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126 culture and liberty in the age of the american revolution early modern, still largely traditional, society, this was mostly a marriage of convenience rather than love, one of rhetoric rather than consummation, but its contribution to the fashioning of a new cultural and intellectual habitat for liberty cannot be overstated. VI. Equality as the Future of America Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal. —Benjamin Rush, 1786 To return to the query posed earlier about the apparent discrepancy between the words and actions of the Revolutionary leaders regarding equal liberty, a careful examination of their writings reveals that they were well aware that equal rights, so central to their rhetoric, were more figurative and symbolic than factual. This, however, was not inconsistent with their larger world view. They made a distinction between the universal principle of including all people in the sphere of liberty, and the deficient realities of contemporary life, which had not yet made its full application feasible . Whenever any specifics about literal inclusion came up, they invariably pointed to some undefined moment in the future when ordinary people would acquire the attributes qualifying them to own all liberties. What is especially telling when one looks at the list of attributes that the common people needed to someday attain to qualify for full liberty is that it was a carbon copy of the qualities traditionally claimed by those who already did possess the full range of liberties. When John Adams contemplated the future e√ects of the new system of government on the population, he anticipated that a ‘‘Constitution like this . . . naturally introduces generally Knowledge into the community and inspires the People with a conscious Dignity. . . . Pride which is introduced by such a Government among the People, makes them brave and enterprising. That ambition which is introduced into every Rank makes them sober, industrious and frugal.’’ David Ramsay went even the revolution 127 further in his enthusiasm for the changes to be e√ected by the new republic, noting with scientific certainty: ‘‘I flatter myself that in a few centuries the negroes will lose their black color. I think they are less black in Jersey than in Carolina, their [lips] less thick, their noses flat. The state of society has an influence no less than climate.’’∏≠ In his mind, there was a certain cultural rationale for such beliefs; liberty was a privilege, and acceptance of new members to the club of the free was conditional on them becoming like those who thought of themselves as normative members. Faith in progress was not infrequently intertwined with overt acknowledgments of the symbolic nature of liberty. In a 1787 essay in Worcester Magazine, the author, reacting to the threats spread by ‘‘the lawless hand of faction,’’ calls for more education: ‘‘If America would flourish as a republic, she need only attend to the education of its youth. Learning is the palladium of her rights—as this flourishes her greatness will encrease.’’ In a republican government, the author continued, where ‘‘every citizen has an equal right of election to the chief o≈ces of the state,’’ learning should be ‘‘universally di√used.’’ But the caveat that follows is revealing of the nominal nature of this statement, as the authors notes that ‘‘those who are busied in the humbler walks of life need not the aid of literature to become proficients in their occupation,’’ and that he ‘‘would not insinuate that every man ought to aspire at the chief magistracy [since] this would throw a community into great confusion.’’∏∞ It was quite consistent with such perceptions that the Founding era placed so much emphasis on the education of the masses. Soon after Independence, thefutureenlightenmentofordinarypeoplebecameaprominentcomponent of the public conversation on freedom. ‘‘Ignorance, darkness and superstition, have ever had their source in oppression and injustice; while truth and science have been constant attendants upon liberty,’’ observed David Gri≈th, in a sermon he preached at Williamsburg in 1775. The Anti-Federalist ‘‘Farmer,’’ who otherwise unequivocally excluded the lowest populace from the current political scene, nevertheless declared solemnly that someday they, too, would become educated in ‘‘the principles of free government,’’ and that ‘‘light would penetrate, where mental darkness now reigns.’’ David Ramsay saw a ‘‘zeal for promoting learning’’ across America, with various emerging institutions of learning ‘‘which must light up such a blaze of knowledge, as cannot fail to...

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