Thomas Paine (1737–1809) - Amazon Web Services€¦ · Thomas Paine was a major figure during the early years of the American Revolution. One of the foremost propagandists for American

Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2

Thomas Paine(1737–1809)

We have it in our power to begin theworld over again.

—Thomas Paine, 1776

IntroductionThomas Paine was a major figure during the early years of the American Revolution. One ofthe foremost propagandists for American liberty in the 1770s, Paine penned words thatrallied the war-weary spirit of the colonists and that still stir the hearts of Americans today,even when taken out of their original context: “These are the times that try men’s souls. . . .The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service oftheir country. . . . Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. . . . The harder the conflict, themore glorious the triumph.” His Common Sense was the bestselling pamphlet of theRevolutionary era. (As a percentage of the population, it was read by more people thanwatch the Superbowl today.) It is still widely available and read today by students of theperiod. He is often cited as a champion of liberty.

Yet, Paine played no role in the formation of the American government after independenceand lived outside the United States in the critical years, 1787–1802, when the nation’s newpolitical institutions were being tested. While abroad, he more openly advocated the idealsof the Enlightenment in their most extreme form, railing against established religion, legalprecedent, and all tradition. In the 1770s, Thomas Paine embodied the AmericanRevolutionary spirit better than any other writer. But the radical road that he followed toRevolutionary France in the 1780s and 1790s is the path that America chose to reject.

Relevant Thematic Essays for Thomas Paine• Equality• Liberty• Republican Government

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In His Own Words:Thomas Paine

ON PATRIOTISM

Thomas Paine

Standards

CCE (9–12): IC1, IC3, IIIA1, IIIA2NCHS (5–12): Era III, Standards 3A,3B, 3DNCSS: Strands 2, 5, 6, and 10

MaterialsStudent Handouts

• Handout A—Thomas Paine(1737–1809)

• Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions

• Handout C—In His Own Words:Thomas Paine on Patriotism

• Handout D—Analysis: Paine andCivic Values

Additional Teacher Resource

• Answer Key

Recommended Time

One 45-minute class period.Additional time as needed forhomework.

OverviewIn this lesson, students will learn about Thomas Paine.They should first read as homework Handout A—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) and answer the ReadingComprehension Questions. After discussing the answersto those in class, the teacher should have students answerthe Critical Thinking Questions as a class. Next, theteacher should introduce the primary source activity,Handout C—In His Own Words: Thomas Paine onPatriotism in which Thomas Paine rallies for support ofthe Continental Army and the revolutionary cause. As apreface, there is Handout B—Vocabulary and ContextQuestions, which will help the students understand thedocument. Students will analyze the civic values Painepromotes and apply those values to their own lives inHandout D—Analysis: Paine and Civic Values.

There are Follow-Up Homework Options that askstudents to write their own version of The AmericanCrisis on a modern day national crisis, or to create apamphlet in the style of Paine on a school issue.Extensions asks students to read and analyze parts ofPaine’s Common Sense, or to reflect on the Americanprinciples of freedom and government.

ObjectivesStudents will:

• explain the arguments Thomas Paine made inCommon Sense.

• explain the main ideas of The Rights of Man andThe Age of Reason.

• understand the reasons for Paine’s negativereception in the U.S. upon his 1802 return.

• analyze The American Crisis and Paine’sexplication of civic values.

• evaluate modern applications of eighteenth-century civic values.

• appreciate the contributions Thomas Paine madeto the revolutionary cause.


I. Background HomeworkAsk students to read Handout A—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) and answer theReading Comprehension Questions.

II. Warm-Up [10 minutes]A. Review answers to homework questions.B. Conduct a whole-class discussion to answer the Critical Thinking Questions.C. Ask a student to summarize the historical significance of Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine was a writer and philosopher. He wrote Common Sense, the best-selling pamphlet of the revolutionary era. His The American Crisis essays inspired theContinental Army in dark times. In the late 1780s he returned to Europe and wrote,in the 1790s, The Rights of Man, a political tract, and The Age of Reason, a critiqueof Christianity and organized religion. Reaction to Paine’s philosophies caused him tofall largely out of favor in the United States by the end of his life.

III. Context [5 minutes]Explain to students that one purpose of The American Crisis essays was to inspirethe Continental Army and all Americans to support the cause of independence. Itwas written during a time in the war when morale was down and public supportfor independence was wavering. In the essay, Paine attempts to summon awarenessof several civic values in his audience. His ultimate goal is to inspire them to act onthose values.

IV. In His Own Words [20 minutes]A. Ask the class, “What personality or character traits are those of good citizens?”

Conduct a large group discussion on the civic values promoted by desirablecharacter traits.

Students should recognize that the traits they admire in their friends and family are likelythe traits that good citizens share. Some examples include honesty, responsibility,industry, respect, courage, tolerance, and perseverance.

B. Distribute Handout C—In His Own Words: Thomas Paine on Patriotism. Havestudents read the document and complete Handout B—Vocabulary and ContextQuestions individually.

C. Divide students into pairs or trios and have them complete Handout D—Analysis: Paine and Civic Values.

D. Using an overhead of Handout D, complete the chart as a class and have the studentsshare their responses.

V. Wrap-Up Discussion [10 minutes]Conduct a large group discussion about the civic values Paine attempts to summon inreaders of his essay. What are the opposites of those values (i.e., the ones he condemnsin the essay)? Ask students to share ways they have, in their own times of crisis, actedon those civic virtues Paine attempts to summon in his audience.

LESSON PLAN



VI. Follow-Up Homework OptionsA. Have students write their own “American Crisis” essay in the style of Paine,

focusing on a modern cultural or political crisis and persuading people to take aspecific action. Possible crises might include poverty or the war in Iraq.

B. Have students create a one-page pamphlet expressing their opinion on a schoolissue, persuading their fellow students to act in accordance with a civic valuediscussed in class. Possible topics might include acting respectfully in class, beingtolerant of student groups or clubs with whom they might not agree, being kindto others, or putting a stop to bullying.

VII. ExtensionsA. Have students read “Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs” from

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Have students write a one-page essaysummarizing his main points and analyzing the way Paine’s argument comparesto the one he makes in The American Crisis.

Source: “Common Sense by Thomas Paine,” USHistory.org.<http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/sense4.htm>.

B. Thomas Paine began the introduction to The Rights of Man (1791–1792) with adedication to George Washington. He wrote, “I present you a small treatise indefense of those principles of freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so eminentlycontributed to establish.” In 1796, in his public letter denouncing Washington, hewrote, “. . . my citizenship in America was not . . . diminished by anything I had donein Europe (on the contrary, it ought to be considered as strengthened, for it was theAmerican principle of government that I was endeavoring to spread in Europe).”Have students write a one-page essay defining and discussing what thoseprinciples of freedom and principles of government are.

Resources

PrintFoner, Eric. Tom Paine and Revolutionary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.Foner, Eric, ed. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. New York: Library of America, 1995.Fruchtman, Jack. Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996.Kaye, Harvey J. Thomas Paine: Firebrand of Revolution. Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2000.Keane, John. Tom Paine: A Political Life. New York: Grove Press, 2003.

Internet“Document Library: Thomas Paine.” Teaching American History. <http://www.teachingamericanhistory.

org/library/index.asp?subcategory=15>.Thomas Paine National Historical Association. <http://www.thomaspaine.org/>.“Thomas Paine.” USHistory.org. <http://www.ushistory.org/paine/>.

Selected Works by Thomas Paine• African Slavery in America (1774–1775)• Common Sense (1776)• The American Crisis (1776–1783)• The Rights of Man (1791–1792)• The Age of Reason (1794, 1796)

Thomas Paine

LESSON PLAN


The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.

—Thomas Paine, 1776

The young soldier huddled with his fellow soldiers on the late Decembernight. It was December 23, 1776. They were freezing, huddled togetheras the snow fell on their shoulders. They had no tents, or even enoughwinter clothing to keep them warm as they camped on the banks ofthe Delaware River. The soldier, named Thomas Paine, was servingwith George Washington’s troops. He knew that with their inadequatesupplies and recent losses in battle, morale was down. Paine also knewhe was a better writer than he was a soldier, and that his best contribution

to the army and the cause of independence might well be with his pen,not his musket. He had no paper, so he put his quill to the back of a

drumhead and began, “These are the times that try men’s souls. . . .” Thesewords became the introduction to a series of sixteen essays that would

indeed inspire the troops and the entire nation to victory in their revolution.

BackgroundThomas Paine was born January 29, 1737, in Thetford, England. His father was a Quaker,his mother a member of the Church of England. Paine had little formal education when,as a boy, he went to work for his father, a corset maker. Paine then worked as a tax collector.In 1774 he met Benjamin Franklin, who convinced him to come to America.

Paine arrived in Philadelphia at the end of November 1774. He began work on ananti-slavery essay, African Slavery in America. Paine condemned slavery as a “savagepractice” and pointed out the irony that Americans held Africans as slaves and at thesame time complained of the British government “enslaving” the colonies. Paine was amember of the first American anti-slavery society, formed in 1775.

Common SenseThe next year Paine wrote an essay condemning Britain’s rule of the American colonies.Common Sense was the best-selling pamphlet of the Revolutionary era, read by as greata proportion of the population as watches the Superbowl today. “I offer nothing morethan simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense,” Paine asserted. He rejected theidea that Britain was America’s mother country. British policies violated Americanliberty and limited the country’s economic prospects. Paine called for independence,and saw the American cause as a part of a worldwide uprising against tyranny.

Some of the political opinions expressed in Common Sense were truly radical. Painecondemned monarchy. He also argued “government even in its best state is but anecessary evil.” He also denounced custom as no more than “a long habit of not thinkinga thing wrong.” Paine did not keep the money raised by the sale of his pamphlet. Instead,the money went to the revolutionary cause.


