John Cotton, The Devine Right to Occupy the Land (1630)
1.
“The placing of a people in this or that country is from the appointment of
the Lord.” In other words, God assigns land to a certain people.
2.
God makes room for people in three ways:
•
He casts out enemies of a people before them by lawful war.
(Heathens)
•
He gives a foreign people favor or rights to a land through purchase
•
He makes available places in a country that are vacant, even if the
land it not totally vacant
3.
“…[N]o nation is to drive out another without special commission from
Heaven, such as the Israelites had, unless the natives do unjustly wrong
them, and will not recompense the wrongs done in a peaceful manner.”
4.
“We (the Puritans) must discern how God appoints us this place.”
5. How do a people know if they should emigrate?
·
Sake of knowledge
·
Gain sake
·
Establish a colony
·
Talents are better employed elsewhere
·
To escape bad authorities and avoid evils
·
When some grievous sins overspread a country
·
When escaping over-burdensome debts and miseries
·
When persecuted
Questions:
Was North America vacant?
Does God really appoint a people land?
John Winthrop
A Model of Christian Charity
Main Points:
God has made different classes of men, and, indeed, of all things. All men
are not created equal. The reason hereof:
1.
In conformity to the rest of the world, and demonstrating his wisdom,
God created a great variety and differences in his creatures for the
preservation of the whole.
2.
The differences give humans the opportunity to manifest the work of
the Spirit within them.
3.
•
The poor should be loyal and honest in their service to their
betters and to authorities.
•
The rich and powerful should honestly and loyally dispense with
justice and mercy to the poor.
God made variety and differences so that all men would have a need
of one another. This mutual need knits mankind “more nearly
together in the Bonds of Brotherly affection.” Thus, by serving his
fellow mankind, man serves “the glory of his creator and the common
good of the creature, man.”
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
We have made a covenant with God to form a new colony in a new land and
live as God would want us.

If We Are Good: If we fulfill our covenant (i.e. do justly, love mercy, and
walk humbly with our God) the “Lord will be our God, and delight to
dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon
us in all our ways. So that we shall see much more of his wisdom,
power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted. We
shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be
able to resist a thousand of our enemies…” We will be considered to be
a city upon a hill, and the eyes of all peoples will be upon us.

If We are Bad: “…if we shall neglect the observation of these articles
which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling, with our
God, shall fall to embrace the present world and prosecute our carnal
intention, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord
will surely break out in wrath against us; be revenged of such a [sinful]
people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.”
Questions:
1.
Did the Puritans live up to their ideals?
2.
Why was it necessary for them to leave England?
3.
Does community negate individualism?
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
Questions:
1.
In this world, does God always punish the wicked and bless the virtuous?
2.
Are all men created equal or created different? What does God expect us
to do in regard to treating people equally? When should men be considered
equal? When should they be considered unequal?
3.
What were Winthrop’s views of equality?
4.
Winthrop’s views of community?
5.
What was the Puritan covenant?
6.
Were the eyes of the world really on the Puritans? Were they really a city
upon a hill?
Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)
Background of John Winthrop:
• Born in 1588 near Groton, Suffolk, England
• Served as the governor of Massachusetts for twelve years
• Was a Puritan (traveled to Massachusetts for his religion: to be away from the
impure in England)
• Had an education in law
• In 1634he was censured by John Cotton. Cotton and others believed that
Winthrop was to lenient in religious discipline. Winthrop changed his views in
order to get back in good graces with the clergy.
• Background of Anne Hutchinson:
• Born in 1591 in England
• Was the daughter of a Puritan clergyman
• Had fourteen children
Antinomianism: a belief in an individual, unmediated experience of salvation,
in which the elect can be certain of their future state. In other words a person
who holds that the moral law is no obligation for those who have true faith. A
God speaks directly to that person.
Main Points:
• Male authorities in the Puritan society believed that a woman’s role was to specifically be a wife
and mother and not doing so was unnatural.
•
Anne Hutchinson was a woman and her views were not lightly taken by the opposite sex.
She held meetings in her home with not only women, but also men. For this time period a woman was
not to hold meetings of any kind especially with the opposite sex. The meetings that Hutchinson held
chastised the Puritan teachings and aided others in having new ideas about a religion that had been
taught for years the exact same way. Her new ways of thinking eventually exiled her from the colony.
