J. Rixey Ruffin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326512
- eISBN:
- 9780199870417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326512.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, ...
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William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, vision, and most importantly ideas, he was a unique and heretofore underappreciated member of the founding generation. To study his life is to study the intellectual world in which he moved and through which he cut a unique and illustrative path. In theological terms, he was both an Arminian and what this book calls a “Christian naturalist,” a combination that was both unique and volatile. For if his belief in the Arminian view of salvation put him at odds with his Calvinist contemporaries (including his senior colleague at the East Church), his unique denial of post‐biblical supernaturalism and his unique embrace of Socinianism (a denial of the divinity of Jesus more radical than what others would call “Unitarianism”) put him also at odds with other Arminians. But it was the only way that Bentley could keep both what he thought essential to Christianity and what he thought true about the natural world. In the realm of social ideology, he was both a classical liberal and a republican at the same time, but if he was able in the 1780s to be both, the 1790s would pull apart these dualities and see him move along the path to Jeffersonian Republicanism. But even here he was, among the New England clergy, alone, drawn to the party not by its support for disestablishment so much as by his unique approbation of Rousseau's state of nature theorizing. William Bentley's life, ministry, and thought allow a singular exploration of theology and philosophy as well as of ideology: of the social politics of race and class and gender, the ecclesiastical politics of establishment and dissent, and between minister and laity, the ideological politics of republicanism and classical liberalism, and the party politics of Federalism and Democratic‐Republicanism.Less
William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, vision, and most importantly ideas, he was a unique and heretofore underappreciated member of the founding generation. To study his life is to study the intellectual world in which he moved and through which he cut a unique and illustrative path. In theological terms, he was both an Arminian and what this book calls a “Christian naturalist,” a combination that was both unique and volatile. For if his belief in the Arminian view of salvation put him at odds with his Calvinist contemporaries (including his senior colleague at the East Church), his unique denial of post‐biblical supernaturalism and his unique embrace of Socinianism (a denial of the divinity of Jesus more radical than what others would call “Unitarianism”) put him also at odds with other Arminians. But it was the only way that Bentley could keep both what he thought essential to Christianity and what he thought true about the natural world. In the realm of social ideology, he was both a classical liberal and a republican at the same time, but if he was able in the 1780s to be both, the 1790s would pull apart these dualities and see him move along the path to Jeffersonian Republicanism. But even here he was, among the New England clergy, alone, drawn to the party not by its support for disestablishment so much as by his unique approbation of Rousseau's state of nature theorizing. William Bentley's life, ministry, and thought allow a singular exploration of theology and philosophy as well as of ideology: of the social politics of race and class and gender, the ecclesiastical politics of establishment and dissent, and between minister and laity, the ideological politics of republicanism and classical liberalism, and the party politics of Federalism and Democratic‐Republicanism.
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and ...
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In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.Less
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.
J. Rixey Ruffin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326512
- eISBN:
- 9780199870417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326512.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic ...
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These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic life of the town. They also gesture at the importance of Bentley—and thus this book—in understanding the social implications of the American Revolution, the ideological consequences not only of liberal Christianity but also of its other versions, the complicated interactions between religion and politics in late 18th‐century New England, and most importantly the means by which men and women tried to reconcile their faith to the new imperatives of the Enlightenment.Less
These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic life of the town. They also gesture at the importance of Bentley—and thus this book—in understanding the social implications of the American Revolution, the ideological consequences not only of liberal Christianity but also of its other versions, the complicated interactions between religion and politics in late 18th‐century New England, and most importantly the means by which men and women tried to reconcile their faith to the new imperatives of the Enlightenment.
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean ...
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A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean theology and republican ideology. Haynes had always argued that blacks and whites must live harmoniously in an integrated society if Americans wished to be true to Calvinism and republicanism. In the early nineteenth century, many Americans became convinced that blacks and whites were so separate cognitively and physically that they could never coexist as equals. Haynes set himself against what he saw as divisive forces, including Universalism, a new Christian denomination led by Hosea Ballou. Haynes invoked as a standard for race relations the godly unity idealized in American Puritanism and expressed in early American texts such as the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson. In his last years, Haynes worked as an itinerant preacher but never held a reliable pulpit between his dismissal in 1818 from his Rutland, Vermont, church and his death in 1833 in Granville, Massachusetts.Less
A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean theology and republican ideology. Haynes had always argued that blacks and whites must live harmoniously in an integrated society if Americans wished to be true to Calvinism and republicanism. In the early nineteenth century, many Americans became convinced that blacks and whites were so separate cognitively and physically that they could never coexist as equals. Haynes set himself against what he saw as divisive forces, including Universalism, a new Christian denomination led by Hosea Ballou. Haynes invoked as a standard for race relations the godly unity idealized in American Puritanism and expressed in early American texts such as the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson. In his last years, Haynes worked as an itinerant preacher but never held a reliable pulpit between his dismissal in 1818 from his Rutland, Vermont, church and his death in 1833 in Granville, Massachusetts.