THOMAS PAINE (1737–1809)

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The American CrisisCommon Sense helped to persuade many Americans to support independence. During theAmerican Revolution, Paine served in the Continental Army as a soldier. He also composeda series of sixteen essays called The American Crisis. They first appeared at a dark time forthe American cause. Paine reminded his countrymen that “the harder the conflict, themore glorious the triumph.”

Paine’s Crisis essays were read around the campfires of the Continental Army. Theydid much to keep up the morale of the troops. During the war, Paine also served as asecretary for the Continental Congress and as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Assembly.

The Rights of ManPaine returned to England in 1787, where he pursued business interests. Angered byEnglish criticism of the American Revolution, Paine responded in 1791–1792 with TheRights of Man. This work revealed Paine’s devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment.The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century European intellectual movement. Ittaught that through scientific and philosophic progress, reason could lead mankind to astate of earthly perfection.

The Rights of Man was the best-selling political essay in eighteenth-century England.Paine dedicated the book to George Washington and scheduled it for publication onWashington’s birthday. In it, Paine argued that all men had an equal claim to politicalrights and that government depends on the rule of the people. He suggested democraticrepublics were the remedy for the weaknesses of monarchy. Even more radically, hecalled for social programs to help the poor.

The Rights of Man’s critique of monarchy was so strong that the British governmenttried to arrest Paine for the capital crime of “seditious libel” (inciting resistance to thegovernment). But the pamphleteer left for France, as he had taken an interest in theevents of the French Revolution.

The Age of ReasonPaine supported the ousting of the French monarchy and the attempt to establish arepublic. Paine accepted honorary citizenship in France, and was elected to the FrenchRevolutionary National Assembly. In 1793, he voted against the execution of the Frenchking. Paine spoke out against the act of violent revenge, and pointed out that suchpunishments were the tactics of cruel monarchs. He urged the king’s exile instead. Afterthe king’s execution, anyone who had voted against the execution was deemed an enemyof the Revolution. Paine was arrested and sentenced to death.

During his imprisonment, Paine completed The Age of Reason. In this controversialwork, Paine strongly condemned all organized religion, and in particular Christianity, asa series of “fabulous inventions.” Though he acknowledged all are free to believe as theywish, he declared, “The only true religion is Deism, by which I mean, the belief of oneGod, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of what are called moralvirtues.” The Age of Reason was read widely throughout Europe and America.

Paine escaped execution when prison guards did not notice the chalk mark on hisdoor that indicated he was to be sent to the guillotine. His was freed in 1794 through theefforts of the new American minister to the French government. Paine was angry thatthe American government had not taken action to secure his release sooner. Upon hisrelease, Paine wrote an open letter insulting President George Washington.

Thomas Paine

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Final YearsPaine remained in France until 1802. He then returned to the United States upon theinvitation of President Thomas Jefferson. But Paine soon found that he was unwelcome.His criticism of Christianity and organized religion had led many to wrongly believe hewas an atheist, and he faced discrimination because of this misconception. His insultingletter to Washington also created enemies.

Paine died in his sleep in New York City on July 8, 1809 and was buried on his farmin New Rochelle. His funeral was attended by only a few. Ten years later, his remains weremoved to England, and later lost.


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Reading Comprehension Questions

1. What arguments did Paine make in African Slavery in America?

2. What arguments did Paine make in Common Sense?

3. Why were The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason controversial?

Critical Thinking Questions

4. Do you think Thomas Paine deserved the negative reaction he received whenhe returned to America? Why or why not?

5. How did Thomas Paine embody the American revolutionary spirit?


Essay One, The American Crisis (1776)

1. Vocabulary: Use context clues to determine the meaning or significance of each ofthese words and write their definitions:

a. tyranny

b. conquered

c. consolation

d. esteem

e. dearness

f. celestial

g. impious

h. Providence

i. solace

j. cunning

2. Context: Answer the following questions.

a. Who wrote this document?

b. When was this document written?

c. Who was the audience of this document?

d. Why was this document written?

Thomas Paine

VOCABULARY AND CONTEXT QUESTIONS

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Essay One, The American Crisis (1776)

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriotwill, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now,deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious thetriumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that givesevery thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and itwould be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highlyrated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (notonly to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER,” and if being bound inthat manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even theexpression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. . . .

I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: upand help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little,when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth ofwinter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country,alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not thatthousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the dayupon Providence, but “show your faith by your works,” that God may bless you.It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. . . .

Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to onewhose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. . . .[King George III]

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons,too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselveswith hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, toexpect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquestis the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violenceof the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.

Source: “The American Crisis.” The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.<http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/paine/pframe.htm>.


IN HIS OWN WORDS: THOMAS PAINE ON PATRIOTISM

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Thomas Paine

ANALYSIS: PAINE AND CIVIL VALUES

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Directions: For each sentence on the left side of the chart, fill in the next column with a paraphrase ofPaine’s statement. Next, identify the civic values or character traits associated with his statement. Finally,explain a way you can act on that civic value in your own life. The first row is begun for you as a model.

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Perhaps no single phrase of the Founders is morecommonly misinterpreted than the claim, made by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration ofIndependence, “that all men are created equal.”Jefferson did not mean that all people are, in fact,in every way equal. Nor did he mean that all peopleshould be equal in every way. He did, however,mean that all individuals possessidentical natural rights. Theserights, he wrote, include “life,liberty,” and the ability ofindividuals to engage withoutinjuring one another in “thepursuit of happiness.” Jefferson’sbelief in the equality of naturalrights reflected deeply-rootedAnglo-American tradition. Hiswords, after all, echoed thereasoning of John Locke, theEnglish political philosopherwho, in 1689, maintained that noone—no matter how powerful—possesses the right to “take away”without just cause “the Life,Liberty, Health, Limb or Goods of another.”

Yet Jefferson’s assertion regarding naturalrights also sanctioned a radical departure from thepast. The Declaration of Independence, whichJefferson penned in behalf of the other privilegeddelegates to the Continental Congress, helped toinspire ordinary Americans to overturn timewornsocial and political barriers separating aristocratsfrom common people and the powerful from thepowerless.

In 1776, these distinctions were stark. Maybethe 3.5 million people who lived in America hadbeen created equal, but more than 600,000 hadsubsequently been enslaved. When womenmarried, a legal doctrine known as “coverture”held that they lost their legal identity and forfeitedto their husbands their property. They could notvote, and since nearly everywhere laws madeenfranchisement conditional on the ownership ofa sizeable portion of land, neither could many men.Laws establishing primogeniture, which passed tothe eldest son all of a father’s land if he diedwithout leaving a will, slowed a fairly consistenttrend during the colonial era toward the gradualexpansion of land ownership among the population,

as well as the gradual expansion of common people’spolitical power, which land ownership madepossible. In addition, individuals who subscribedto minority religious faiths also suffered from legalinequality. Despite the relative rarity of instancesof state-sanctioned intolerance toward members ofmost minority religions, nine of the original thirteen

states designated an official faiththat enjoyed taxpayer-financedsubsidies as well as other benefitsand privileges.

A general acceptance ofsocial hierarchy reflected andreinforced these instances oflegal inequality. In many waysAmerican society continued tofit the description of JonathanEdwards, the eighteenth-centurytheologian, who observed thatall individuals possessed “theirappointed office, place andstation, according to theirseveral capacities and talents,and everyone keeps his place,

and continues in his proper business.” Theseassumptions, according to historian GordonWood, coalesced naturally with “the hierarchy of amonarchical society” and were feudal in theirorigins. “In such a society it was inconceivable,”Wood maintains, “for inequality not to exist.”

While an acceptance of monarchical governmenthelped to foster legal inequality and social hierarchy,the republican alternative to absolutism—whichgained ground in America especially after theGlorious Revolution of 1688—did not immediatelyspark a move toward egalitarianism. In many ways,in fact, republicanism bolstered the notion thatlimits should be placed on who could be entrustedwith the reins of government. While republicanthinkers believed that the distribution of politicalpower should be expanded to varying degrees, theempowerment of an increasing number ofindividuals constituted merely a means to a greaterend, which was the restraint of government poweritself.

Republicans insisted, for example, that politicalparticipants be virtuous and that their decisions bemotivated by a concern for the good of the entiresociety. In other words, republicans maintained that

Equality

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EQUALITY� �

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voters and officeholders alike should be selfless (or“disinterested”) in their decision-making—that theyshould not aim to use the power of government toserve the interests of themselves or any particularconstituency. Such disinterestedness, republicansbelieved, could only be expected of individualswho possessed a sufficient degree of economicindependence. Certainly the enslaved lackedindependence, and women were presumed to bedependent on their husbands and fathers. Were thepoor empowered with the franchise, theirdesperation could mean that their votes could becheaply purchased. It mightalso lead them to use theirpower to seize the wealth ofothers. Republican theoristspresumed that the rich andthe middling, meanwhile,would less easily fall underthe influence of others andwould be less likely give in toselfish motives. Republicans, who maintained thatthe only people who should be entrusted with thegovernment of others were people capable ofgoverning themselves, focused their energies onrestraining the predatory nature of political power.

One of the most effective weapons in thiscrusade, however, was the principle that all menhad a right to equal protection under the law.Republicans in Britain and America maintained,for example, that all men accused of serious crimeswere entitled to be tried in front of juries of theirpeers. In addition, republicans believed that allmen deserved protection against the imposition ofexcessive bails and excessive fines, and against theinfliction of punishments disproportionate withthose accorded to others found to have committedsimilar offenses against the law. A general acceptanceof this sort of procedural equality, which aimed toprevent government officials from singling outindividuals or groups for persecution, created aclimate within which other forms of equality couldtake root.

So did the belief that all Britons—whetherthey resided in England or America—shared anequal right to the protection of a representativeassembly. The English Bill of Rights (1689) notonly guaranteed to all men the benefit ofconsistent legal practices, but also restrictedgovernment from acting in certain circumstanceswithout the consent of Parliament. The monarchpossessed no unilateral power to suspend laws, levytaxes, station an army among the civilianpopulation, or interfere with elections or the

legislative process. While members of the House ofCommons generally favored a narrow interpretationof the Bill of Rights and believed themselves to bethe ultimate authority on these mattersthroughout the British empire, Americans tendedto disagree. Since they had no direct representationin Parliament, Americans believed that their ownelected colonial assemblies possessed Parliament’sprerogatives.