• Church and state were not separate.
•
“Your course is not to be suffered for, besides that we find such a course as this to be greatly
prejudicial to the state.” In today’s society many a court trials have been held in order to separate
church and state. In these times they coincided with each other and that left more room for
accusations of disobeying the law. Anne Hutchinson was accused of violated the laws of God and
church and state. The governor mentions during the trial that she is dishonoring her parents by not
following the Puritan teachings.
• The Puritan society had no toleration for new ideas.
•
When people of this time period had a new idea is was most likely in their best interest to
forget it if it dealt with religion and/or politics. It was looked as not an innovated idea, but as an
appalling idea. Ideas about these subjects were quickly accused as being an attack upon the church
and its officials. Hutchinson’s meetings were looked upon as having “troubled the peace of the
commonwealth and the churches”. They believed that she truly held a personal attack on the church.
• “Your conscience must keep or it must be kept for you”.
•
The leaders of the colony believed that everyone must behave and believe a certain way to be
socially acceptable. If followers of the colony were believed to be behaving unacceptably they were
“dishonored” publicly for not only humiliation, but also to stop others from not conforming to the
strict Puritan beliefs and laws.
John Winthrop
Little Speech on Liberty
Main Points:
The question addressed: how does the authority of the magistrates stand in
relation to the liberty of the people?
1.
When you see weakness in the leaders (magistrates) you have chosen,
you should reflect upon your own weaknesses since you chose them.
2.
The magistrates try to govern and judge as best as can according to
God’s laws, as well as our own.
3.
If the magistrate’s error is clearly out of wickedness, he must be held
accountable for his transgressions. However, if it is not clear that his
error was due to evil intentions, then the people, who have a covenant
with their leaders, need to bear the consequences of the error.
4. There are two kinds of liberty:
a.
Natural liberty: This is a liberty man shares in common
with beasts. Man, as he stands in relation to man, has the
liberty to do good or evil. The exercise of [natural] liberty
makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than
brute beasts…. This is that great enemy of truth and peace,
that wild beast, which all the ordinances [authorities] of God
are bend against, to restrain and subdue it.
b.
Civil or federal liberty: This liberty is in reference to the
covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the
politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men
themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of
authority…, it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and
honest. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of
subjection to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free.
Analogy: women’s subjection to her husband’s authority
makes her free.
Conclusion: The best way to preserve our civil liberties is to
uphold and honor the power of authority.
If we quietly and cheerfully subject ourselves to civil liberty,
such as Christ allows us, it will be for our own good. If the
magistrates fail honestly at any time, you should advise
them. Since they are doing their best to follow God’s laws,
the magistrates will hearken good advice. In this way,
upholding and honoring the power of authority will preserve
your liberties.
Remember to study
the questions at the
beginning of each
document.
Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Natural Rights of the Colonists as Men:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Right
Right
Right
Right
to
to
to
to
life
Liberty
Property with support to defend it
enter or leave a society
“Those are evident Branches of…the first Law of Nature—
All men have a Right to remain in a State of Nature as
long as they please: And in case of intollerable Oppression,
Civil or Religious, to leave the Society they belong to, and
enter into another.”
“All positive and civil laws, should conform as far as
possible, to the law of natural reason and equity.”
Samuel Johnson
Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
Main Points:
1.
Americans are able to bear taxation.
2.
Every adult pays taxes:
•
“Of every empire all the subordinate communities are
liable to taxation, because they all share the benefits of
government, and, therefore, ought to all furnish their
proportion of the expense.”
•
“As all are born the subjects of some state or other, we
may be said to have been all born contenting to some
system of government.”
•
“Humanity is very uniform. The Americans have this
resemblance to Europeans, that they do not always know
when they are well.”
Samuel Johnson
Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
3. Americans have no proof that parliament ever ceded to
them exemption from obedience.
•
Now there are only two choices: “to allow their claim
to independence or to reduce them, by force, to
submission and allegiance….
•
“If the subject refuses to obey, it is the duty of
authority to use compulsion. Society cannot subsist
but by the power, first of making laws, and then of
enforcing them….”
