Creating a Republican Creating a Republican CultureCulture

By Neil HammondMillbrook High School

The Capitalist The Capitalist CommonwealthCommonwealth

• Inspired by their political freedom, Americans sought to extend republican principles throughout their society. However, they did not agree on what those principles were. For entrepreneurial-minded merchants, farmers, and political leaders, republicanism meant capitalism

• Capitalism needed a solid banking system– 1791 National Bank – Fed / DR split– 1811 Madison and DR’s allow the charter to expire

• To fill the gap merchants, artisans and farmers petitioned their state legislatures to charter state banks– By 1816 there were 246 state banks with $68 million in

circulation– State banks often shady institutions that printed too

much money and made ill-advised loans

The Capitalist Commonwealth: The Capitalist Commonwealth: The Panic of 1819The Panic of 1819

• After the War of 1812, the Democratic-Republicans chartered a 2nd national bank. The states were all in debt because of the War of 1812, so many felt a more central solution was required.

• Panic of 1819– Partly caused by state bank practices– Mainly caused by a 30% drop in agricultural

prices– By 1821 the surviving state banks only had $45

million currency– Many farmers and businesses went bankrupt

• It was America’s first taste of a “business cycle”. It led to much hostility toward banks in the 1820s and 1830s.The Panic also revealed how much of rural America had become entwined in larger markets

The Capitalist Commonwealth: The Capitalist Commonwealth: Rural ManufacturingRural Manufacturing

• The Panic of 1819 also revealed that artisans and yeomen as well as merchants now depended for their prosperity on the market economy.

• By 1800 American manufacturers had developed a rural manufacturing network. Enterprising merchants bought raw materials, hired workers in farm families to process them, and sold the finished manufactures in regional or national markets.

• This system offered new gains and risks to farmer, and many farmers switched from growing subsistence crops to growing livestock for sale– Environmental impact– Many farmers lost some of their independence b/c

they became dependent on wages and manufactured goods (that they had once made for themselves)

The Capitalist Commonwealth: The Capitalist Commonwealth: Transportation Bottlenecks and Transportation Bottlenecks and

Government InitiativesGovernment Initiatives• America’s size became a problem…

– Many new towns not near navigable waterways– Roads built (turnpikes)

• Commonwealth System

• State legislatures…state mercantilism– American state legislatures passed measures

they thought would be “of great public utility” and increase the “common wealth.”

– Special charters, limited liability, eminent domain– Many citizens condemned these rights, but John

Marshall’s Supreme Court upheld them– Turnpikes / roads

The Impact of Jefferson's Embargo The Impact of Jefferson's Embargo and the War of 1812and the War of 1812

• State mercantilism soon encompassed much more than transportation. Following Jefferson's embargo of 1807, which cut off goods and credit from Europe, the New England states awarded charters to two hundred iron-mining, textile-manufacturing, and banking companies, and Pennsylvania granted more than eleven hundred. By 1820, innovative state governments had created a republican political economy: a Commonwealth system that funneled state aid to private businesses whose projects would improve the general welfare.

The American SystemThe American System

• After the War of 1812, Henry Clay (mainly) and John Calhoun suggested a national system

• 1. 2nd bank of USA (approved)

• 2. Protective tariffs (approved in 1816…but as a short term measure…became an issue in the 1820s and 1830s)

• 3. Internal Improvements (Vetoed by Monroe)

Toward a Democratic-Republican Toward a Democratic-Republican CultureCulture

Social and Political Equality for White Men

• Between 1780 and 1820, hundreds of well-educated Europeans visited the United States and agreed, almost unanimously, that the American republic embodied a genuinely new social order. In his famous Letters from an American Farmer (1782), French-born essayist J. Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur wrote that European society was composed “of great lords who possess everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing.” America, by contrast, had “no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops.”

• Americans celebrated greater opportunities for social advancement, but those opportunities were generally denied to White women and free blacks

Toward a Democratic-Republican Toward a Democratic-Republican CultureCulture

Between 1800 and 1830, the United States moved steadily toward political equality for white men. Many existing states revised their constitutions and replaced a property qualification for voting with a less-restrictive criterion (the voter must pay taxes or have served in the militia). Some new states in the West extended the suffrage for all adult white men. As parties sought votes from a broader electorate, the tone of politics became more open and competitive—swayed by the interests and values of ordinary people.