The 1763–1776 imperial crisis brought this issueto the fore and cemented in the minds of manyAmericans a belief in their own collective equality

with the people of Britain.First, Parliament drew itsunpopular ProclamationLine, which prohibitedAmerican settlement beyondthe crest of the AppalachianMountains. Then Parliamentpassed the hated 1765 StampAct, through which it acted

without the consent of colonial legislatures toimpose a tax on legal documents, newspapers,broadsides, and other paper goods. These andother British measures spurred a spirited resistancemovement, helped to provoke the spilling of bloodat Lexington and Concord, and led to theDeclaration of Independence. Many Americanscame to agree with Thomas Paine, who wrote in his1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, that “there issomething very absurd, in supposing a continentto be perpetually governed by an island.”Parliament’s recalcitrant insistence on its authorityto govern a distant people portended continuedabuses of power and unacceptable usurpations ofrights. Since in Parliament there existed noequality between the people of Great Britain andthe people of America, there was no accountabilityon the part of Great Britain compelling it toconsider what was good for America.

This unbalanced relationship unleashed theavarice of Britons, whom some colonists comparedto wolves salivating over vulnerable Americansheep. As Paine observed, “the property of no manis secure in the present unbraced system of things.”Within this context, Jefferson, in the Declaration ofIndependence, not only claimed the equal rights ofAmerican people but also the equality of theAmerican people relative to the people of all othernations when he asserted that Americans had aright to enjoy “the separate and equal station towhich the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitlethem.” Americans, in other words, counted for justas much as people anywhere else.


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One of the most effective weapons inthis crusade, however, was the principle

that all men had a right to equalprotection under the law.


This was a powerful sentiment. First, itexpressed the collective will of the people whocomprised the various colonies that now—like theindependent nations of Europe—called themselves“states.” The value placed on collective equality bythese new states manifested itself through the factthat, according to the rules that governed theContinental Congress as well as those of theArticles of Confederation, a tiny state such asDelaware had a voice as loud as a much morepopulous state, such as Pennsylvania. Even underthe 1787 Constitution, which provided for a lowerchamber with proportionalrepresentation, within theSenate the states had equalpower. Second, the statementdrafted by Jefferson helpedto inspire the hopes ofvarious groups—such ascommon people, religiousminorities, women, andAfrican-Americans—that would now begin toquestion their own unequal stations. If earlier,Americans had based their claims of equality upontheir inclusion within a system of English rights andprivileges, American revolutionaries now madetheir appeals on the basis of self-evident truths anduniversal rights granted by God or nature. As Painewrote, “a new method of thinking hath arisen.”

It took no great leap of logic to apply theuniversal claims of the Declaration to variousdeprived groups. Abigail Adams did this when in1776 she wrote to her husband, John, a member ofthe Continental Congress. “I long to hear that youhave declared an independency,” she said, for itwould provide him and his colleagues with anopportunity to make a new code of law. In this, shemaintained, “I desire you would remember theladies and be more generous and favorable to themthan your ancestors.” Appropriating some of thesame principles that had been used to justifyAmerican opposition to Britain, she reminded herhusband that “all men would be tyrants if theycould. If particular care and attention is not paid tothe ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion,and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws inwhich we have no voice or representation.”

A group of slaves from the towns of Stratfordand Fairfield in 1779 used similar arguments whenthey petitioned the Connecticut General Assemblyfor freedom. “We are endowed with the sameFaculties as our masters,” they wrote, “and there isnothing that leads us to a Belief, or Suspicion, thatwe are any more obliged to serve them, than they

us.” Not unlike white Americans, they maintained,“we are Convinced of our Right (by the Laws ofNature and by the whole Tenor of the ChristianReligion. . . .) to be free.” It was simply not “consistentwith the present Claims, of the united States, tohold so many Thousands, of the Race of Adam, ourCommon Father, in perpetual Slavery.”

Although women and African-Americanswould continue to suffer under unequal laws formany decades, for white Americans the idea ofequality yielded much more immediate benefits.To a certain degree, American social hierarchy had

never been as fully articulatedas in Europe. John Adamsobserved in 1761 that “allPersons under the Degree ofGentlemen are styledYeoman.” Yet, within thelifetime of the revolutionarygeneration, the veryexistence of a special class of

“gentlemen” and “ladies” had been called intoquestion. Old distinctions melted away as theprinciples of the Revolution combined with thedramatic new economic opportunities of the MarketRevolution and the leveling spirit of early nineteenth-century religious revivalism to foster in the mindsof Americans the notion that no man or woman wasin any fundamental sense better than any other.

This spirit manifested itself through thegradual elimination of laws that favored certainreligious groups over others. Paine helped to setthe stage for this development, for in 1776 he wrotethat “there should be diversity of religiousopinions among us: It affords a larger field for ourChristian kindness.” Then the efforts of Jeffersonand James Madison resulted in the 1786 passage ofthe Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, startinga trend that would continue until 1833, whenMassachusetts became the last state to cut ties witha specific church. Similarly, laws limiting thefranchise also eroded. Thanks to egalitarianprinciples and the recognition that, in thediversified market economy, land no longer servedas a meaningful measure of independence, by the1840s all white men could vote.

The flowering of equality in America manifesteditself not only through the new republic’s laws butalso through its people’s spirit. This is what struckEnglishman Charles Janson, who traveled in theUnited States in the first decade of the nineteenthcentury. Upon his arrival at the house of anacquaintance, he was greeted by a servant. “Is yourmaster at home?” he asked. The servant’s response

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was simple: “I have no master.” The point was thatAmericans were their own masters and that statushad more to do with effort, behavior, and characterthan inheritance. Americans never called forequality of condition, but they did seek equalopportunities to engage in individual pursuits ofhappiness. Americans, who had abandoned old

notions that paid deference to the inheritedaristocracy of wealth and privilege, now embracedwhat Jefferson described as a “natural aristocracyof talents & virtue.”

Robert S. McDonald, Ph.D.United States Military Academy

Suggestions for Further ReadingAppleby, Joyce. Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans. Cambridge: Harvard University

Press, 2000.Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.Bushman, Richard. The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.Pole, J. R. The Pursuit of Equality in American History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969.Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.Zagarri, Rosemarie. “The Rights of Man and Woman in Post-Revolutionary America.” William and Mary

Quarterly. 55 (1998): 203–230.


Liberty was the central political principle of theAmerican Revolution. As Patrick Henry, one of itsstaunchest supporters, famously intoned, “Give meliberty or give me death.” Henry was not alone in his rhetorical fervor. Indeed, no ideal wasproclaimed more often in the eighteenth-centuryAnglo-American world than liberty.

The idea of liberty defendedby the American Founders camefrom several sources. The mostvenerable was English commonlaw. Beginning in the latemedieval period, writers in thecommon law tradition developedan understanding of libertywhich held that English subjectswere free because they livedunder a system of laws whicheven the Crown was bound torespect. Leading English juristsargued that these legal limits onroyal power protected thesubject’s liberty by limiting the arbitrary use ofpolitical power.

Under English common law, liberty alsoconsisted in the subject enjoying certain fundamentalrights to life, liberty and property. William Blackstone(1723–1780), the leading common lawyer of theeighteenth century, argued that these rights allowedan English subject to be the “entire master of hisown conduct, except in those points wherein thepublic good requires some direction or restraint . . .”For Blackstone, these English rights further protectedthe subjects’ liberty by making them secure in theirpersons from arbitrary search and seizure, and byensuring that their property could not be takenfrom them without due process of law.

In order to preserve these fundamental rights,the English common law allowed the subject theright to consent to the laws that bound him byelecting representatives to Parliament whose consentthe monarch had to obtain before acting.

Common lawyers in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries did not view these rights andthe liberty they protected as the gift or grant of themonarch; rather, they believed that they were anEnglishmen’s “birthright,” something that inheredin each subject and that therefore could not betaken away by royal prerogative.

This common law understanding of libertywas central to the seventeenth-century strugglesagainst the Stuart monarchy. Prominent jurists andParliamentarians such as Edward Coke (1552–1634)took the lead in the attempt to limit what they sawas the illegal and arbitrary nature of the Stuarts’ rule.This struggle culminated in the Glorious Revolution

of 1689 and the triumph ofParliamentary authority over theCrown. For champions of Englishliberty, the result of this century-long struggle was the achievementof political liberty. They furtherargued that, as a result of thisstruggle, Britain in the eighteenthcentury had the freest constitutionin the world. According to theFrench writer Montesquieu(1689–1755), Britain was “theonly nation in the world, wherepolitical and civil liberty” was “thedirect end of the constitution.”

This seventeenth century struggle betweenroyal power and the subject’s liberties made a greatimpression on the American Founders. Theyabsorbed its lessons about the nature and importanceof liberty through their reading of English historyas well as through their instruction in English law.

A second and equally influential understandingof liberty was also forged in the constitutionalbattles of the seventeenth century: the idea thatliberty was a natural right pertaining to all. Theforemost exponent of this understanding of libertyin the English-speaking world was John Locke(1632–1704). Locke’s political ideas were part of awider European political and legal movement whichargued that there were certain rights that all menwere entitled to irrespective of social class or creed.

Like the common lawyers, Locke saw liberty ascentrally about the enjoyment of certain rights.However, he universalized the older Englishunderstanding of liberty, arguing that it applied toall persons, and not just to English subjects. Lockealso expanded the contemporary understanding ofliberty by arguing that it included other rights—in particular a right to religious toleration (orliberty of conscience), as well as a right to resistgovernments that violated liberty. In addition,Locke argued that the traditional English common

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law right to property was also a natural right, andwas an important part of the subject’s liberty.

