Everything about Republicanism In The United States totally explained
Republicanism is the value system of governance that has been a major part of
American civic thought since the
American Revolution. It stresses
liberty and
rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects aristocracy and inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent and calls on them to perform
civic duties, and is strongly opposed to corruption. American Republicanism was founded and first practiced by the
Founding Fathers in the 18th century. This system was based on early Roman and English models and ideas. It formed the basis for the
American Revolution, the
Declaration of Independence (1776) and the
Constitution (1787), as well as critical statements from
Abraham Lincoln and other Statesmen. It isn't the same as democracy, for republicanism asserts that people have inalienable rights that can't be voted away by a majority of voters. In a government made up as a
Constitutional Republic, the Rule of Law and clearly defined constitutional principles dictate the actual administration of government.
The American Revolution
Republican virtues
The intellectual and political leaders in the 1760s-1770s closely read history to compare governments and their effectiveness of rule. They were especially concerned with the history of liberty in England, and were primarily influenced by the "country" party in British politics, which roundly denounced the corruption surrounding the "court" party in London. This approach produced a political ideology called "
republicanism", which was widespread in America by 1775. "Republicanism was the distinctive political consciousness of the entire Revolutionary generation." Pocock explained the intellectual sources in America:
» "The Whig canon and the neo-Harringtonians,
John Milton,
James Harrington and
Sidney,
Trenchard,
Gordon and
Bolingbroke, together with the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance masters of the tradition as far as
Montesquieu, formed the authoritative literature of this culture; and its values and concepts were those with which we've grown familiar: a civic and patriot ideal in which the personality was founded in property, perfected in citizenship but perpetually threatened by corruption; government figuring paradoxically as the principal source of corruption and operating through such means as patronage, faction, standing armies (opposed to the ideal of the militia), established churches (opposed to the Puritan and deist modes of American religion) and the promotion of a monied interest—though the formulation of this last concept was somewhat hindered by the keen desire for readily available paper credit common in colonies of settlement.Thomas Jefferson wanted to minimize the differences between the two parties and to calm the passions that the bitter campaign had aroused. A neoclassical politics provided both the ethos of the elites and the rhetoric of the upwardly mobile, and accounts for the singular cultural and intellectual homogeneity of the Founding Fathers and their generation."
Cause of Revolution
The commitment of most Americans to republican values and to their property rights helped bring about the
American Revolution, for Britain was increasingly seen as corrupt and hostile to republicanism, and a threat to the established liberties that Americans enjoyed and to American property rights. The greatest threat to liberty was thought by many to be corruption--not just in London but at home as well. The colonists associated it with luxury and, especially, inherited aristocracy, which they condemned. (A few Americans did gain English titles, but they moved to London.)
The "
Founding Fathers" were strong advocates of republican values, especially
Samuel Adams,
Patrick Henry,
George Washington,
Thomas Paine,
Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison and
Alexander Hamilton.
Thomas Jefferson defined a republic as:
Founding Fathers discoursed endlessly on the meaning of "republicanism." John Adams in 1787 defined it as "a government, in which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are equally subject to the laws."
Virtue vs. Commerce
The open question, as Pocock suggested, of the conflict between personal economic interest (grounded in Lockean liberalism) and classical republicanism, troubled Americans.
Jefferson and
Madison roundly denounced the Federalists for creating a national bank as tending to corruption and monarchism;
Alexander Hamilton staunchly defended his program, arguing that national economic strength was necessary for the protection of liberty. Jefferson never relented but by 1815 Madison switched and announced in favor of a national bank, which he set up in 1816.
John Adams often pondered the issue of civic virtue. Writing
Mercy Otis Warren in 1776, he agreed with the Greeks and the Romans, that, "Public Virtue can't exist without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics." Adams insisted, "There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights
of society."
Adams worried that a businessman might have financial interests that conflicted with republican duty; indeed, he was especially suspicious of banks. He decided that history taught that "the Spirit of Commerce . . . is incompatible with that purity of Heart, and Greatness of soul which is necessary for a happy Republic." But so much of that spirit of commerce had infected America. In New England, Adams noted, "even the Farmers and Tradesmen are addicted to Commerce." As a result, there was "a great Danger that a Republican Government would be very factious and turbulent there."
