800, Sunday delivery of mail, and religious proclamations.Less

Annex: Catalogue of Early Central Banks

Ulrich Bindseil

in Central Banking before 1800: A Rehabilitation

The annex presents, with a common template, a catalogue of 25 pre-1800 central banks. While it benefits considerably from previous surveys, it has a narrower focus on central bank operations and ... More

The annex presents, with a common template, a catalogue of 25 pre-1800 central banks. While it benefits considerably from previous surveys, it has a narrower focus on central bank operations and balance sheets, and on the genealogy of central banking. It also includes some banks which are not contained in the previous surveys of Roberds and Velde (the Bank of Scotland, the Banco di Santo Spirito di Roma, the American settlers’ land bank projects, the central bank projects of Leipzig and Cologne, the Copenhagen bank, the Russian Assignation Banks, the Banco Nacional de San Carlo, the Bank of North America, and the Bank of the United States). Not all institutions completely fulfil the definition of a central bank, and particularly not for the entire lifetime of its existence. However, all banks included had, at least in the way they were conceived, important elements of central banking, and thereby at least illustrate the challenges that central bank design faced pre-1800.Less

Introduction

Ann Andrews

in Newspapers and Newsmakers: The Dublin Nationalist Press in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

This introduction places Irish society and the development of the Dublin nationalist press in the context of the Protestant Ascendancy and the 1800 Act of Union. It focuses on what Theobald Wolfe ... More

This introduction places Irish society and the development of the Dublin nationalist press in the context of the Protestant Ascendancy and the 1800 Act of Union. It focuses on what Theobald Wolfe Tone and the 1798 rebellion bequeathed to nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century, not just in terms of political ideology, but also noting how the United Irishmen included literary items in their newspapers to inspire their followers. Delineating the way nationalist journalists were deeply immersed in the political activities of the day, and stressing the importance of the power of newspapers to the survival of the political groups they represented, it shows that nationalist newsprint could also be a battleground for opposing ideologies. It is emphasized that this book has a strong conceptual approach, and argues that in the evolution of the Dublin nationalist press The Nation was the most innovative and influential nationalist newspaper of this period.Less

Dwelling in Time: Figurations of Geohistory

in The Geographic Imagination of Modernity: Geography, Literature, and Philosophy in German Romanticism

This chapter charts the convergence of geography and history, an inextricable intertwinement of geographic space and historical time during the period that has usually been seen as characterized by ... More

This chapter charts the convergence of geography and history, an inextricable intertwinement of geographic space and historical time during the period that has usually been seen as characterized by the absolute dominance of the historical paradigm. It argues for the emergence of geohistory at around 1800. Taking into account the philosophy of history, geographic science, and poetry, this chapter holds that it was precisely the theoretical precursors of historism from Herder to Friedrich Schlegel and Wilhelm von Humboldt who laid the foundation of geohistorical thinking. It describes a radically new picture of modern historical thought, contending that historism and geohistorical thinking represented its two complementary strands.Less

Santo Domingo and the Rise of Toussaint Louverture, 1795–1801

Graham T. Nessler

in Islandwide Struggle for Freedom: Revolution, Emancipation, and Reenslavement in Hispaniola, 1789-1809

This chapter details the military history of Hispaniola from 1795, when the French Republic ejected the rival Spanish empire from the island, to 1801, when Toussaint Louverture unified the island ... More

This chapter details the military history of Hispaniola from 1795, when the French Republic ejected the rival Spanish empire from the island, to 1801, when Toussaint Louverture unified the island under his rule. This is the first of two chapters to focus on the rise and governance of Louverture, a former slave who rose rapidly through the military ranks and, like his eventual nominal superior Napoleon Bonaparte, parlayed his military triumphs into political power. As Toussaint formulated an independent foreign policy, repelled British invaders from Hispaniola, and waged a brutal civil war against rival André Rigaud, Santo Domingo factored centrally into his strategic thinking, diplomacy, and military leadership. This chapter details these dynamics and culminates in Toussaint’s successful but short-lived invasion of Santo Domingo, which exacerbated a growing rift between the black general and France’s ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte.Less