4. The American rebels are hypocrites.
•
“If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that
we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the
drivers of negroes?”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (January 10, 1776)
Main Points:
This is a very important issue that will affect all future generations.
…The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. “Tis not the affair of a city, a province, or a kingdom, but of a
continent of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. “Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age;
posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by
the proceedings now.
Congress is unable or unwilling to make a decision.
Thomas Paine wrote “Common Sense” to speak out about the indecision of Congress. This document was written
to call people to action in a sense and to move Congress to make a final break from the tyranny of Britain.
Europe, not England is the mother country to the people of America.
Great Britain’s motives were that of interest not of attachment to the people that made the move to America.
4. God is the true King of America.
The King of America reigns above and does not havoc of mankind like the Royal of Britain.
The colonists have done well for themselves and do not need help from Britain.
Not a single advantage will come from being connected to Great Britain.
The colonists must pull together and stand firm.
“Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith, and honor.”
Too much has happened and hard feelings are felt on all sides.
For, as Milton wisely expresses,” never can true reconciliation grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced
so deep.”
Main Points OF Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
• THERE IS NO GOING BACK AFTER BLOOD HAS BEEN SPILT. Any
attempts to work with Great Britain before the “nineteenth of April, i.e., to the
commencement of hostilities, are…useless now…” “The blood of the slain, the
weeping voice of nature cries, ‘tis time to part.”
 WE CAN SURVIVE ECONOMICALLY WELL WITHOUT THE
BRITAIN. “I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show, a single
advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain.”
• We should look at the many injuries that the colonies have undergone and will
continue to undergo as long as we are connected with Great Britain. (3rd¶)
• BRITAIN IS PROTECTING HER OWN INTEREST, NOT OURS. We
don’t need Britain for protection against her enemies nor do we need her for
commerce.
 “…whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of
America goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain.”
 WE DO NOT NEED A KING TO GOVERN OURSELVES. Do away with
monarchies because the divine law (of God) should be “King of America” and the
people should form a government of their own (a republican charter).
 “…let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth
placed on the divine law the word of God…law ought to be king”
• England is not run by France even though the king is a descendant from France.
• AMERICA HAS GROWN UP. Children cannot survive on milk alone and never
get any meat....The colonies have grown up and need to be set free to live on their
own just as children do.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
• Conciliation with America
(1775)
Document Analysis: 3 main points
1. Use of force is not the best option
– Last resort
– Not the British way
– More destruction than good, alienation
– A temporary measure: subdue, but not govern
2. American colonies are different from Britain and as
such requires their own government
– Liberty
– Geographically remote
– Only its own government can cope with problems
3. Britain should respect rights of its colony
Edmund Burke
•
•
•
•
“the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not
remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed , which is
perpetually to be conquered.”
“ My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force; and an
armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource; for,
conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no further hope of reconciliation
is left….”
“A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by your very endeavours to
preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; but
depreciated, sunk, wasted and consumed in the contest….” (Page 21.)
Founder of Conservatism: “Burke maintained that society was a contract, but ‘the
state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a
trade of pepper and coffee, to be taken up for a temporary interest and to be
dissolved by the fancy of the parties.’ The state was a partnership but one ‘not only
between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead
and those who are to be born.’ No one generation therefore has the right to destroy
this partnership; instead, each generation has the duty to preserve and transmit it to
the next. Burke advised against the violent overthrow of a government by revolution,
but he did not reject the possibility of change. Sudden change was unacceptable,
but that did not eliminate gradual or evolutionary improvements.” (Spielvogel, p. 612)
Adam Smith
America and the Wealth of Nations (1776)
1.
Union of the people of Britain and those of her American colonies is important,
and is in both peoples interests.
2.
The uniting of the distant parts of the world has generated wealth and industry.
3.
Native Americans have suffered “every sort of injustice” because of the
Europeans’ superiority of force.
4.
Nothing will better establish equality among nations “than that mutual
communication of knowledge and of all sorts of improvements which an
extensive commerce from all countries to all countries naturally, or rather
necessarily, carries along with it.”
5.
The unjust oppression of industry of other countries falls back…upon the heads
of the oppressors, and crushes their industry more than it does that of those
other countries.