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

The American Revolution & Slavery

• Some American’s questioned slavery– Quakers– Methodists and Baptists– Enlightenment…e.g. Locke…ideas not innate

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

The American Revolution & Slavery

• Impact of the revolution….North / South divide

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

Differences in the South

• Slavery was declining in the Upper South

• Lower South imported lots of slaves from 1770 to 1808

• Impact of Prosser’s Rebellion– Slave rebellion in Virginia 1800– All talk of manumission dropped

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

The North and South Grow Apart

• Economy

• Education levels – 1820 Nearly all native born New Englanders

could read and write– More than 1/3 of Southerners lacked those

basic skills

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

Compromises

• 1787…Compromises over slavery– 3/5 Representation– Fugitive Slave Law– Slave Trade – Congress would address the

issue in 1808

• The issue of slavery popped up in the 1790s and early 1800s– Rebellion in Haiti – relations with new

country??– Impressment – attacked in “slave language”

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

Continued Fighting Over Slavery

• 1808 External slave trade abolished– Some called for an end to the “internal slave

trade”

• War of 1812– Southerners argued for and received

compensation for slaves seized by the British

• Congress enacted legislation upholding property rights of slave owners in DC– Why would this slavery in DC be controversial?

Americans and Westward Americans and Westward MovementMovement

• FF’s had assumed slavery would die out

• Expansion into deep south…cotton…new states

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

Colonization

• 1817 American Colonization Society– 1) End slavery– 2) send free blacks back to Africa

• Dismal failure– Few slaves were ever freed– The organization lacked money…it only

had resources to send a limited number of former slaves back to Africa

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

Colonization

• Free blacks rejected this plan

• Richard Allen– Bought his freedom– Founded separate congregation for

Philadelphia black Methodists (AME Church)– In 1818, 3000 free blacks met in Allen’s

church to condemn colonization and claim American citizenship

• ACS only sent 6000 free blacks back to Africa

Aristocratic Republicanism Aristocratic Republicanism and Slaveryand Slavery

The Missouri Crisis

• Complete the Missouri Compromise Worksheet

Christian RepublicanismChristian Republicanism1790s Revivals

• 1) Protestant Christian values became deeply embedded in the country

• 2) Impacted women and African-Americans most

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismPost 1776

• Before 1776 most states had established churches (only RI and PA did not have an established church)

• 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom– Following independence, state churches were

NOT the norm

• But slow change…1830s NE still had est. churches. Some states had “tests”

Christian RepublicanismChristian Republicanism

2nd Great Awakening

• Certain churches prospered– Churches that preached spiritual equality– Churches that governed themselves

democratically

22ndnd Great Awakening Great AwakeningPost 1776

• Like 1st GA…piety NOT theology

• Importance of migration and frontier

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismBlack Protestantism

• Evangelical protestants in the South were initially disruptive– Emphasized spiritual equality– Criticized slavery

• Husbands and planters grew angry when their wives became more assertive and when blacks were welcomed into Congregations

• To retain white men in Southern churches Methodists and Baptists adapted their religious message:– Baptists…men naturally in charge of women– Methodists…Christian slaves must be

submissive, faithful and obedient

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismBlack Protestantism

• But some Evangelicals DID take the message to black slaves.

• Blacks adapted the Christian message for their own spiritual needs:– Rejected original sin– Rejected predestination– Rejected biblical passages emphasizing

obedience– Emphasized stories such as Exodus

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismNew ideas

• Influenced by Republican ideology, many whites rejected old Calvinist ideas

• New England – Unitarians

• Other preachers in NE and beyond reinterpreted Calvinism. For example, Lyman Beecher believed that ANYONE could reform themselves and accept God…more and more Christians believed that people could SHAPE SOCIETY and their own destiny

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismNew ideas

• Growth of religious benevolent (charitable) societies

• 1st Great Awakening – churches split into warring factions

• 2nd Great Awakening – fostered cooperation, inter-denominational societies

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismA New Role for Women

• Some women founded new sects– E.g. Mother Ann Lee…Shakers

• More significant were women’s activities in new churches– Religious / charitable work

• Increased role for women in old churches, too. After 1800, more than 70% of Congregational church’s memebers were women

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismA New Role for Women: Two Contradictory Ideas

• 1) Increasing public role for some women

• 2) Growing opposition in the churches by some men– “Women have a different calling”– Combine that with Republican Motherhood– Many mothers founded maternal associations

to encourage child rearing– By the 1820s Mother’s Magazine and other

publications were being read by women across the country

Christian RepublicanismChristian RepublicanismWomen and Education

• Religious activism advanced female education

• Churches established scores of seminaries and academies…e.g. Middlebury College (1814). By the 1820s, women from these academies were replacing men as public school teachers

• Just as the ideology of Republicanism had expanded the voting rights and political influence of ordinary white men, so values of Christian Republicanism had bolstered the growth of middle class women.