Locke began his political theory by arguing thatliberty was the natural state of mankind. Accordingto Locke, all men are “naturally” in a “State ofperfect Freedom to order” their “Actions, anddispose of their Possessions, and Persons as theythink fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature,without asking leave, or depending upon the Willof any other Man.”

However, Locke did not argue that this naturalliberty was a license to do whatever we want.“Freedom is not,” he argued,“A Liberty for every Man todo what he lists (For whocould be free, when everyother Man’s humour mightdomineer over him?).”Rather, Locke held that sinceall men are “equal andindependent, no one oughtto harm another in his Life, health, Liberty, orPossessions.” According to Locke, each of us has“an uncontroulable Liberty to dispose of ourpersons and possession,” but we do not have theright to interfere with the equal liberty of others todo the same.

In Locke’s political theory, men enter intosociety and form governments to better preservethis natural liberty. When they do so, they create apolitical system where the natural law limits onliberty in the state of nature are translated into alegal regime of rights. In such a system, Lockeargued, each person retains his “Liberty to dispose,and order, as he lists, his Person, Actions,Possession, and his whole Property, within theAllowance of those Laws under which he is; andtherein not to be subject to the arbitrary Will ofanother, but freely follow his own.”

For Locke, as for the common lawyers, the ruleof law was necessary for liberty. In Locke’s view,“the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but topreserve and enlarge Freedom.” According to Locke,“Where there is no Law, there is no Freedom. ForLiberty is to be free from restraint and violence fromothers which cannot be, where there is no law.”

Building on both the English common law andon Locke’s ideas, the eighteenth-century Englishwriter Cato argued “that liberty is the unalienableright of mankind.” It is “the power which everyMan has over his own Actions, and his Right toenjoy the Fruit of his Labour, Art, and Industry, asfar as by it he hurts not the Society, or anymembers of it, by taking from any Member or by

hindering him from enjoying what he himselfenjoys.” Cato was the pseudonym for two Britishwriters, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon.Their co-authored Cato’s Letters (1720–1723) werewidely read in the American colonies.

On the eve of the American Revolution, then,the received understanding of liberty in the Anglo-American world was a powerful amalgam of boththe English common law and the liberal ideas ofwriters like Locke and Cato. On this view, libertymeant being able to act freely, secure in your basicrights, unhindered by the coercive actions of others,

and subject only to thelimitation of such laws as youhave consented to. Central tothis idea of liberty was theright to hold property and tohave it secure from arbitraryseizure. In addition, under theinfluence of Locke, liberty wasincreasingly being seen on

both sides of the Atlantic as a universal right, onenot limited to English subjects. Equally influentialwas Locke’s argument that if a government violatedits citizens’ liberty the people could resist thegovernment’s edicts and create a new politicalauthority. However, despite the gains that had beenmade since the seventeenth century, manyEnglishmen in the eighteenth century still worriedthat liberty was fragile and would always beendangered by the ambitions of powerful men.

Since the first settlements were established in the early seventeenth century, the Americancolonists shared in this English understanding ofliberty. In particular, they believed that they hadtaken their English rights with them when theycrossed the Atlantic. It was on the basis of theserights that they made a case for their freedom ascolonists under the Crown. In addition, in theeighteenth century, the colonists were increasinglyinfluenced by the Lockean idea that liberty was anatural right. As a result, when they were confrontedwith the policies of the British Crown and Parliamentin the 1760s and 1770s to tax and legislate for themwithout their consent, the colonists viewed them asan attack on their liberty.

In response, the colonists argued that theseBritish taxes and regulations were illegal because theyviolated fundamental rights. They were particularlyresistant to the claims of the British Parliament, asexpressed in the Declaratory Act of 1766, to legislatefor the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” By 1774,following the Boston Tea Party organized by SamuelAdams and John Hancock, and the subsequent


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Coercive Acts, many leading colonists such asThomas Paine and James Otis argued that they hada natural right to govern themselves, and that sucha right was the only protection for their liberty. Inaddition to several essays in defense of rights,including Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,John Dickinson wrote the first patriotic song, “TheLiberty Song.”

This colonial thinking about liberty and rightsculminated in the Declaration of Independenceissued by the Continental Congress in 1776, whichproclaimed that, because their liberty wasendangered, the colonists had a natural right toresist the English King and Parliament.

Having made a revolution in the name of liberty,the American challenge was to create a form ofgovernment that preserved liberty better than thevaunted British constitution had done. In doing so,the founders turned to the ancient ideal of republicanself-government, arguing that it alone could preservethe people’s liberty. They further argued that themodern understanding of liberty as the possession ofrights needed to be a central part of any properrepublican government. Beginning in 1776, in themidst of the Revolutionary War, all of the formercolonies began to construct republican governmentswhich rested on the people’s consent and whichincluded bills of rights to protect the people’s liberty.

Since there was widespread consensus amongthe Founders that liberty required the protection ofrights and the rule of law, much of the politicaldebate in the crucial decades following the AmericanRevolution revolved around the question of whichinstitutional arrangements best supported liberty.Was liberty best protected by strong stategovernments jealously guarding the people’s libertiesfrom excessive federal authority, as leading Anti-Federalists like George Mason contended; or, wasan extended federal republic best able to preservethe freedom of all, as leading Federalists like JamesMadison and Alexander Hamilton argued?

The era of the American Revolution also gavebirth to a further series of important debates aboutliberty. Was slavery, as some Americans in theeighteenth century were beginning to recognize, anunjust infringement upon the liberty of AfricanAmericans? Were women, long deprived of basiclegal rights, also entitled to have equal liberty withtheir male fellow citizens? By making a Revolutionin its name, the Founders ensured that debatesabout the nature and extent of liberty wouldremain at the center of the American experimentin self-government.

Craig Yirush, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles

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Suggestions for Further ReadingBailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.Kammen, Michael. Spheres of Liberty: Changing Perceptions of Liberty in American Culture. Madison:

University of Wisconsin Press, 1986.Reid, John Phillip. The Concept of Liberty in the Age of the American Revolution. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1988.Skinner, Quentin. Liberty Before Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1969.


As Benjamin Franklin left Philadelphia’s ConventionHall in September 1787, upon the completion of thework of the Framers of the Constitution, a womanapproached him and asked the old sage of theRevolution what the delegates had created. Franklinresponded, “A republic, Madame, if you can keepit.” The woman’s reaction to Franklin’s reply is left unrecorded by history,but she might well haveasked Franklin for a moredetailed answer. Thoughthe word “republic” wascommon currency inAmerica at the time, themeaning of the term wasimprecise, encompassingvarious and diverse formsof government.

Broadly, a republicmeant a country not governed by a king. The rootof the word is the Latin, res publica, meaning “thepublic things.” “The word republic,” Thomas Painewrote, “means the public good, or the good of thewhole, in contradistinction to the despotic form,which makes the good of the sovereign, or of oneman, the only object of the government.” In arepublic, the people are sovereign, delegatingcertain powers to the government whose duty is tolook to the general welfare of society. That citizensof a republic ought to place the common goodbefore individual self-interest was a key assumptionamong Americans of the eighteenth century.“Every man in a republic,” proclaimed BenjaminRush, “is public property. His time and talents—his youth—his manhood—his old age, nay more,life, all belong to his country.”

Republicanism was not an American invention.In shaping their governments, Americans looked tohistory, first to the ancient world, and specifically tothe Israel of the Old Testament, the Roman republic,and the Greek city-states. New Englanders inparticular often cited the ancient state of Israel as theworld’s first experiment in republican governmentand sometimes drew a parallel between the TwelveTribes of Israel and the thirteen American states. In1788, while ratification of the Constitution wasbeing debated, one Yankee preacher gave a sermonentitled,“The Republic of the Israelites an Example

to the American States.” Indeed, the Bible was citedby American authors in the eighteenth centurymore often than any other single source.

Americans not only knew their Bible, but alsothe history of the Greeks and Romans. The eliteclass mastered ancient languages and literature, arequirement of colleges at the time. To these men

of the eighteenth century,ancient languages were notdead, nor were ancientevents distant; rather,the worlds of Pericles and Polybius, Sallust andCicero were vibrant and near. The relativelyminor advancements intechnology across 2,000years—people still traveledby horse and sailing ship—

served to reinforce the bond eighteenth-centuryAmericans felt with the ancients.

Like the Greeks and Romans of antiquity,Americans believed that government must concernitself with the character of its citizenry. Indeed,virtue was “the Soul of a republican Government,”as Samuel Adams put it. Virtue had twoconnotations, one secular and the other sacred.The root of the word was the Latin, vir, meaning“man,” and indeed republican virtue often referredto the display of such “manly” traits as courage andself-sacrifice for the common good. These qualitieswere deemed essential for a republic’s survival. “Apopular government,” Patrick Henry proclaimed,“cannot flourish without virtue in the people.” Butvirtue could also mean the traditional Judeo-Christian virtues, and many Americans feared thatGod would punish the entire nation for the sins ofits people. “Without morals,” Charles Carrollproclaimed, “a republic cannot subsist any lengthof time.” New Englanders in particular sought tohave society’s institutions—government andschools as well as churches—inculcate such qualitiesas industry, frugality, temperance, and chastity inthe citizenry. The Massachusetts Constitution of1780, for example, provided for “public instructionsin piety, religion, and morality.”

The second ingredient of a good republic was awell-constructed government with good institutions.

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“If the foundation is badly laid,” George Washingtonsaid of the American government,“the superstructuremust be bad.” Americans adhered to a modifiedversion of the idea of “mixed”government, advocatedby the Greek thinker Polybius and later republicantheorists. A mixed republic combined the threebasic parts of society—monarchy (the one ruler),aristocracy (the rich few), and democracy (thepeople)—in a proper formula so that no one partcould tyrannize the others. But Americans believedthat the people of a republic were sovereign, so theysought to create institutions that approximated themonarchical and aristocraticelements of society. TheFramers of the Constitutiondid just this by fashioning asingle executive and a Senateonce removed from thepeople. The problem, as JohnAdams pointed out in hisThoughts on Government, wasthat “the possible combinations of the powers ofsociety are capable of innumerable variations.”

