Founding Fictions

Acknowledgments

Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique Series Editor John Louis Lucaites Editorial Board Richard Bauman Barbara Biesecker Carole Blair Dilip Gaonkar Robert Hariman Steven Mailloux Raymie E. McKerrow Toby Miller Austin Sarat Janet Staiger Barbie Zelizer Founding Fictions JENNIFER R. MERCIECA THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS Tuscaloosa Copyright © 2010 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Typeface: Bembo ∞ The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mercieca, Jennifer R. Founding fictions / Jennifer R. Mercieca. p. cm. — (Rhetoric, culture, and social critique) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8173-1690-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8173-8355-8 1. United States—Politics and government—To 1775. 2. United States—Politics and government—1775–1783. 3. United States—Politics and government—1783–1865. 4. Citizenship—United States—History—18th century. 5. Citizenship—United States—History—19th century. 6. Political culture—United States—History—18th century. 7. Political culture—United States—History—19th century. 8. Political stability—United States—History. 9. Political participation—United States—History. 10. Democracy—United States—History. I. Title. E302.1.M47 2010 973.2—dc22 2009032189 For my mother, whose unfailing love gave me the confidence to try. Viva Lir-Rebbieh ! (Hail to the Victor!) Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem [I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude] —Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787 Consistency, is not, I know a trait in democracy! When it suits there [sic] purpose—when unanswerable arguments are opposed to democrats, then our ears are stunned with the people, the sovereign people demand it—the public will is in its favor—& we must bow submissive. But these same men, when they pursue measures to which they conceive the public mind is opposed, then tell us, that the people are uninformed—they are a rabble incapable of judging—& good legislatures will not consult them. —New Hampshire senator William Plumer, 1803 Your question is: why am I so interested in politics? But if I were to answer you very simply, I would say this: why shouldn’t I be interested? That is to say, what blindness, what deafness, what density of ideology would have to weigh me down to prevent me from being interested in what is probably the most crucial subject to our existence, that is to say the society in which we live, the economic relations within which it functions, and the system of power which defines the regular forms and the regular permissions and prohibitions of our conduct. . . . So instead of asking me, you should ask someone who is not interested in politics and then your question would be well-founded, and you would have the right to say ‘Why, damn it, are you not interested?’ —Michel Foucault, 1971 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. “Republicanism was an indefinite term”: Political Fictions as Critical Tools for Citizenship 9 2. “The Revolution was in the minds of the people”: Citizens as Romantic Heroes, 1764–1776 42 3. “The American Constitution is that little article of HOPE, left at the bottom of Pandora’s box of evils”: Citizens as Tragic Victims, 1783–1789 83 4. “Who would not have been willing to have died such a death?”: Citizens as Reified Patriot Heroes, July 4, 1826 120 5. “I will not look up to the weather-cock of popularity, to see which way the gale is blowing”: Citizens as Ironic Partisans, 1816–1845 147 Conclusion 202 Notes 219 Index 269 ...