Jonathan D. Sassi
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129892
- eISBN:
- 9780199834624
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512989X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a ...
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This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.Less
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution ...
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The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution inaugurated a debate about who could claim autonomy to make political decisions and have a stake in the distribution of power. Given these origins of the republic, the early national contestation over the meaning of the Revolution was a struggle not only to shake off slavery but also to reframe how different people were situated vis‐à‐vis such a monumental historical transformation.Less
The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution inaugurated a debate about who could claim autonomy to make political decisions and have a stake in the distribution of power. Given these origins of the republic, the early national contestation over the meaning of the Revolution was a struggle not only to shake off slavery but also to reframe how different people were situated vis‐à‐vis such a monumental historical transformation.
Karin E. Gedge
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195130201
- eISBN:
- 9780199835157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130200.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, ...
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European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, churches, and the republic itself. Whether conservative or liberal, skeptical or approving of the democratic experiment and the disestablished church, writers as varied as Frances Trollope, Harriet Martineau, Francis Grund, Charles Dickens, and Frances Wright felt compelled to describe the pastoral relationship and often did so in derogatory ways. It served as synecdoche and bellwether for the health of the republic.Less
European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, churches, and the republic itself. Whether conservative or liberal, skeptical or approving of the democratic experiment and the disestablished church, writers as varied as Frances Trollope, Harriet Martineau, Francis Grund, Charles Dickens, and Frances Wright felt compelled to describe the pastoral relationship and often did so in derogatory ways. It served as synecdoche and bellwether for the health of the republic.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter analyzes the sovereign performances of the new government of the USA in the 1780s, 1790s, and 1800s, with special attention to the Whiskey Rebellion and the Battle of Fallen Timbers in ...
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This chapter analyzes the sovereign performances of the new government of the USA in the 1780s, 1790s, and 1800s, with special attention to the Whiskey Rebellion and the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Via these events, a certain logic of modern politics—of inclusion in and exclusion from the political process—was performed into being. A specific configuration of sign and regime articulated "bodies of the people"—the political body of the republic, individual bodies of the electorate, and "grotesque" bodies that had to be excluded at all costs. It thus examines the "people's two bodies" as rendering of modern politics and republican government as a problem of meaning—specifically, the meanings necessary to glue together hierarchical relations between rectors and actors, to exclude others, and to forge the relationship between "the people" and the politicians they elected to represent them. Via a close reading of the negotiations that ended the Whiskey Rebellion, and a study of the change in frontier negotiations represented by the struggle between Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle, the longstanding problem of political philosophy familiar from Edmund Burke and Hannah Pitkin—political representation as delegation—is examined empirically as social dramaturgy.Less
This chapter analyzes the sovereign performances of the new government of the USA in the 1780s, 1790s, and 1800s, with special attention to the Whiskey Rebellion and the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Via these events, a certain logic of modern politics—of inclusion in and exclusion from the political process—was performed into being. A specific configuration of sign and regime articulated "bodies of the people"—the political body of the republic, individual bodies of the electorate, and "grotesque" bodies that had to be excluded at all costs. It thus examines the "people's two bodies" as rendering of modern politics and republican government as a problem of meaning—specifically, the meanings necessary to glue together hierarchical relations between rectors and actors, to exclude others, and to forge the relationship between "the people" and the politicians they elected to represent them. Via a close reading of the negotiations that ended the Whiskey Rebellion, and a study of the change in frontier negotiations represented by the struggle between Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle, the longstanding problem of political philosophy familiar from Edmund Burke and Hannah Pitkin—political representation as delegation—is examined empirically as social dramaturgy.
David Waldstreicher, Jeffrey L. Pasley, and Andrew W. Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807828892
- eISBN:
- 9781469605241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898833_pasley.4
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in ...