The mercantile system deranges the “natural and most advantageous distribution of
stock…. Monopoly of one kind or another…seems to be the sole engine of the
mercantile system….”
Adam Smith
• To what is Smith reacting?
• The “invisible hand” of the laws of supply and
demand
• Monopolies?
• “Even the regulations by which each nation
endeavours to secure to itself the exclusive trade
of its own colonies, are frequently more hurtful to
the countries in favour of which they are
established than to those against which they are
established.”
Main Points of the Declaration of Independence
• All men are created equal.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,.
• Men are given by god certain unalienable rights.
“They are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
• We have the right by god to declare our independence from England.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and
to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…
Governments derive their authority from the consent of the people.
•
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed.”
• When a government abuses it’s power, the people have the right to
overthrow it.
“That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…
•
The colonies tried repeatedly to compromise with King George, but has
been a tyrant.
“Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government.
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
• Independence is declared.
• All men are created equal. “All men are created equal. We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”
• Men have unalienable Rights: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.
• Governments derive their authority from the consent of the
people. “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.”
• When a government acts despotically, the people have a right and
a duty to overthrow it. “But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security.”
• We have tried to compromise, but King George has persistently
been a tyrant.
James Madison, Federalist #10 (1787-1788)
Human nature is selfish and passionate, and when combined
with reason, individuals have “liberty.”
Liberty = pursuit of property => classes and factions (everyone
cannot have equal property).
Classes
Factious Majority
Factious Minority
REMOVE CAUSES: People could remove the causes of faction, but this would
destroy liberty. This solution is worse than the problem.
SOLUTION: The Federalists sought to work with human nature. They
advocated letting factions run their course, arguing that in a large
republic they would compete with one another and effectively cancel
each other out.
THREE FACTORS THAT WILL CHECK THE TYRANNY OF A FACTION:
1. LARGE POLITY: Thousands of factions will result in a diffusion of factions
that will tend to cancel each other out.
2. REPRESENTATION: Representative government will act as a filter,
protecting the republic form the passions of the masses.
3. SEPARATION OF POWERS: A federal government and a separation of
powers will result in a system checks and balances in power.
Jefferson on Slavery (1784)
Facts about Jefferson
Third President1801-1809
Born: April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia
Died: July 4, 1826 in Monticello in Virginia
Married to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Author: The Declaration of Independence
Supported by slave labor his entire life
Bought eight or more slaves while president
Slaves Born into Freedom
•
Children raised with parents till 21
•
Government paid education/trade school
•
Colonized together
•
Sent to parts of the world for equal number of whites
Separation of the races is needed because deep rooted prejudices between
white and black that will end in extermination of one or the other.)
Differences of Color
Superior beauty (why not in man)
The difference is fixed in nature
•
Greater degree of transpiration ….. (Work better in heat)
•
Require less sleep
•
Seem brave more adventuresome…… (Don’t think about what they
do)
•
Love seems to be a desire not a passion.
•
Memory is equal but reasoning is inferior to whites…
•
Arts…even Indians had traits of design..
•
Music...Very gifted…but composition questioned…
•
No poets …..Misery
•
Romans and Natural History…
Slavery and Laws
Branded as thieves
No property…Can’t take a little from one who has taken all
from him..
Morals….their situation their change their morals..?
Slavery is Familiar
Children learn from their parents.
Why work
They are a firm basis for our nation...
Emancipation (Masters or Revolution)
Slavery is harmful the to slave owners and their
posterity: “The whole commerce between master and
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one
part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our
children see this, and learn to imitate it…”
Thomas Jefferson is
believed to have fathered
children with his slave,
Sally Hemings
http://www.cnn.com/US/99
05/17/jefferson.reunion/
http://www.michaelcosm.com/sub_feat/feat_jeff.html
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thomas Jefferson on Slavery
“Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they
have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances,
will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of
the one or the other race. To these objection, which are political, may be added others, which are physical and
moral.”
Who is Sally Hemings, and how her relationship to Jefferson affect our reading of Jefferson on slavery?