Americans had every reason to be pessimisticabout their experiment in republicanism. Historytaught that republics were inherently unstable andvulnerable to decay. The Roman republic and thecity-state of Athens, for instance, had succumbed tothe temptations of empire and lost their liberty. Thehistories of the Florentine and Venetian republicsof Renaissance Italy too had been glorious but short-lived. Theorists from the ancient Greek thinkerPolybius to the seventeenth-century English radicalAlgernon Sidney warned that republics suffer fromparticular dangers that monarchies and despotismsdo not. Republics were assumed to burn brightlybut briefly because of their inherent instability.One element of society always usurped power andestablished a tyranny.

The great danger to republics, it was generallybelieved, stemmed from corruption, which, likevirtue, had both a religious and a worldly meaning.Corruption referred, first, to the prevalence ofimmorality among the people. “Liberty,” SamuelAdams asserted, “will not long survive the totalExtinction of Morals.”

“If the Morals of the people” were neglected,Elbridge Gerry cautioned during the crisis withEngland, American independence would notproduce liberty but “a Slavery, far exceeding that ofevery other Nation.”

This kind of corruption most often resultedfrom avarice, the greed for material wealth. SeveralAmerican colonial legislatures therefore passed

sumptuary laws, which prohibited ostentatiousdisplays of wealth. “Luxury . . . leads tocorruption,” a South Carolinian declared duringthe Revolutionary era, “and whoever encouragesgreat luxury in a free state must be a bad citizen.”Another writer warned of the “ill effect ofsuperfluous riches” on republican society. Avaricewas seen as a “feminine” weakness; the lust forwealth rotted away “masculine” virtues. JohnAdams bemoaned “vanities, levities, and fopperies,which are real antidotes to all great, manly, andwarlike virtues.”

The second meaning ofcorruption referred toplacing private interest abovethe common good. Thistemptation plagued publicofficials most of all, who hadample opportunity tomisappropriate public fundsand to expand their power.

“Government was instituted for the general good,”Charles Carroll wrote,“but officers instrusted with itspowers have most commonly perverted them to theselfish views of avarice and ambition.” Increasinglyin the eighteenth century, Americans came to seegovernment itself as the primary source of corruption.

Fear of government’s tendency to expand itspower at the expense of the people’s liberty waspart of Americans’ English political heritage. Theyimbibed the writings of late-seventeenth-centuryEnglish radicals and eighteenth-century “country”politicians who were suspicious of the power of British officials (the “court”). Governmentcorruption was manifested in patronage (theawarding of political office to friends), faction (theformation of parties whose interests were opposed tothe common good), standing (permanent) armies,established churches, and the promotion of an eliteclass. Power, these country writers argued, waspossessed by the government; it was aggressive andexpansionist. Liberty was the property of thegoverned; it was sacred and delicate. The history ofliberty in the world was a history of defeat by theforces of tyranny.

Though the history of republicanism was adismal one, the lessons of history as well as theirown colonial experience convinced the AmericanFounders that they possessed sufficient informationon which to base a new science of politics.“Experience must be our only guide,”John Dickinsonproclaimed at the Philadelphia Convention; “reasonmay mislead us.” The Framers of the United StatesConstitution all had experience as public servants,


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and it must be remembered that the documentthey produced did not spring forth as somethingentirely new in the American experience. Rather,the Founders had learned much from the operationof their colonial charters, state constitutions, andthe Articles of Confederation.

At Philadelphia, the Founders focused on theproper construction of the machinery of governmentas the key to the building of a stable republic. TheConstitution makes no mention of the need for virtueamong the people, nor does it make broad appealsfor self-sacrifice on behalf of the common good. It isa hard-headed documentforged by practical men whohad too often witnessedavarice and ambition amongtheir peers in the statehouse, the courtroom, andthe counting house. A goodconstitution, the Foundersheld, was the key to goodgovernment. Corruption and decay could beovercome primarily through the creation of a writtenconstitution—something England lacked—thatcarefully detailed a system in which powers wereseparated and set in opposition to each other sothat none could dominate the others.

James Madison, often called “The Father of theConstitution” because of the great influence of hisideas at Philadelphia, proposed to arrange themachinery of government in such a fashion as notto make virtue or “better motives” critical to theadvancement of the common good. Acknowledgingin The Federalist Papers that “enlightened statesmenwill not always be at the helm,” Madison believedthat the separate powers of government—legislative,executive, and judicial—must be set in oppositionto one another, so that “ambition must be made tocounteract ambition.”

“In framing a government which is to beadministered by men over men,” Madison asserted,“the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enablethe government to control the governed; and in thenext place oblige it to control itself.”

James Wilson, representing Pennsylvania atthe Philadelphia Convention, declared that theConstitution’s separation of powers and checksand balances made “it advantageous even for badmen to act for the public good.” This is not to saythat the delegates believed that the republic couldsurvive if corruption vanquished virtue in society.Madison himself emphasized the importance ofrepublican virtue when defending the newgovernment in The Federalist Papers. But the Framers

agreed with Madison that men were not angels, andmost were satisfied that the Constitution, as GeorgeWashington put it,“is provided with more checks andbarriers against the introduction of Tyranny . . . thanany Government hitherto instituted among mortals.”

The question remained, however, whether onepart of society would come to dominate. No matterhow perfect the design, the danger remained that afaction would amass enough political power to takeaway the liberty of others. To combat this problem,classical republican theory called for creating auniformity of opinion among the republican

citizenry so that factionscould not develop. Theancient Greek city-states, forexample, feared anythingthat caused differentiationamong citizens, includingcommerce, which tended tocreate inequalities of wealthand opposing interests. In

contrast, Madison and the Founders recognizedthat factionalism would be inherent in a commercialrepublic that protected freedom of religion, speech,press, and assembly. They sought only to mediatethe deleterious effects of faction.

Republics also were traditionally thought to bedurable only when a small amount of territory wasinvolved. The Greek city-states, the Roman republic,the Italian republics, and the American states allencompassed relatively small areas. When the Romanrepublic expanded in its quest for empire, tyrannywas the result. Madison turned this traditionalthinking on its head in The Federalist Papers, arguingthat a large republic was more conducive to libertybecause it encompassed so many interests that nosingle one, or combination of several, could gaincontrol of the government.

Not all Americans accepted the Madisoniansolution. Agrarians, such as Thomas Jefferson, wereuncomfortable with the idea of a commercial republiccentered on industry and sought to perpetuate anation of independent farmers through the expansionof the frontier. Though uneasy about the “energeticgovernment” created by the Constitution, Jeffersonendorsed the Framers’ work after a bill of rightswas added to the document. “Old republicans” likeSamuel Adams and George Mason opposed theConstitution, even after the addition of a bill ofrights, fearing that the power granted to the centralgovernment was too great and wistfully looking backto the Revolutionary era when virtue, not ambition,was the animating principle of government. But in1789, as the new government went into operation,

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most Americans shared the optimism of BenjaminFranklin, who had decided at the conclusion of thePhiladelphia Convention that the sun carved intothe back of the chair used by George Washingtonwas a rising—not a setting—sun, and therebyindicative of the bright prospects of the nation.

“We have it in our power to begin the worldover again,” Thomas Paine had written in 1776,during the heady days of American independence.And indeed the American Founders in 1787 werekeenly aware that they possessed a rare opportunity.

Like the legendary Lycurgus of Ancient Greece,they were to be the supreme lawgivers of a newrepublic, a novus ordo seclorum or new order of theages. The American Founders were aware that theeyes of the world and future generations were uponthem, and they were determined to build an eternalrepublic founded in liberty, a shining city upon ahill, as an example to all nations for all time.

Stephen M. Klugewicz, Ph.D.Consulting Scholar, Bill of Rights Institute


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Suggestions for Further ReadingAdair, Douglass. Fame and the Founding Fathers: Essays by Douglass Adair. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998.Bailyn, Bernard. The Origins of American Politics. New York: Vintage Books, 1968.McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. Lawrence: University

Press of Kansas, 1985.Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.Rahe, Paul A. Republics Ancient and Modern, 3 vols. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1969.


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In 1760, what was to become the United States ofAmerica consisted of a small group of coloniesstrung out along the eastern seaboard of NorthAmerica. Although they had experienced significanteconomic and demographic growth in theeighteenth century and had just helped Britaindefeat France and take control of most of NorthAmerica, they remained politically and economicallydependent upon London. Yet, in the next twenty-five years, they would challenge the political controlof Britain, declare independence, wage a bloody war,and lay the foundations fora trans-continental, federalrepublican state. In thesecrucial years, the colonieswould be led by a newgeneration of politicians,men who combinedpractical political skillswith a firm grasp ofpolitical ideas. In order to better understand theseextraordinary events, the Founders who madethem possible, and the new Constitution that theycreated, it is necessary first to understand thepolitical ideas that influenced colonial Americansin the crucial years before the Revolution.

The Common Law and the Rightsof EnglishmenThe political theory of the American colonists inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common law and its idea ofrights. In a guide for religious dissenters written inthe late seventeenth century, William Penn, thefounder of Pennsylvania, offered one the bestcontemporary summaries of this common-lawview of rights. According to Penn, all Englishmenhad three central rights or privileges by commonlaw: those of life, liberty, and property. For Penn,these English rights meant that every subject was“to be freed in Person & Estate from ArbitraryViolence and Oppression.” In the widely usedlanguage of the day, these rights of “Liberty andProperty” were an Englishman’s “Birthright.”

In Penn’s view, the English system of governmentpreserved liberty and limited arbitrary power byallowing the subjects to express their consent to thelaws that bound them through two institutions:

“Parliaments and Juries.”“By the first,” Penn argued,“the subject has a share by his chosen Representativesin the Legislative (or Law making) Power.” Penn feltthat the granting of consent through Parliamentwas important because it ensured that “no new Lawsbind the People of England, but such as are bycommon consent agreed on in that great Council.”