Other influences
A second stream of thought growing in significance was the classical liberalism of
John Locke, including his theory of the "
social contract". This had a great influence on the revolution as it implied the inborn
right of the people to overthrow their leaders should those leaders betray the agreements implicit in the sovereign-follower relationship. Historians find little trace of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influence in America. In terms of writing state and national constitutions, the Americans used
Montesquieu's analysis of the ideally "balanced" British Constitution. But first and last came a commitment to republicanism, as shown by many historians such as
Bernard Bailyn and
Gordon S. Wood.
Historiography
For a century, historians have debated how important republicanism was to the Founding Fathers. The interpretation before 1960, following Progressive School historians such as
Charles Beard,
Vernon L. Parrington and
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., downplayed rhetoric as superficial and looked for economic motivations.
Louis Hartz refined the position in the 1950s, arguing
John Locke was the most important source because his property-oriented
liberalism supported the materialistic goals of Americans.
In the 1960s and 1970s, two new schools emerged that emphasized the primacy of ideas as motivating forces in history (rather than material self interest).
Bernard Bailyn,
Gordon Wood and the "Cambridge School" led by
J.G.A. Pocock emphasized slightly different approaches to republicanism. However, some scholars, especially
Isaac Kramnick, continue to emphasize Locke, arguing that Americans are fundamentally individualistic and not devoted to civic virtue. The relative importance of republicanism and liberalism remains a topic of strong debate among historians, as well as the politically active of present day.
New Nation: The Constitution
The
Founding Fathers wanted republicanism because its principles guaranteed liberty, with opposing, limited powers offsetting one another. They thought change should occur slowly, as many were afraid that a "democracy"- by which they meant a
direct democracy- would allow a majority of voters at any time to trample rights and liberties in the
"heat of a moment". They believed the most formidable of these potential majorities was that of the poor against the rich. They thought democracy could take the form of
mob rule that could be shaped on the spot by a demagogue. Therefore they devised a written Constitution which could only be amended by a super majority, preserved competing sovereignties in the constituent states, gave the control of the upper house (Senate) to the states, and created an
Electoral College, comprising a small number of elites, to select the president. They set up a House of Representative to represent the people. In practice the electoral college soon gave way to control by political parties. In 1776 most states required property ownership to vote, but most citizens owned farms in the 90% rural nation, it wasn't a severe restriction. As the country urbanized and people took on different work, the property ownership requirement was gradually dropped by many states.
"Republican" as party name
In 1792-93 Jefferson and Madison created a new "republican party" in order to promote their version of the doctrine. They wanted to suggest that Hamilton's version was illegitimate. According to Federalist
Noah Webster, an opposing Federalist political activist bitter at the defeat of the Federalist party in the White House and Congress, the choice of the name "Republican" was "a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party.... The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington's character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration." The party, which is also known as the
Democratic-Republican Party, split into separate factions in the 1820s, one of which became the
Democratic Party. The Democrats (or American Democracy) were opposed by a party that chose a name, derived from the Patriots of the 1770s who started the
American Revolution, the Whigs. Both of these parties proclaimed their devotion to republicanism.
Under the new government after the Revolution, "
republican motherhood" became an ideal, as exemplified by
Abigail Adams and
Mercy Otis Warren. The first duty of the republican woman was to instill republican values in her children, and to avoid luxury and ostentation.
As late as 1800, the word "democrat", as then used, was mostly used to attack an opponent. Thus
George Washington in 1798 complained, "that you could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a profest Democrat; and that he'll leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country." The
Federalist Papers are pervaded by the idea that pure democracy is actually quite dangerous, because it allows a majority to infringe upon the rights of a minority. Thus Madison argued in Federalist #10, a special interest may take control of a small area, but it couldn't easily take over a large nation. Thus, the larger the nation, the safer is republicanism.