“The circumstance of superior beauty, is thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and
other domestic animals; why not in that of man?”
sweat and disagreeable odor
“They are more ardent after their female; but love seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender
delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless afflictions, which
render it doubtful whether heaven his given life to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten
with them. In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection.” Are the above
generalities useful? Jefferson is a keen observer, but is he as keen as an empathizer?
“…in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior…”
“Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry.” Is Jefferson’s assessment of good poetry
broad or narrow? What factors is he not taking into consideration?
“…though for a century and a half we have had under our eyes the races of black and red men, they have never
yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history. I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks,
whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the
endowments both of body and mind.” What does such a conclusion by one of our most important Founding
Fathers who wrote that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence tell us about the deep
roots of prejudice and racism in our country?
“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the
most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and
learn to imitate it…”
Letters from an American Farmer
Written by Michel St. John De Crevecoeur
Main Points
• The metamorphosis of an European into an American
– Crevecoeur likens poor Europeans to useless plants that
are transplanted and have take root and flourished in
America
• The freedom and opportunities in North America
(social, religious, etc.)
– The chance to be a “freeman” and there are “no princes,
for whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most
perfect society now existing In the world. Here man is
free as he ought to be;”
• To describe and define what it meant to be an
American
– “The American is a new man, who acts upon new
principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and
form new opinions.”
Michel St. John de Crevecoeur
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are Crevecoeur’s Letters a work of fiction or non-fiction?
Development of the wilderness
No system of vassalage: “It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything, and of
a herd of people who have nothing.”
More equality
People of cultivators
“Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour…”
“As freemen they will be litigious; pride and obstinacy are often the cause of law suits.”
“Here religion demand but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God;
can he refuse these?”
“…the laws inspect our actions, our thoughts are left to God.”
“…how religious indifference becomes prevalent.”
On the frontier: “they are often in a perfect state of war.”
Who is Crevecoeur’s main intended audience?
The melting pot.
“He does not find, as in Europe, a crowded society, where every place is over-stocked.”
“The rich stay in Europe, it is only the middling and the poor that emigrate.”
“…he now feels himself a man, because he is treated as such.”
“[He] feel an ardour to labour he never felt before.”
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on Aristocracy
(1813)
Some Main Points
•Adams: Aristocracy and democracy are always at odds. …whig and Tory
belong to natural history.”
•Adams: “…there is a natural aristocracy among men, the grounds of which
are virtue and talents.” Jefferson: “…there is a natural aristocracy among
men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”
•Jefferson: We should have faith in democracy and in the people’s ability to
elect the natural aristocracy to positions of power. “I think the best remedy
is exactly that provided by all our constitutions, to leave to the citizens the
free election and separation of the [aristocrats] from the pseudo[aristocrats], of the wheat from the chaff. In general they will elect the real
good and wise: in some instances, wealth may corrupt, and birth blind them;
but not in sufficient degree to endanger the society….”
•Adams: Aristocracy has its pitfalls, but entrusting power to the people may
be worse. “When I consider the weakness, the folly, the pride, the vanity, the
selfishness, the artifice, the low craft and mean cunning, the want of
principle, the avarice, the unbounded ambition, the unfair cruelty of the
majority of those (in all nations) who are allowed an aristocratical influence,
and, on the other hand the stupidity with which the more numerous multitude
not only become their dupes, but even love to be taken by their tricks, I feel a
stronger disposition to weep at their destiny, than to laugh at their folly.”
•Adams: “Your distinction between natural and artificial aristocracy, does not
appear to me founded.”
Jefferson and Adams on Aristocracy
•
•
•
•
•
•
Adams: “…parties and factions will not suffer improvements to be made. As soon as one
man hints at an improvement, his rival opposes it. No sooner has one party discovered or
invented any amelioration of the condition of man, or the order of society than the opposite
party belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it.
Records are destroyed. Histories are annihilated or interpolated or prohibited; sometimes by
Popes, sometimes by Emperors, sometimes by aristocratical, and sometimes by democratical
assemblies, and sometimes by mobs….” What is Adam’s view of humankind and its ability
to govern itself? Why might he caution against democratic government?
What is natural and artificial aristocracy, according to Jefferson?
How does Jefferson hope to avoid unenlightened mob rule in a democratic society?
Jefferson: “Every one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the
support of law and order.”
