“Centinel” [Samuel Bryan] I
Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), October 5, 1787
Following are a series of excerpts: (more…)
Tag: Britain
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The Defense Against Encroachments
James Varnum. By: John Nelson Arnold. While during the American Revolution, the judiciary was mostly forgotten, in the interest of controlling gubernatorial power by empower legislatures, that began to change during the 1780s.
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Constitution Sunday: “An American Citizen” [Tench Coxe] I
“An American Citizen” [Tench Coxe] I
Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), September 26, 1787
Following is an excerpt: (more…)
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A Perceived Burden of Intolerable Evils
John Quincy Adams. By: John Singleton Copley. After the American Revolution and after the war with Britain, America was suffering what appeared to be a crisis.
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The Emergence of American Principles and Tempers
Thomas Paine. By: Laurent Dabos. As the American Revolution approached “most Americans had become convinced that they were ‘aptly circumstanced to form the best republicks, upon the best terms that ever came to the lot of any people before us.’” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 98 quoting Phila. Pa. Packet, Feb. 12, 1776; Purdie’s Wmsbg. Va. Gazette, May 17, 1776.
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Autopsies of the Dead Republics
Edmund Pendleton. By: William Pendleton. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were intertwined with the American Revolution and the establishment of the American republic.
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Building the Momentum of the Revolution
James Iredell. By: Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Memin. For a revolution, and particularly a bloodless revolution, to occur, the momentum must build so that the population’s outrage culminates in a change of power and a change of government. How the people sparking the flame that leads to the roaring fire of revolution is a subject worth studying, as revolutions are an inevitable fact of life in the world.
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Coalescing All the States
John Adams. By: John Singleton Copley. Americans had a keen understanding of the idea, popularized by Montesquieu, that “only a small homogeneous society whose interests were essentially similar could properly sustain a republican government.” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 356. This idea created a fundamental problem for America: it was not a small homogeneous society, and it was rapidly expanding.
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The Greatest Question Ever Yet Agitated
Samuel Johnson. By: Joshua Reynolds. In the early 1770s, the colonists and Britain began to debate “the greatest Question ever yet agitated.” John Adams, entry, Mar. 4, 1773, Butterfield, ed., Diary of Adams, II, 77. That question was focused on sovereignty and John Adams expressed the view that it was necessary and “should some where be lodged a supreme power over the whole.” Id.
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Virtue as a Principle and Foundation
John Adams. By: Gilbert Stuart. At the time of the Revolution, republicanism was permeating political discourse and political theory. John Adams asked in 1776 that “[i]f there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?” He continued by explaining that a republican constitution “introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.” John Adams, Thoughts on Government, Adams, ed., Works of John Adams, IV, 194, 199.
Last Best Hope of Earth 