The American Republic

Introduction

xvii Introduction 1. Belz, The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union; Hall, Leder, and Kammen,The Glorious Revolution in America; Hyneman and Lutz, American Political Writing during the Founding Era: 1760 –1805; Lutz, Colonial Origins of the American Constitution; McDonald, Empire and Nation; Edmund Sears Morgan, ed., Prologue to Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764 –1766 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959); Sandoz, Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730 –1805; and White, Democratick Editorials. In the latter decades of the twentieth century scholars working in various subfields of American history brought a great deal of formerly neglected material to light. This material concerns issues ranging from the role of religious arguments and leaders in public life, to the breadth of historical understanding characterizing public debate, to the specifically British memories and sensibilities of Americans , to the importance of early constitutional documents and Americans’ constitutional sophistication. In each of these areas the new material has made it possible for scholars to reexamine and reevaluate existing theories regarding the development of American politics. These new discoveries have opened vast new areas for fruitful research concerning the influences and concerns motivating those who have helped shape the character of American politics and the American people. Unfortunately, very little of this material is available in a form suitable for classroom use. This has left teachers to seek out half-measures—summarizing on their own or assigning works they know will not be read—in attempting to present American history in something approaching its true diversity and depth. Collections by Belz; Hall, Leder, and Kammen; Hyneman and Lutz; Lutz; McDonald; Morgan; Sandoz; and White,1 among others; have allowed scholars increased access to constitutional documents, declarations, sermons, and other public writings showing the factors that shaped public life in America, both before and after the War for Independence. Without diminishing the role accorded speci fically ideological concerns and philosophical writings, these new materials have helped scholars better evaluate the sources and meanings of public acts ranging from colonial settlement to the War for Independence, to the Constitution, and to the Civil War. Nosinglecourse,whetherinhighschool,college,oreven graduate school, could deal adequately with all the important materials unearthed in recent decades. However, by bringing together, in one manageable volume, key original documents and other writings that throw light on the cultural , religious, and historical concerns that have been raised, this volume aims to provide the means by which students and teachers may begin examining the diversity of issues and influences that characterize American history. We now have access to crucial materials attesting to the importance of the context in which Americans spoke of practices such as liberty and religious freedom. A hitherto neglected literature now can enable scholars and students to discuss the American drive for liberty, not merely as a political concept, but as a religious idea, a historical practice, and a constitutional concern to be guaranteed and given substance through both national institutions and local customs. The readings selected here represent opposite sides of important debates concerning, for example, American independence, religious establishment, and slavery. Conclusions regarding America’s nature and development as a nation and as a people will vary, not least because American history is one of religious, ideological, and cultural conflict. Such conflicts have pitted the drive for community against the drive for individual autonomy, the call of God against the call of a wild nature to be confronted in near isolation, the desire for wealth against the desire to be held virtuous, and the demand for equality against respect for established authority. But exposure to the principal public acts and arguments engaged in these conflicts will provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of their nature and sources—and of their influence on American history. America’s history has been characterized by both continuity and change. Even before the Civil War, at which pointthisvolumeleavesoff,Americantraditions,withtheir roots deep in the histories of Great Britain, Rome, Greece, xviii Introduction 2. The classic work dealing with America’s cultural inheritance is Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order (Washington, 1991). and Israel, had been markedly transformed by changes in circumstances and public understanding.2 But even traditions that have been transformed or weakened over time continue to influence public conduct, and with it the shape of both nations and peoples. By presenting readings from the perspectives of America’s varied traditions, this...