THE BICENTENNIAL: A report and an invitationAuthor(s): Francis JenningsSource: Pennsylvania History, Vol. 39, No. 3 (JULY, 1972), pp. 298-300Published by: Penn State University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27772037 .

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THE BICENTENNIAL: A report and an invitation

THE approach of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution

has prompted the Pennsylvania Historical Association to set

up an ad hoc committee on participation in the national celebra tion. The committee observes that scholars naturally go about such business by holding meetings and publishing papers. The committee has addressed itself first to publishing because of the advance time required by research. With the approval of PHA's Council and the Editor of Pennsylvania History, the commit tee proposes a plan of publication for which the undersigned, as committee chairman, has prepared this explanation. We hope to make a positive contribution by concentrating

upon the Revolution's manifestations in Pennsylvania, and we

solicit essays in this field broadly conceived to include the movements and processes from the end of the Seven Years War to the election of Thomas Jefferson as President. The Editor of Pennsylvania History will give priority of attention and space to such articles from now on. As they accumulate the best will be collected, and an effort will be made to have them edited and republished in book form. PHA itself cannot undertake such

publication because of difficulties of distribution and financing, but a meritorious collection should have considerable appeal for established publishers during the Bicentennial era as it would have a practically guaranteed minimum sale to every public and school library in the state.

The enterprise is worthwhile for more than sentimental rea sons. Although a massive literature already exists on the Revolu

tion, and a great flood will certainly be forthcoming, mysteries still abound and new angles of vision are as urgently needed as new masses of evidence. Apart from social and economic

phenomena there were no less than three political revolutions in Pennsylvania, occurring simultaneously: the overthrow of the crown, the overthrow of the feudal proprietary, and the overthrow of the representative assembly. Existing historical theories have encountered difficulties because of the complexities of these multiple movements. For example, the libertarianism and

democracy often thought to have characterized the new state's

298

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THE BICENTENNIAL 299

revolutionary government were clouded by its enactment of a

loyalty oath that disfranchised conscientious pietists. Were

there more qualified voters under the revolutionary regime than

under the proprietary rule, or were there fewer? Was the new

electorate more popular or merely different? Someone interested in quantitative history ought to tell us the answers and explain their implications.

In conformity with the theory of "frontier history," an idea is now widely held that the back country residents were more democratic than those in the communities longer established. It does not explain why emancipation of slaves was supported most

strongly in the east against general opposition from the frontiers men. Indeed the whole history of the back country during the Revolution is wide open for research in both its military and

political aspects. Why did Pennsylvanians oppose the Sullivan

Expedition that presumably was to make them more secure? And

why were they overruled by Congress? What roles were played by frontiersmen and Indians in the boundary disputes between states that continued during the struggle for joint independence?

Regarding the Revolution broadly, there is a well-known

theory that the era of the Confederation was libertarian, the federalist movement to establish the Constitution was counter

revolutionary and authoritarian, and the triumph of Jefferson overthrew the counterrevolution. But the phenomena in Penn

sylvania do not lend themselves well to such an explanation. The two Benjamins, Franklin and Rush, were foremost in the

fight for independence and foremost again in that for the Con

stitution; after Franklins death, Rush went on to support Jefferson s Republicans. Radical Tom Paine also so far deviated from simplistic schemes as to become a champion of Robert

Morris' conservative interests. Were such men merely fickle?

It seems unlikely. Who else followed their lead in seemingly

switching sides, and did they really switch or have we mis

conceived what the sides really were?

We need to know more about the interconnections and in

fluence of the great gentry families. An example in point is the

friendship between Penns and Livingstons whose kin and con

nections extended over the whole region from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays to the Mohawk Valley.

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300 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY

These are but a small sampling of the unsolved riddles still on the agenda of Revolutionary scholarship. We have only begun to write.

Francis Jennings

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