In Penn’s view, juries were an equally importantmeans of limiting arbitrary power. By serving onjuries, Penn argued, every freeman “has a share in theExecutive part of the Law, no Causes being tried, nor

any man adjudged to loose[sic] Life, member orEstate, but upon the Verdictof his Peers or Equals.” ForPenn, “These two grandPillars of English Liberty”were “the Fundamentalvital Priviledges [sic]” ofEnglishmen.

The other aspect of their government thatseventeenth-century Englishmen celebrated was asystem that was ruled by laws and not by men. AsPenn rather colorfully put it: “In France, and otherNations, the meer [sic] Will of the Prince is Law, hisWord takes off any mans Head, imposeth Taxes, orseizes a mans Estate, when, how and as often as helists; and if one be accussed [sic], or but so much assuspected of any Crime, he may either presentlyExecute him, or banish, or Imprison him atpleasure.” By contrast, “In England,” Penn argued,“the Law is both the measure and the bound ofevery Subject’s Duty and Allegiance, each manhaving a fixed Fundamental-Right born with him,as to Freedom of his Person and Property in hisEstate, which he cannot be deprived of, but eitherby his Consent, or some Crime, for which the Lawhas impos’d such a penalty or forfeiture.”

This common law view of politics understoodpolitical power as fundamentally limited byEnglishmen’s rights and privileges. As a result, itheld that English kings were bound to ruleaccording to known laws and by respecting theinherent rights of their subjects. It also enshrinedthe concept of consent as the major means to theend of protecting these rights. According to Pennand his contemporaries, this system ofgovernment—protecting as it did the “unparallel’d

Explaining the Founding

Introductory Essay:Explaining the Founding

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Priviledge [sic] of Liberty and Property”—hadmade the English nation “more free and happythan any other People in the World.”

The Founders imbibed this view of Englishrights through the legal training that was commonfor elites in the eighteenth-century Anglo-Americanworld. This legal education also made them awareof the history of England in the seventeenth century,a time when the Stuart kings had repeatedlythreatened their subjects’ rights. In response, manyEnglishmen drew on the common law to argue thatall political power, even that of a monarch, should belimited by law. Colonial Americans in the eighteenthcentury viewed the defeat of the Stuarts and thesubsequent triumph of Parliament (which was seen asthe representative ofsubjects’ rights) in theGlorious Revolution of 1688as a key moment in Englishhistory. They believed that ithad enshrined in England’sunwritten constitution therule of law and the sanctityof subjects’ rights. Thisawareness of English history instilled in theFounders a strong fear of arbitrary power and aconsequent desire to create a constitutional formof government that limited the possibility of rulersviolating the fundamental liberties of the people.

The seriousness with which the colonists tookthese ideas can be seen in their strong opposition toParliament’s attempt to tax or legislate for themwithout their consent in the 1760s and 1770s. Afterthe Revolution, when the colonists formed their owngovernments, they wrote constitutions that includedmany of the legal guarantees that Englishmen hadfought for in the seventeenth century as a means oflimiting governmental power. As a consequence,both the state and federal constitutions typicallycontained bills of rights that enshrined coreEnglish legal rights as fundamental law.

Natural RightsThe seventeenth century witnessed a revolution inEuropean political thought, one that was to proveprofoundly influential on the political ideas ofthe American Founders. Beginning with the Dutchwriter Hugo Grotius in the early 1600s, severalimportant European thinkers began to construct anew understanding of political theory that arguedthat all men by nature had equal rights, and thatgovernments were formed for the sole purpose ofprotecting these natural rights.

The leading proponent of this theory in theEnglish-speaking world was John Locke (1632–1704).Deeply involved in the opposition to the Stuartkings in the 1670s and 1680s, Locke wrote a book onpolitical theory to justify armed resistance toCharles II and his brother James. “To understandpolitical power right,” Locke wrote, “and derive itfrom its original, we must consider, what state allmen are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfectfreedom to order their actions, and dispose of theirpossessions and persons, as they think fit, within thebounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, ordepending upon the will of any other man.” ForLocke, the state of nature was “a state also ofequality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is

reciprocal, no one havingmore than another.”

Although thispregovernmental state ofnature was a state of perfectfreedom, Locke contendedthat it also lacked animpartial judge or umpire toregulate disputes among

men. As a result, men in this state of naturegathered together and consented to create agovernment in order that their natural rightswould be better secured. Locke further argued that,because it was the people who had created thegovernment, the people had a right to resist itsauthority if it violated their rights. They could thenjoin together and exercise their collective orpopular sovereignty to create a new government oftheir own devising. This revolutionary politicaltheory meant that ultimate political authoritybelonged to the people and not to the king.

This idea of natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in the Americancolonies in the eighteenth century, appearing innumerous political pamphlets, newspapers, andsermons. Its emphasis on individual freedom andgovernment by consent combined powerfully withthe older idea of common law rights to shape thepolitical theory of the Founders. When faced withthe claims of the British Parliament in the 1760sand 1770s to legislate for them without theirconsent, American patriots invoked both thecommon law and Lockean natural rights theory toargue that they had a right to resist Britain.

Thomas Jefferson offers the best example ofthe impact that these political ideas had on thefounding. As he so eloquently argued in theDeclaration of Independence: “We hold these


The political theory of the Americancolonists in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common

law and its idea of rights.


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truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable Rights, that among theseare Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments areinstituted among Men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the governed, That wheneverany Form of Government becomes destructive ofthese ends, it is the Right of the People to alter orabolish it, and to institute new Government,laying its foundations on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect their Safety andHappiness.”

This idea of natural rights also influenced thecourse of political events inthe crucial years after 1776.All the state governments putthis new political theoryinto practice, basing theirauthority on the people,and establishing writtenconstitutions that protectednatural rights. As GeorgeMason, the principal author of the influentialVirginia Bill of Rights (1776), stated in thedocument’s first section: “All men are by natureequally free and independent, and have certaininherent rights, of which, when they enter into astate of society, they cannot, by any compact, depriveor divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment oflife and liberty, with the means of acquiring andpossessing property, and pursuing and obtaininghappiness and safety.” The radical implications ofthis insistence on equal natural rights would slowlybecome apparent in postrevolutionary Americansociety as previously downtrodden groups began toinvoke these ideals to challenge slavery, argue for awider franchise, end female legal inequality, and fullyseparate church and state.

In 1780, under the influence of John Adams,Massachusetts created a mechanism by which thepeople themselves could exercise their sovereignpower to constitute governments: a specialconvention convened solely for the purpose ofwriting a constitution, followed by a process ofratification. This American innovation allowed theideas of philosophers like Locke to be put intopractice. In particular, it made the people’s naturalrights secure by enshrining them in a constitutionwhich was not changeable by ordinary legislation.This method was to influence the authors of thenew federal Constitution in 1787.

Religious Toleration and theSeparation of Church and State

A related development in seventeenth-centuryEuropean political theory was the emergence ofarguments for religious toleration and theseparation of church and state. As a result of thebloody religious wars between Catholics andProtestants that followed the Reformation, a fewthinkers in both England and Europe argued thatgovernments should not attempt to force individualsto conform to one form of worship. Rather, theyinsisted that such coercion was both unjust anddangerous. It was unjust because true faithrequired voluntary belief; it was dangerous becausethe attempts to enforce religious beliefs in Europe

had led not to religiousuniformity, but to civil war.These thinkers furtherargued that if governmentsceased to enforce religiousbelief, the result would becivil peace and prosperity.

Once again the Englishphilosopher John Locke

played a major role in the development of these newideas. Building on the work of earlier writers, Lockepublished in 1689 A Letter Concerning Toleration, inwhich he contended that there was a natural rightof conscience that no government could infringe.As he put it: “The care of Souls cannot belong to theCivil Magistrate, because his Power consists only inoutward force; but true and saving Religion consistsin the inward perswasion [sic] of the Mind, withoutwhich nothing can be acceptable to God. And suchis the nature of the Understanding, that it cannotbe compell’d to the belief of any thing by outwardforce. Confiscation of Estate, Imprisonment,Torments, nothing of that nature can have anysuch Efficacy as to make Men change the inwardJudgment that they have formed of things.”

These ideas about the rights of conscience andreligious toleration resonated powerfully in theEnglish colonies in America. Although thePuritans in the seventeenth century had originallyattempted to set up an intolerant commonwealthwhere unorthodox religious belief would beprohibited, dissenters like Roger Williamschallenged them and argued that true faith couldnot be the product of coercion. Forced to flee bythe Puritans, Williams established the colony ofRhode Island, which offered religious toleration toall and had no state-supported church. As thePuritan Cotton Mather sarcastically remarked,


Natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in theAmerican colonies . . . , appearing in

numerous political pamphlets,newspapers, and sermons.


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Rhode Island contained “everything in the worldbut Roman Catholics and real Christians.” Inaddition, Maryland, founded in the 1630s, andPennsylvania, founded in the 1680s, both providedan extraordinary degree of religious freedom bythe standard of the time.

In the eighteenth century, as these arguments forreligious toleration spread throughout the English-speaking Protestant world, the American colonies,becoming ever more religiously pluralistic, provedparticularly receptive to them.As a result, the idea thatthe government should not enforce religious beliefhad become an important element of Americanpolitical theory by the lateeighteenth century. After theRevolution, it was enshrinedas a formal right in many ofthe state constitutions, aswell as most famously in theFirst Amendment to thefederal Constitution.

Colonial Self-GovernmentThe political thinking of the Founders in the lateeighteenth century was also deeply influenced bythe long experience of colonial self-government.Since their founding in the early seventeenthcentury, most of the English colonies in theAmericas (unlike the French and Spanish colonies)had governed themselves to a large extent in localassemblies that were modeled on the EnglishParliament. In these colonial assemblies theyexercised their English common law right toconsent to all laws that bound them.

The existence of these strong local governmentsin each colony also explains in part the speed withwhich the Founders were able to create viableindependent republican governments in the yearsafter 1776. This long-standing practice of self-government also helped to create an indigenouspolitical class in the American colonies with therequisite experience for the difficult task of nationbuilding.