Military Service
Civic virtue required men to put civic goals ahead of their personal desires, and to volunteer to fight for their country. As
John Randolph of Roanoke put it, "When citizen and soldier shall be synonymous terms, then you'll be safe." Scott (1984) notes that in both the American and French revolutions, distrust of foreign mercenaries led to the concept of a national, citizen army, and the definition of military service was changed from a choice of careers to a civic duty. Herrera (2001) explains that an appreciation of self-governance is essential to any understanding of the American military character before the Civil War. Military service was considered an important demonstration of patriotism and an essential component of citizenship. To soldiers, military service was a voluntary, negotiated, and temporary abeyance of self-governance by which they signaled their responsibility as citizens. In practice self-governance in military affairs came to include personal independence, enlistment negotiations, petitions to superior officials, militia constitutions, and negotiations regarding discipline. Together these impacted on all aspects of military order, discipline, and life.
Civil War and Reconstruction
Historian
Frank Lawrence Owsley depicted antebellum Southern society as a broad class of yeoman farmers who stood and worked between the slaves and poor whites at one end and the large planters at the opposite end of the economic spectrum, Owsley asserted that the real South was liberal, American, and Jeffersonian, not radical or reactionary. It reflected the best of republican principles (though Owsley didn't use the word "republicanism.") Agrarianism in the 20th century was a response to the industrialism and modernism that had infiltrated the South. According to Owsley, the position of the South vis-à-vis the North was created not by slavery, cotton, or states' rights, but by the two regions' misunderstanding of each other. J. Mills Thornton argues that in the antebellum South the drive to preserve republican values was the most powerful force, and led Southerners to interpret Northern policies as a threat to their republican values.
In reaction to the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, antislavery forces in the North formed a new party. The party officially designated itself "Republican" because the name resonated with the struggle of 1776. "In view of the necessity of battling for the first principles of republican government," resolved the Michigan state convention, "and against the schemes of aristocracy the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed, or man debased, we'll co-operate and be known as Republicans."
Progressive Era
A central theme of the Progressive era was fear of corruption, one of the core ideas of republicanism since the 1770s. The Progressives restructured the political system to defeat corrupt bosses (for example, by the direct election of Senators), to remove corrupt influence like saloons (through prohibition) and bringing in new, purer voters (woman suffrage).). Debate erupted in 1917 over
Woodrow Wilson's proposal to draft men for the U.S. Army. Many said it violated the republican notion of freely given civic duty to force people to serve. The solution was to set it up so that each draftee voluntarily "stepped forward" to perform his civic duty.
New Deal Era to 2006
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!" cried out President
John F. Kennedy in a dramatic call for the American people to honor the core republican value of civic duty.
In the
presidential election of 2004, one of the chief topics of discussion was whether the candidates
John Kerry and
George W. Bush had properly fulfilled their civic duty of fighting for their country, part of the republican duties. Opponents charged that Bush had shirked his National Guard duties, or conversely that Kerry didn't earn the medals he was awarded in Vietnam. A similar debate over performance of civic duty took place in the
presidential election of 1888, when Republicans emphasized that Democrat
Grover Cleveland had purchased a substitute to fight for him in the Civil War, while his opponent
Benjamin Harrison was in combat.
Legal terminology
The term
republic doesn't appear in the
Declaration of Independence, but does appear in Article IV of the Constitution which "guarantee[s] to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government." What exactly the writers of the constitution felt this should mean is uncertain. The
Supreme Court, in
Luther v. Borden (1849), declared that the definition of
republic was a "political question" in which it wouldn't intervene. In two later cases, it did establish a basic definition. In
United States v. Cruikshank (1875), the court ruled that the "equal rights of citizens" were inherent to the idea of republic. In
re Duncan, it ruled that the "right of the people to choose their government" is also part of the definition. It is also generally assumed that the clause prevents any state from being a monarchy — or a dictatorship.
Democracy
Over time, the pejorative connotations of "democracy" faded. By the 1830s, democracy was seen as an unmitigated positive and the term "Democratic" was assumed by the
Democratic Party and the term "Democrat" was adopted by its members. A common term for the party in the later 19th century was "The Democracy." In debates on
Reconstruction, Senator
Charles Sumner argued that the republican "guarantee clause" in Article IV supported the introduction by force of law of democratic suffrage in the defeated South.
As the limitations on democracy were slowly removed, property qualifications for state voters were eliminated (1820s); initiative,
referendum, recall and other devices of direct democracy became widely accepted at the state and local level (1910s); and senators were made directly electable by the people (1913). Thus, most people now refer to the United States and its system of government as a democracy.
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