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This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in organizing the history of the early republic and its politics. Influenced by a larger trend toward cultural history, younger political historians have broadened the study of political culture beyond the partisan persuasions. Approaches to cultural politics, for example, can provide better understanding of the ways in which extra-partisan strategies shaped American politics. This book depicts the current achievements and future prospects of the newest political histories. It discusses the importance of popular politics and the politics of identity; the strategies and outcomes of gendered politics, racial politics and romantic nationalism; and the achievements of intellectual historians, political theorists, and constitutional scholars. The book demonstrates how American political institutions and practices emerged, and presents a story about leaders and followers, and citizens unified and divided by partisanship, gender, race, class, religion, and nationalism.Less
This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in organizing the history of the early republic and its politics. Influenced by a larger trend toward cultural history, younger political historians have broadened the study of political culture beyond the partisan persuasions. Approaches to cultural politics, for example, can provide better understanding of the ways in which extra-partisan strategies shaped American politics. This book depicts the current achievements and future prospects of the newest political histories. It discusses the importance of popular politics and the politics of identity; the strategies and outcomes of gendered politics, racial politics and romantic nationalism; and the achievements of intellectual historians, political theorists, and constitutional scholars. The book demonstrates how American political institutions and practices emerged, and presents a story about leaders and followers, and citizens unified and divided by partisanship, gender, race, class, religion, and nationalism.
Joan Judge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520284364
- eISBN:
- 9780520959934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284364.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of ...
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The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of possibilities that existed in this period. Focusing on the remarkable resources of its publisher and the cultural ingenuity of its editor, it also situates the journal within revolutionary and early Republican politics. It excavates the journal’s often implicit political agenda and introduces some of its key female and male contributors. The chapter further outlines the cultural and historical methodology for reading the periodical press that is used throughout the book. This method focuses on the intermediality of the journal itself, its dialogue with other print products, and its position within larger cultural debates and historical developments.Less
The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of possibilities that existed in this period. Focusing on the remarkable resources of its publisher and the cultural ingenuity of its editor, it also situates the journal within revolutionary and early Republican politics. It excavates the journal’s often implicit political agenda and introduces some of its key female and male contributors. The chapter further outlines the cultural and historical methodology for reading the periodical press that is used throughout the book. This method focuses on the intermediality of the journal itself, its dialogue with other print products, and its position within larger cultural debates and historical developments.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter begins with a contrast: between the language and action of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., leader of Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and Herman Husband, a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794). Bacon ...
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This chapter begins with a contrast: between the language and action of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., leader of Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and Herman Husband, a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794). Bacon claimed to be a true representative of the King, over and against the Colony of Virginia's appointed governor. Husband preached millenarian visions of the perfect democratic republic. To understand the contrast, one needs to understand the pragmatic deployment of the King's Two Bodies—the king's mortal, natural body and his ethereal, sacred "second body," represented on coins and seals, as well as at his funeral and in the next King's coronation—as a way to do politics in the first British Empire, and, more broadly, throughout the early modern Atlantic world. One effect of the three great Atlantic revolutions of the late eighteenth century was to creatively destroy the King's Two Bodies as the cultural background with which long chains of power were built. Without the King's Two Bodies to solve agency problems, different cultural solutions to the recurrent problems of shoring up hierarchy were needed. This is how to understand Herman Husband's enchanted sermons, which were obsessed with delegation from the body of the people to the leader.Less
This chapter begins with a contrast: between the language and action of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., leader of Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and Herman Husband, a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794). Bacon claimed to be a true representative of the King, over and against the Colony of Virginia's appointed governor. Husband preached millenarian visions of the perfect democratic republic. To understand the contrast, one needs to understand the pragmatic deployment of the King's Two Bodies—the king's mortal, natural body and his ethereal, sacred "second body," represented on coins and seals, as well as at his funeral and in the next King's coronation—as a way to do politics in the first British Empire, and, more broadly, throughout the early modern Atlantic world. One effect of the three great Atlantic revolutions of the late eighteenth century was to creatively destroy the King's Two Bodies as the cultural background with which long chains of power were built. Without the King's Two Bodies to solve agency problems, different cultural solutions to the recurrent problems of shoring up hierarchy were needed. This is how to understand Herman Husband's enchanted sermons, which were obsessed with delegation from the body of the people to the leader.
Eric Lomazoff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226579313
- eISBN:
- 9780226579597
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226579597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American ...