In addition to the various charters and royalinstructions that governed the English colonies,Americans also wrote their own Foundingdocuments. These settler covenants were an earlytype of written constitution and they provided animportant model for the Founders in the lateeighteenth century as they sought to craft a newconstitutional system based on popular consent.

Classical RepublicanismNot all the intellectual influences on the Foundersoriginated in the seventeenth century. Becausemany of the Founders received a classicaleducation in colonial colleges in the eighteenthcentury, they were heavily influenced by thewritings of the great political thinkers andhistorians of ancient Greece and Rome.

Antiquity shaped the Founders’ politicalthought in several important ways. First, itintroduced them to the idea of republicanism, orgovernment by the people. Ancient political thinkersfrom Aristotle to Cicero had praised republican

self-government as the bestpolitical system. Thisclassical political thoughtwas important for theFounders as it gave themgrounds to dissent from theheavily monarchical politicalculture of eighteenth-centuryEngland, where even thecommon law jurists who

defended subjects’ rights against royal powerbelieved strongly in monarchy. By reading theclassics, the American Founders were introducedto an alternate political vision, one that legitimizedrepublicanism.

The second legacy of this classical idea ofrepublicanism was the emphasis that it put on themoral foundations of liberty. Though ancientwriters believed that a republic was the best formof government, they were intensely aware of itsfragility. In particular, they argued that because thepeople governed themselves, republics required fortheir very survival a high degree of civic virtue intheir citizenry. Citizens had to be able to put thegood of the whole (the res publica) ahead of theirown private interests. If they failed to do this, therepublic would fall prey to men of power andambition, and liberty would ultimately be lost.

As a result of this need for an exceptionallyvirtuous citizenry, ancient writers also taught thatrepublics had to be small. Only in a small andrelatively homogeneous society, they argued,would the necessary degree of civic virtue beforthcoming. In part, it was this classical teachingabout the weakness of large republics thatanimated the contentious debate over theproposed federal Constitution in the 1780s.

In addition to their reading of ancient authors,the Founders also encountered republican ideas in


By reading the classics, the AmericanFounders were introduced to an

alternate political vision, one thatlegitimated republicanism.


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the political theory of a group of eighteenth-century English writers called the “radical Whigs.”These writers kept alive the republican legacy ofthe English Civil War at a time when mostEnglishmen believed that their constitutionalmonarchy was the best form of government in theworld. Crucially for the Founding, these radicalWhigs combined classical republican thought withthe newer Lockean ideas of natural rights andpopular sovereignty. They thus became animportant conduit for a modern type ofrepublicanism to enter American political thought,one that combined the ancient concern with avirtuous citizenry and the modern insistence onthe importance of individual rights.

These radical Whigs also provided theFounders with an important critique of theeighteenth-century British constitution. Instead ofseeing it as the best form of government possible,the radical Whigs argued that it was both corrupt

and tyrannical. In order to reform it, they called fora written constitution and a formal separation ofthe executive branch from the legislature. Thisclassically inspired radical Whig constitutionalismwas an important influence on the development ofAmerican republicanism in the late eighteenthcentury.

ConclusionDrawing on all these intellectual traditions, theFounders were able to create a new kind ofrepublicanism in America based on equal rights,consent, popular sovereignty, and the separation ofchurch and state. Having set this broad context forthe Founding, we now turn to a more detailedexamination of important aspects of the Founders’political theory, followed by detailed biographicalstudies of the Founders themselves.

Craig Yirush, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles


Suggestions for Further ReadingBailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1967.Lutz, Donald. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. Indianapolis, Ind.:

Liberty Fund, 1998.Reid, John Phillip. The Constitutional History of the American Revolution. Abridged Edition. Madison: The

University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.Rossiter, Clinton. Seedtime of the Republic: The Origins of the American Tradition of Political Liberty. New

York: Harcourt Brace, 1953.Zuckert, Michael. Natural Rights and the New Republicanism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

1994.

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Visual Assessment1. Founders Posters—Have students create posters for either an individual Founder,

a group of Founders, or an event. Ask them to include at least one quotation(different from classroom posters that accompany this volume) and one image.

2. Coat of Arms—Draw a coat of arms template and divide into6 quadrants (see example). Photocopy and hand out to theclass. Ask them to create a coat of arms for a particularFounder with a different criterion for each quadrant (e.g.,occupation, key contribution, etc.). Include in the assignmentan explanation sheet in which they describe why they chosecertain colors, images, and symbols.

3. Individual Illustrated Timeline—Ask each student to create a visual timeline ofat least ten key points in the life of a particular Founder. In class, put the studentsin groups and have them discuss the intersections and juxtapositions in each oftheir timelines.

4. Full Class Illustrated Timeline—Along a full classroom wall, tape poster paper inone long line. Draw in a middle line and years (i.e., 1760, 1770, 1780, etc.). Putstudents in pairs and assign each pair one Founder. Ask them to put together tenkey points in the life of the Founder. Have each pair draw in the key points on themaster timeline.

5. Political Cartoon—Provide students with examples of good political cartoons,contemporary or historical. A good resource for finding historical cartoons on theWeb is <http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html>. Askthem to create a political cartoon based on an event or idea in the Founding period.

Performance Assessments1. Meeting of the Minds—Divide the class into five groups and assign a Founder to

each group. Ask the group to discuss the Founder’s views on a variety of pre-determined topics. Then, have a representative from each group come to the frontof the classroom and role-play as the Founder, dialoguing with Founders fromother groups. The teacher will act as moderator, reading aloud topic questions(based on the pre-determined topics given to the groups) and encouragingdiscussion from the students in character. At the teacher’s discretion, questioningcan be opened up to the class as a whole. For advanced students, do not provide alist of topics—ask them to know their character well enough to present himproperly on all topics.

2. Create a Song or Rap—Individually or in groups, have students create a songor rap about a Founder based on a familiar song, incorporating at least five keyevents or ideas of the Founder in their project. Have students perform their songin class. (Optional: Ask the students to bring in a recording of the song forbackground music.)

Web/Technology Assessments1. Founders PowerPoint Presentation—Divide students into groups. Have each

group create a PowerPoint presentation about a Founder or event. Determine thenumber of slides, and assign a theme to each slide (e.g., basic biographicinformation, major contributions, political philosophy, quotations, repercussionsof the event, participants in the event, etc.). Have them hand out copies of theslides and give the presentation to the class. You may also ask for a copy of the

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presentation to give you the opportunity to combine all the presentations into anend-of-semester review.

2. Evaluate Web sites—Have students search the Web for three sites related to aFounder or the Founding period (you may provide them with a “start list” from theresource list at the end of each lesson). Create a Web site evaluation sheet thatincludes such questions as: Are the facts on this site correct in comparison to othersites? What sources does this site draw on to produce its information? Who are themain contributors to this site? When was the site last updated? Ask students tograde the site according to the evaluation sheet and give it a grade for reliability,accuracy, etc. They should write a 2–3 sentence explanation for their grade.

3. Web Quest—Choose a Web site(s) on the Constitution, Founders, or Foundingperiod. (See suggestions below.) Go to the Web site(s) and create a list of questionstaken from various pages within the site. Provide students with the Web addressand list of questions, and ask them to find answers to the questions on the site,documenting on which page they found their answer. Web site suggestions:

• The Avalon Project <http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm>• The Founders’ Constitution <http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/>• Founding.com <http://www.founding.com/>• National Archives Charters of Freedom

<http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters.html>• The Library of Congress American Memory Page <http://memory.loc.gov/>• Our Documents <http://www.ourdocuments.gov/>• Teaching American History <http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/>

A good site to help you construct the Web Quest is: <http://trackstar.hprtec.org>

Verbal Assessments1. Contingency in History—In a one-to-two page essay, have students answer the

question, “How would history have been different if [Founder] had not beenborn?” They should consider repercussions for later events in the political world.

2. Letters Between Founders—Ask students to each choose a “CorrespondencePartner” and decide which two Founders they will be representing. Have themread the appropriate Founders essays and primary source activities. Over a periodof time, the pair should then write at least three letters back and forth (with a copybeing given to the teacher for review and feedback). Instruct them to be mindfulof their Founders’ tone and writing style, life experience, and political views inconstructing the letters.

3. Categorize the Founders—Create five categories for the Founders (e.g., slave-holders vs. non-slaveholders, northern vs. southern, opponents of theConstitution vs. proponents of the Constitution, etc.) and a list of Foundersstudied. Ask students to place each Founder in the appropriate category. Foradvanced students, ask them to create the five categories in addition tocategorizing the Founders.

4. Obituaries and Gravestones—Have students write a short obituary or gravestoneengraving that captures the major accomplishments of a Founder (e.g., ThomasJefferson’s gravestone). Ask them to consider for what the Founder wished to beremembered.

5. “I Am” Poem—Instruct students to select a Founder and write a poem that refersto specific historical events in his life (number of lines at the teacher’s discretion).



Each line of the poem must begin with “I” (i.e., “I am…,” “I wonder…,” “I see…,”etc.). Have them present their poem with an illustration of the Founder.

6. Founder’s Journal—Have students construct a journal of a Founder at a certainperiod in time. Ask them to pick out at least five important days. In the journalentry, make sure they include the major events of the day, the Founder’s feelingsabout the events, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., when writing a journal aboutthe winter at Valley Forge, Washington may have included information about thetroops’ morale, supplies, etc.).

7. Résumé for a Founder—Ask students to create a resume for a particular Founder.Make sure they include standard resume information (e.g., work experience,education, skills, accomplishments/honors, etc.). You can also have them researchand bring in a writing sample (primary source) to accompany the resume.

8. Cast of Characters—Choose an event in the Founding Period (e.g., the signing ofthe Declaration of Independence, the debate about the Constitution in a stateratifying convention, etc.) and make a list of individuals related to the incident.Tell students that they are working for a major film studio in Hollywood that hasdecided to make a movie about this event. They have been hired to cast actors foreach part. Have students fill in your list of individuals with actors/actresses (pastor present) with an explanation of why that particular actor/actress was chosen forthe role. (Ask the students to focus on personality traits, previous roles, etc.)