Jefferson on Europe: “Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the
American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An insurrection has
consequently begun, of science, talents and courage against rank and birth, which have fallen
into contempt.”
Jefferson: “Every folly must run its round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning, and
self sufficiency; of rejecting the knowledge acquired in past ages, and starting on the new
ground of intuition. When sobered by experience I hope our successors will turn their
attention to the advantages of education.”
Daniel Webster
Against Universal
Manhood Suffrage
(1820)
Daniel Webster
Against Universal Manhood Suffrage (1820)
•Property should have its weight and influence in political
arrangement. “…power naturally and necessarily follows property. He
maintains that a government founded on property is legitimately founded; and that a
government founded on the disregard of property is founded in injustice, and can only
be maintained by military force….” “It seems to me to be plain, that, in the absence of
military force, political power naturally and necessarily goes into the hands which hold
the property. In my judgment, therefore, a republican form of government rest, not
more on political constitutions, than on those laws which regulate the descent and
transmission of property.”
If the nature of our institutions be to found government on property, and that
it should look to those who hold property for its protection, it is entirely just that
property should have its due weight and consideration in political arrangements. Life
and personal liberty are no doubt to be protected by law; but property is also to be
protected by law, and is the fund out of which the means for protecting life and liberty
are usually furnished. We have no experience that teaches us that any other rights
are safe where property is not safe. Confiscation and plunder are generally, in
revolutionary commotions, not far before banishment, imprisonment, and death.”
•Property should be given representation in the Senate because it is
just and also because it provides that check which the constitution
and the legislature requires.”
George Bancroft (1800-1891)
The Office of the People (1835)
George Bancroft
The Office of the People (1835)
•Truth is one. It never contradicts itself: One truth cannot contradict another
truth. Hence truth is a bond of union. But error not only contradicts truth,
but may contradict itself; so that there may be many errors, and each at
variance with the rest. Truth is therefore of necessity an element of
harmony; error as necessarily an element of discord. Thus there can be no
continuing universal judgment but a right one. Men cannot agree in an
absurdity; neither can they agree in a falsehood.
•“For who are the best judges in matters of taste? Do you think the
cultivated individual? Undoubtedly not; but the collective mind. The public is
wiser than the wisest critic.”
•A government of equal rights must…rest upon the mind; not wealth, not
brute force, the sum of the moral intelligence of the community should rule
the State.
•“The duty of America is to secure the culture and the happiness of the
masses by their reliance on themselves.”
•“The government by the people is in very truth the strongest government in
the world. Discarding the implements of terror, it dares to rule by moral
force, and has its citadel in the heart.”
•“…the measure of the progress of civilization is the progress of the people.”
Alexis de Toqueville
Democracy in America
(1835)
“The majority lives in the perpetual
practice of self-applause, and there
are certain truths which the
Americans can only learn from
strangers or from experience.”
•
Main Points:
Democratic government = sovereignty of the majority
•The very essence of government consists in the absolute
sovereignty of the majority; for there is nothing in democratic
states which is capable of resisting it.
•
The moral and intellectual authority of the majority.
•The moral authority of the majority is partly based upon the
notion, that there is more intelligence and more wisdom in a great
number of men collected together than in a single individual, and
that the quantity of legislators is more important than their quality.
The theory of equality is in fact applied to the intellect of man….”
•
The majority can do no wrong.
•The French, under the old monarchy, held it for a maxim (which is
still a fundamental principle of the English Constitution) that the
King could do no wrong; and if he did do wrong, the blame was
imputed to his advisers. This notion was highly favorable to habits
of obedience, and it enabled the subject to complain of the law
without ceasing to love and honor the lawgiver. The Americans
entertain the same opinion with respect to the majority.
Main Points (continued):
• The majority is not immune to misusing absolute power.
•“If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that
power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to
the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their characters by
agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles
increase with the consciousness of their strength.”
• The system of checks and balances merely through a separation of powers is
a delusion.
•“The form of government which is usually termed mixed has always
appeared to me to be a mere chimera. Accurately speaking there is no
such thing as a mixed government, (with the meaning usually given to that
word), because in all communities some one principle of action may be
discovered, which preponderates over the others.”