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This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American constitutional development. While the controversy is traditionally presented as a recurring two-sided struggle over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause, with national bank advocates repeatedly pushing a “broad” reading of the provision and their opponents pressing for a “strict” understanding of it, the book reveals both that a larger and more diverse set of constitutional claims were deployed and that these claims varied over time. In particular, several post-1815 iterations of the national bank controversy featured claims respecting Congress’s ability to charter the institution pursuant to its power under the Coinage Clause of Article I, Section 8. The book demonstrates that much of the variation in constitutional claims between 1791 and 1832 is attributable to three factors: ideological strife within Jefferson and Madison’s Republican party, institutional change within the national bank itself, and economic stress that commenced during (but continued after) the War of 1812. The book argues that collectively, these three factors help to reinforce the broader proposition that American constitutional development is routinely driven as much by politics as by law. Those same factors also help to furnish more specific developmental propositions, including the idea that the terms of a long-running constitutional dispute may shift in response to change in the underlying object of disputation.Less
This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American constitutional development. While the controversy is traditionally presented as a recurring two-sided struggle over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause, with national bank advocates repeatedly pushing a “broad” reading of the provision and their opponents pressing for a “strict” understanding of it, the book reveals both that a larger and more diverse set of constitutional claims were deployed and that these claims varied over time. In particular, several post-1815 iterations of the national bank controversy featured claims respecting Congress’s ability to charter the institution pursuant to its power under the Coinage Clause of Article I, Section 8. The book demonstrates that much of the variation in constitutional claims between 1791 and 1832 is attributable to three factors: ideological strife within Jefferson and Madison’s Republican party, institutional change within the national bank itself, and economic stress that commenced during (but continued after) the War of 1812. The book argues that collectively, these three factors help to reinforce the broader proposition that American constitutional development is routinely driven as much by politics as by law. Those same factors also help to furnish more specific developmental propositions, including the idea that the terms of a long-running constitutional dispute may shift in response to change in the underlying object of disputation.
Joyce Appleby
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199769063
- eISBN:
- 9780199896851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was ...
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This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was largely eliminated, concentration on bare survival made way for concern with economic growth, and ordinary people began to produce, and enjoy on a large scale, “goods to comfort and adorn body and home.” While moderation, restraint, and self-discipline—variations on the theme of thrift—were not abandoned, their religious and moral justifications were gradually supplemented and in some cases replaced by instrumental and economic ones.Less
This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was largely eliminated, concentration on bare survival made way for concern with economic growth, and ordinary people began to produce, and enjoy on a large scale, “goods to comfort and adorn body and home.” While moderation, restraint, and self-discipline—variations on the theme of thrift—were not abandoned, their religious and moral justifications were gradually supplemented and in some cases replaced by instrumental and economic ones.
Lacy K. Ford,
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195118094
- eISBN:
- 9780199870936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118094.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the ...
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A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.Less
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.
Thomas Apel
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804797405
- eISBN:
- 9780804799638
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804797405.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into ...
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From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into rival camps: “contagionists” thought it came from abroad and could be transmitted from person to person, while “localists” believed it arose from domestically-situated miasmas. Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds uses correspondence, newspaper and periodical articles, as well as published fever pamphlets to resurrect the course of the debate and to explore its significance in the history of American science. Localists gradually pushed the argument in their favor, winning more and more converts to their view, and the contagionists increasingly retired from the debate. Without proving that yellow fever arose from miasmas, localists rationalized it as a more plausible element in God’s world. Their success showcases the high value of common sense as an ingredient in scientific knowledge-making, and it shows that claims about disease causality were inseparable from other realms of thought, including assumptions the investigators made about how to develop reliable knowledge about the natural world, their understanding of God’s nature and activity, and their experiences with political conflict in the early American Republic. The localist victory came at a cost, however. Years of bitter fighting left rival parties wanting to exert greater top-down control over scientific knowledge-making. The breakdown exposed the fragility of common-sense science and facilitated the removal of science from the public sphere.Less
From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into rival camps: “contagionists” thought it came from abroad and could be transmitted from person to person, while “localists” believed it arose from domestically-situated miasmas. Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds uses correspondence, newspaper and periodical articles, as well as published fever pamphlets to resurrect the course of the debate and to explore its significance in the history of American science. Localists gradually pushed the argument in their favor, winning more and more converts to their view, and the contagionists increasingly retired from the debate. Without proving that yellow fever arose from miasmas, localists rationalized it as a more plausible element in God’s world. Their success showcases the high value of common sense as an ingredient in scientific knowledge-making, and it shows that claims about disease causality were inseparable from other realms of thought, including assumptions the investigators made about how to develop reliable knowledge about the natural world, their understanding of God’s nature and activity, and their experiences with political conflict in the early American Republic. The localist victory came at a cost, however. Years of bitter fighting left rival parties wanting to exert greater top-down control over scientific knowledge-making. The breakdown exposed the fragility of common-sense science and facilitated the removal of science from the public sphere.