Southeast Asian Historical Writing

Anthony Milner

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 4: 1800-1945

This chapter emphasizes that in Southeast Asia from 1800 to 1945, the past was written in a range of ways that questioned the main definition of history. Accounts of past events were not only ... More

This chapter emphasizes that in Southeast Asia from 1800 to 1945, the past was written in a range of ways that questioned the main definition of history. Accounts of past events were not only composed for radically contrasting purpose, but there was also a sharp variation in assumptions about the nature of time and truth, and in the themes treated. This chapter further points out that during the three centuries before 1800, Europeans trading and establishing bases in Southeast Asia had written extensively about its kingdoms, customs, and products. The creation of large colonial states after 1800 intensified the need for such data, and the histories produced, despite their practical objectives, were influenced by contemporary intellectual concerns.Less

Fictions, Libels, and Unions in the Long Eighteenth Century

Thomas Keymer

in Literature and Union: Scottish Texts, British Contexts

This chapter considers the literary representation of union by way of three case studies: Jonathan Swift’s ‘The Story of the Injured Lady’ (written 1707, published 1746), Thomas Finn’s ‘The Painter ... More

This chapter considers the literary representation of union by way of three case studies: Jonathan Swift’s ‘The Story of the Injured Lady’ (written 1707, published 1746), Thomas Finn’s ‘The Painter Cut’ (1810), and Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker (1771). Their polemical energy notwithstanding, the allegories of Swift and Finn also display tensions and articulate contradictions typifying the eighteenth century’s figurations of union. These complications may be explained in part as defences against possible prosecution, but they also imply mixed feelings about nationalist commitment, and an awareness of the conceptual or practical incoherence of unitary national identity. Smollett takes such tendencies to their extreme in his masterpiece Humphry Clinker, which juxtaposes multiple conflicting perspectives on union, and plays ironically on the anti-union rhetoric of Fletcher of Saltoun. He fashions the novel, a generation before Scott, as a genre uniquely equipped to address national identity in all its mobility and multiplicity.Less

Union and Presbyterian Ulster Scots: William McComb, James McKnight, and

Andrew R. Holmes

in Literature and Union: Scottish Texts, British Contexts

This chapter explores the relationship between literature and union among Presbyterian writers in nineteenth-century Ulster. It examines the work of the poet William McComb and the journalist James ... More

This chapter explores the relationship between literature and union among Presbyterian writers in nineteenth-century Ulster. It examines the work of the poet William McComb and the journalist James McKnight, who together were responsible for the publication of The Repealer Repulsed (1841), a collection of reportage and literary fancy written in response to Daniel O’Connell’s campaign to repeal the 1800 Act of Union. Their various publications employed a shared Ulster–Scottish Presbyterian heritage to express opposition to the imposition of English Protestant forms and principles, and to highlight the importance and distinctiveness of Presbyterian Scots and Ulster-Scots within the United Kingdom. It demonstrates that Presbyterian writers saw Robert Burns as only one part of a broader literary culture that they shared with Britain and that was usually expressed in standard English, included prose as well as poetry, employed a number of literary genres, and sometimes drew upon a shared Gaelic heritage.Less

The Persistence of Political Community, 1795–1799

Kenneth Owen

in Political Community in Revolutionary Pennsylvania, 1774-1800

This chapter analyses Pennsylvanian and American politics in the late 1790s, focusing particularly on the Jay Treaty debates, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Fries Rebellion, and the Pennsylvania ... More

This chapter analyses Pennsylvanian and American politics in the late 1790s, focusing particularly on the Jay Treaty debates, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Fries Rebellion, and the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1799 (a key precursor to the Adams–Jefferson election of 1800). In each episode, Pennsylvanians adopted a different set of political practices, all nevertheless predicated on some form of representative action. In all these episodes, Pennsylvanians argued the right of popular political engagement did not end at election time, but instead was a continuous factor that should shape the governmental decision-making process. The outpouring of popular political activism in a variety of forms underscored the importance of a participatory political culture that could be seen to represent the people as a whole.Less