Review Activities1. Founders Jeopardy—Create a Jeopardy board on an overhead sheet or handout

(six columns and five rows). Label the column heads with categories and fill in allother squares with a dollar amount. Make a sheet that corresponds to the Jeopardyboard with the answers that you will be revealing to the class. (Be sure to includeDaily Doubles.)

a. Possible categories may include:• Thomas Jefferson (or the name of any Founder)• Revolutionary Quirks (fun Founders facts)• Potpourri (miscellaneous)• Pen is Mightier (writings of the Founders)

b. Example answers:• This Founder drafted and introduced the first formal proposal for a

permanent union of the thirteen colonies. Question: Who is BenjaminFranklin?

• This Founder was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration ofIndependence. Question: Who is Charles Carroll?

2. Who Am I?—For homework, give each student a different Founder essay. Ask eachstudent to compile a list of five-to-ten facts about his/her Founder. In class, askindividuals to come to the front of the classroom and read off the facts one at atime, prompting the rest of the class to guess the appropriate Founder.

3. Around the World—Develop a list of questions about the Founders and plot a“travel route” around the classroom in preparation for this game. Ask one studentto volunteer to go first. The student will get up from his/her desk and “travel”along the route plotted to an adjacent student’s desk, standing next to it. Read aquestion aloud, and the first student of the two to answer correctly advances to thenext stop on the travel route. Have the students keep track of how many placesthey advance. Whoever advances the furthest wins.

ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES



Common Good: General conditions that are equally to everyone’s advantage. In arepublic, held to be superior to the good of the individual, though its attainment oughtnever to violate the natural rights of any individual.

Democracy: From the Greek, demos, meaning “rule of the people.” Had a negativeconnotation among most Founders, who equated the term with mob rule. The Foundersconsidered it to be a form of government into which poorly-governed republicsdegenerated.

English Rights: Considered by Americans to be part of their inheritance as Englishmen;included such rights as property, petition, and trials by jury. Believed to exist from timeimmemorial and recognized by various English charters as the Magna Carta, the Petitionof Right of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Equality: Believed to be the condition of all people, who possessed an equality of rights.In practical matters, restricted largely to land-owning white men during the FoundingEra, but the principle worked to undermine ideas of deference among classes.

Faction: A small group that seeks to benefit its members at the expense of the commongood. The Founders discouraged the formation of factions, which they equated withpolitical parties.

Federalism: A political system in which power is divided between two levels ofgovernment, each supreme in its own sphere. Intended to avoid the concentration ofpower in the central government and to preserve the power of local government.

Government: Political power fundamentally limited by citizens’ rights and privileges.This limiting was accomplished by written charters or constitutions and bills of rights.

Happiness: The ultimate end of government. Attained by living in liberty and bypracticing virtue.

Inalienable Rights: Rights that can never justly be taken away.

Independence: The condition of living in liberty without being subject to the unjustrule of another.

Liberty: To live in the enjoyment of one’s rights without dependence upon anyone else.Its enjoyment led to happiness.

Natural Rights: Rights individuals possess by virtue of their humanity. Were thought tobe “inalienable.” Protected by written constitutions and bills of rights that restrainedgovernment.

Property: Referred not only to material possessions, but also to the ownership of one’sbody and rights. Jealously guarded by Americans as the foundation of liberty during thecrisis with Britain.


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AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GLOSSARY

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Reason: Human intellectual capacity and rationality. Believed by the Founders to be thedefining characteristic of humans, and the means by which they could understand theworld and improve their lives.

Religious Toleration: The indulgence shown to one religion while maintaining aprivileged position for another. In pluralistic America, religious uniformity could not beenforced so religious toleration became the norm.

Representation: Believed to be central to republican government and the preservationof liberty. Citizens, entitled to vote, elect officials who are responsible to them, and whogovern according to the law.

Republic: From the Latin, res publica, meaning “the public things.” A government systemin which power resides in the people who elect representatives responsible to them andwho govern according to the law. A form of government dedicated to promoting thecommon good. Based on the people, but distinct from a democracy.

Separation of Church and State: The doctrine that government should not enforcereligious belief. Part of the concept of religious toleration and freedom of conscience.

Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances: A way to restrain the power of governmentby balancing the interests of one section of government against the competing interestsof another section. A key component of the federal Constitution. A means of slowingdown the operation of government, so it did not possess too much energy and thusendanger the rights of the people.

Slavery: Referred both to chattel slavery and political slavery. Politically, the fate that befellthose who did not guard their rights against governments. Socially and economically, aninstitution that challenged the belief of the Founders in natural rights.

Taxes: Considered in English tradition to be the free gift of the people to the government.Americans refused to pay them without their consent, which meant actual representationin Parliament.

Tyranny: The condition in which liberty is lost and one is governed by the arbitrarywill of another. Related to the idea of political slavery.

Virtue: The animating principle of a republic and the quality essential for a republic’ssurvival. From the Latin, vir, meaning “man.” Referred to the display of such “manly”traits as courage and self-sacrifice for the common good.

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An Eighteenth-Century Glossary

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Answer Key

Answer Key

3. Otis’s main idea is that slavery is anobvious and terrible violation ofAfricans’ natural rights. Locke’s mainidea is that all men are created equaland there can be no natural subordi-nation of one people to another. Otismay have been influenced by the ideathat all men have equal claim to natu-ral rights.

4. Otis’s main idea is that men are bynature free, and that property rightsare essential to freedom. Locke’s mainidea is that property (lives, liberties,and estates) and liberty are interde-pendent. Otis may have been influ-enced by the idea that all propertyrights are essential to freedom.

Thomas PaineHandout A—Thomas Paine(1737–1809)1. Paine condemned slavery as a “savage

practice.” He pointed out the irony bywhich Americans held Africans as slavesand at the same time complained ofattempts by the British government toenslave the colonies.

2. He rejected the idea that Britain wasAmerica’s mother country. British poli-cies violated American liberty and hin-dered the country’s economic prospects.Paine called for the colonists to fightfor their independence. He also argued“government even in its best state isbut a necessary evil.” He also denouncedcustom as no more than “a long habitof not thinking a thing wrong.” Painealso saw the American cause as a partof worldwide uprising against tyranny.

3. The Rights of Man’s critique of monar-chy was so radical that the British gov-ernment (a monarchy) attempted toarrest Paine for inciting resistance togovernment. Even more radically, hecalled for social programs to help thepoor. In The Age of Reason, Painestrongly condemned all organized

religion, and in particular Christianity,as a series of “fabulous inventions.”He claimed the only true religion wasDeism.

4. Some students may say that Paine diddeserve the negative reaction he received.His condemnation of organized religionwas offensive to many, and his open,hostile letter to the very popular GeorgeWashington created enemies. Othersmay say that he did not deserve the neg-ative reaction he received. He acknowl-edged freedom of belief in The Age ofReason, and freedom of belief andnon-belief is a cherished American lib-erty. They may say that while his letterto Washington might have offendedmany, Paine maintained his right toexpress his opinions and the lettershould not have affected his reputation.

5. Thomas Paine’s commitment to repub-lican government remained constantthrough his career. His work inspiredthe Continental Army to perseverewhen they felt neglected by the Con-gress. His words also summoned sup-port for independence in the manywho read Common Sense. His beliefthat the people have the right to do awaywith a government that does not pro-tect their rights, and replace it with ajust one, was essential to the AmericanRevolution.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. oppressive powerb. beatenc. comfortd. valuee. difficulty or expensef. heavenlyg. disrespectfulh. God’s carei. comfortj. trickery

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Answer Key


2. Contexta. Thomas Paine wrote this

document.b. This document was written in

1776.c. The audience of this document

was the Continental Army andall of the American people.

d. This document was written toinspire the troops, raise morale,and increase support for therevolutionary cause.

Handout D—Analysis: Paine and Civic Values2. If you get something too easily, you

don’t appreciate it. Hard work, indus-try, and gratitude

3. I am asking everyone to join togetherin this fight. Unity, loyalty, andunselfishness

4. Don’t depend upon God’s intervention,but act yourself. Integrity and honesty

5. It is silly to think that an unjust armywill show kindness. Circumspectionand wisdom

6. It is as bad to lie as it is to physicallyharm. Courage, wisdom, andperseverance

Benjamin RushHandout A—Benjamin Rush(1745–1813)1. Rush served as a delegate to the Conti-

nental Congress and was a signer ofthe Declaration of Independence. Hewas also a delegate to the Pennsylvaniaratifying convention.

2. Rush encouraged (1) the abolition ofslavery, (2) free education for all,(3) education for women, (4) treatmentof alcoholism and tobacco addiction asdiseases, (5) humane treatment of thementally ill.

3. President John Adams appointed Rushas Treasurer of the U.S. Mint.

4. Students may cite his academic achieve-ments, his early advocacy for revolu-tion and abolition of slavery, his interestin public education for all, and advance-ments made in medical treatments.

5. Students may say that challengingaccepted ideas is the only real way tobring about change. Progress dependson people being willing to take on thestatus quo. Disadvantages to advanc-ing novel ideas might include beinglabeled as a “radical” or earning a con-troversial reputation.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. attitudesb. nurturersc. uniformd. understandablee. effectivef. taught by repetitiong. approvalh. mutual

2. Contexta. This document was written in

1798.b. Benjamin Rush wrote this

document.c. This is a persuasive essay.d. This document’s purpose was

to express the need for—and todefine—a new, national modeof education for the newly cre-ated republic.

Handout C—In His Own Words:Benjamin Rush on Education1. The new American government requires

a new form of education to preparechildren for their duties as citizens.

2. Because the people of Pennsylvaniacome from such diverse backgrounds,a uniform system of education willmake people more alike, and thereforebetter able to live under a uniform andpeaceful government.

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