• The main evil of the present the democratic institutions of the United States
arise from their overpowering strength.
•“In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the
United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their
weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so much
alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country, as at the very
inadequate securities which exist against tyranny.”
Main Points (continued):
• What Tocqueville would prefer: “If, on the other hand, a legislative power could be so
constituted as to represent the majority without necessarily being the slave of its
passions; an executive so as to retain a certain degree of uncontrolled authority; and a
judiciary, so as to remain independent of the two other powers; a government would be
formed which would still be democratic, without incurring any risk tyrannical abuse.”
• Unlike monarchies, the authority of the majority is both moral and physical.
• “The authority of a king is purely physical, and it controls the actions of the subject
without subduing his private will; but the majority possesses a power which is
physical and moral at the same time; it acts upon the will as well as upon the actions
of men, and it represses not only all contest, but all controversy. I know no country
in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in
America.”
• If one goes outside the barriers of acceptable public opinion, as deemed by the majority,
there is very little liberty of opinion.
• “In America the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion:
within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he will repent it
if he ever step beyond them. Not that he is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe,
but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy.”
• Auto-da-fe: (1) public announcement of the sentences imposed on persons tried by the Inquisition and the public
execution of those sentences by the secular authorities. (2) The burning of a heretic at the stake.
• Obloquy: (1) abusively detractive language or utterance; calumny. (2) The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of
abuse or vilification; ill repute.
Main Points (continued):
•Democratic Republics enslave the souls of their citizens through oppressive
pressures to conform.
• “The excesses of monarchical power had devised a variety of physical
means of oppression: the democratic republics of the present day have
rendered it as entirely an affair of the mind as that will which it is
intended to coerce. Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the
body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the
blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but
such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there
the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The sovereign can no longer
say, “You shall think as I do on pain of death;” but he says, “You are free to
think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that
you possess; but if such be your determination, you are henceforth an
alien among your people….”
• “Your fellow creatures will shun you like an impure being; and those who
are most persuaded of Your innocence will abandon you too, lest they
should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace! I have given you your life,
but it is in an existence incomparably worse than death.”
•The majority lives in the perpetual practice of self-applause, and there are
certain truths which the Americans can only learn from strangers or from
experience.
Main Points (continued):
• Lawyers are an important check against the passions of the
majority.
• In visiting the Americans and in studying their laws, we
perceive that the authority they have entrusted to members of
the legal profession, and the influence which these individuals
exercise in the Government, is the most powerful existing
security against the excesses of democracy.
• Lawyers are attached to public order beyond every other
consideration, and the best security of public order is
authority.
• Lawyers: the American Aristocracy. “In America there are no
nobles or men of letters, and the people is apt to mistrust the
wealthy; lawyers consequently form the highest political class,
and the most cultivated circle of society. They have therefore
nothing to gain by innovation, which adds a conservative interest
to their natural taste for public order. If I were asked where I
place the American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation
that it is not composed of the rich, who are united together by no
common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and the bar.”
Main Points (continued):
•An expansive frontier makes American democracy viable in practice.
• Their ancestors gave them love of equality and of freedom; but God
himself gave them the means of remaining equal and free, by placing
them upon a boundless continent, which is open to their exertions.
• Millions of men are marching at once towards the same horizon; their
language, their religion, their manners differ, their object is the same.
The gifts of fortune are promised in the West, and to the West they
bend their course.
• The passions which agitate the Americans most deeply are not their
political but their commercial passions; or, to speak more correctly,
they introduce the habits they contract in business into their political
life. They love order, without which affairs do not prosper; and they
set an especial value upon a regular conduct, which is the foundation
of a solid business; they prefer the good sense which amasses large
fortunes to that enterprising spirit which frequently dissipates them;
general ideas alarm their minds, which are accustomed to positive
calculations, and they hold practice in more honor than theory.
John L. O’Sullivan, Manifest Destiny
Westward Expansion:
“Our Manifest destiny is to overspread the
continent allotted by Providence for the free
development of our yearly multiplying millions.”


“Texas is now ours.” Texas has no
obligation to Mexico and the United States
needs welcome the annexation of Texas.
“There is a great deal of Annexation yet to
take place, within the life of the present
generation, along the whole line of our
northern border.”