James P. Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168579
- eISBN:
- 9780813168807
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168579.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the ...
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The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the presidency of Transylvania University in Kentucky, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains. Kentucky’s religious leaders questioned his orthodoxy; elected officials doubted his abilities; others simply found him arrogant and elitist. As president, however, Holley ushered in a period of sustained educational and cultural growth. Transylvania blossomed under his oversight and received national attention for its scientifically progressive, liberal curriculum. Lexington, Kentucky, the seat of Transylvania, benefited directly from his efforts. An influx of students and celebrated faculty lent the city a distinguished atmosphere and gave credibility to the appellation “Athens of the West.”
But Holley’s story is greater than the sum of these experiences. As a young student at a rising American university, a Calvinist minister in a rural New England town, a Unitarian urbanite of national acclaim, a relocated northern Yankee in Kentucky, and president of the first and most prosperous university of the early American West, Holley symbolizes a period of rapid transformation. His experiences reflect a time when westward expansion and social progress ran against developing religious expectations and regional identities. Holley also figures prominently in the history of education in America. His innovations and missteps, successes and defeats, personal connections and bitter advisories make him an important figure not only in the evolution of an emerging state university but also in the emerging state of higher education in early America.Less
The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the presidency of Transylvania University in Kentucky, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains. Kentucky’s religious leaders questioned his orthodoxy; elected officials doubted his abilities; others simply found him arrogant and elitist. As president, however, Holley ushered in a period of sustained educational and cultural growth. Transylvania blossomed under his oversight and received national attention for its scientifically progressive, liberal curriculum. Lexington, Kentucky, the seat of Transylvania, benefited directly from his efforts. An influx of students and celebrated faculty lent the city a distinguished atmosphere and gave credibility to the appellation “Athens of the West.”
But Holley’s story is greater than the sum of these experiences. As a young student at a rising American university, a Calvinist minister in a rural New England town, a Unitarian urbanite of national acclaim, a relocated northern Yankee in Kentucky, and president of the first and most prosperous university of the early American West, Holley symbolizes a period of rapid transformation. His experiences reflect a time when westward expansion and social progress ran against developing religious expectations and regional identities. Holley also figures prominently in the history of education in America. His innovations and missteps, successes and defeats, personal connections and bitter advisories make him an important figure not only in the evolution of an emerging state university but also in the emerging state of higher education in early America.
Cameron B. Strang
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640471
- eISBN:
- 9781469640495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640471.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the ...
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Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the natural world in the context of competing empires and an expanding republic in the Gulf South. People often dismissed by starched northeasterners as nonintellectuals--Indian sages, African slaves, Spanish officials, Irishmen on the make, clearers of land and drivers of men--were also scientific observers, gatherers, organizers, and reporters. Skulls and stems, birds and bugs, rocks and maps, tall tales and fertile hypotheses came from them. They collected, described, and sent the objects that scientists gazed on and interpreted in polite Philadelphia. They made knowledge. This book offers a new framework for approaching American intellectual history, one that transcends political and cultural boundaries and reveals persistence across the colonial and national eras. The pursuit of knowledge in the United States did not cohere around democratic politics or the influence of liberty. It was, as in other empires, divided by multiple loyalties and identities, organized through contested hierarchies of ethnicity and place, and reliant on violence. By discovering the lost intellectual history of one region, Strang shows us how to recover a continent for science.Less
Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the natural world in the context of competing empires and an expanding republic in the Gulf South. People often dismissed by starched northeasterners as nonintellectuals--Indian sages, African slaves, Spanish officials, Irishmen on the make, clearers of land and drivers of men--were also scientific observers, gatherers, organizers, and reporters. Skulls and stems, birds and bugs, rocks and maps, tall tales and fertile hypotheses came from them. They collected, described, and sent the objects that scientists gazed on and interpreted in polite Philadelphia. They made knowledge. This book offers a new framework for approaching American intellectual history, one that transcends political and cultural boundaries and reveals persistence across the colonial and national eras. The pursuit of knowledge in the United States did not cohere around democratic politics or the influence of liberty. It was, as in other empires, divided by multiple loyalties and identities, organized through contested hierarchies of ethnicity and place, and reliant on violence. By discovering the lost intellectual history of one region, Strang shows us how to recover a continent for science.
William G. Shade
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807828892
- eISBN:
- 9781469605241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898833_pasley.18
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter begins with a discussion on the emergence of a new cultural history of politics of the early republic that was clearly related to the larger debate among historians over the linguistic ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion on the emergence of a new cultural history of politics of the early republic that was clearly related to the larger debate among historians over the linguistic turn of postmodernism and neo-Marxist critical theory. It then describes the New New Political History, a new cultural history of politics more interested in text and discourse rather than political behavior and policy making.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion on the emergence of a new cultural history of politics of the early republic that was clearly related to the larger debate among historians over the linguistic turn of postmodernism and neo-Marxist critical theory. It then describes the New New Political History, a new cultural history of politics more interested in text and discourse rather than political behavior and policy making.
Matthew Mason
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807830499
- eISBN:
- 9781469606101
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876633_mason
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Giving close consideration to previously neglected debates, this book challenges the common contention that slavery held little political significance in America until the Missouri Crisis of 1819. It ...
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Giving close consideration to previously neglected debates, this book challenges the common contention that slavery held little political significance in America until the Missouri Crisis of 1819. It demonstrates that slavery and politics were enmeshed in the creation of the nation, and in fact there was never a time between the Revolution and the Civil War in which slavery went uncontested. The American Revolution set in motion the split between slave states and free states, but the book explains that the divide took on greater importance in the early nineteenth century. The book examines the partisan and geopolitical uses of slavery, the conflicts between free states and their slaveholding neighbors, and the political impact of African Americans across the country. Offering a full picture of the politics of slavery in the crucial years of the early republic, it demonstrates that partisans and patriots, slave and free—and not just abolitionists and advocates of slavery—should be considered important players in the politics of slavery in the United States.Less
Giving close consideration to previously neglected debates, this book challenges the common contention that slavery held little political significance in America until the Missouri Crisis of 1819. It demonstrates that slavery and politics were enmeshed in the creation of the nation, and in fact there was never a time between the Revolution and the Civil War in which slavery went uncontested. The American Revolution set in motion the split between slave states and free states, but the book explains that the divide took on greater importance in the early nineteenth century. The book examines the partisan and geopolitical uses of slavery, the conflicts between free states and their slaveholding neighbors, and the political impact of African Americans across the country. Offering a full picture of the politics of slavery in the crucial years of the early republic, it demonstrates that partisans and patriots, slave and free—and not just abolitionists and advocates of slavery—should be considered important players in the politics of slavery in the United States.
Sigal R. Ben-Porath and Michael C. Johanek
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226619460
- eISBN:
- 9780226619774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226619774.003.0002
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice ...
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Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice of schooling relative to other means of education (church, family, apprenticeship, etc.), as well as the wide mix of “providers” evident since our early colonial days. By the War for Independence, an education revolution had taken place; what had been an assumed, tradition-guided process, followed unconsciously across generations, became a matter of deliberate choice, and a potential instrument in the competitive and diverse environment of the early nation. A variety of institutions emerged to serve a growing republic’s fluid educational needs, including dame schools, venture schools and academies. From the nation’s birth, the great variety in the schooling market, its educational pluralism, reflected a decentralized political system, shifting roles among educating institutions, and a diverse range of providers and purposes for an uprooted people. By the mid-19th century, however, responding to growing concerns for unity and order, the common school movement emerged to consolidate and professionalize much of US compulsory education.Less
Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice of schooling relative to other means of education (church, family, apprenticeship, etc.), as well as the wide mix of “providers” evident since our early colonial days. By the War for Independence, an education revolution had taken place; what had been an assumed, tradition-guided process, followed unconsciously across generations, became a matter of deliberate choice, and a potential instrument in the competitive and diverse environment of the early nation. A variety of institutions emerged to serve a growing republic’s fluid educational needs, including dame schools, venture schools and academies. From the nation’s birth, the great variety in the schooling market, its educational pluralism, reflected a decentralized political system, shifting roles among educating institutions, and a diverse range of providers and purposes for an uprooted people. By the mid-19th century, however, responding to growing concerns for unity and order, the common school movement emerged to consolidate and professionalize much of US compulsory education.