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    7 views13 pages

    U.S. Hist-2

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    of 13
    they decided they would do better to negotiate with the British separately rather than to sit down at the peace table under French direction, Violating their instructions, they negotiated with British representa tives without insisting on advance recognition of inde- pendence, and they did not keep Vergennes informed of what they were doing, By playing on British desires to destroy the Ameri- canalliance with France, the commissioners were able to secure both recognition of independence and the boundaries prescribed in John Adams's original in- structions. In preliminary articles signed on No- vember 30, 1782, they presented this diplomatic ‘thumph to Vergennes as an accomplished fact. Actu- ally there had been no violation ofthe alliance, for the ‘weary based on the articles was not to go into effect until France and Fngland had concluded a treaty of their own, The commissioners’ coup enabled Ver- genes to exert pressure on Spain to give up the fight for Gibraltar, and in the end Spain settled for East and West Florida and Minorca. The final treaties were signed at Paris on September 3, 1783, and the last The Pace Commisioners: Joba Jay, Jon Adams, Benjamin Franti, sand Henry Laurens eT THe EXPEMENTAL Penton 129 th America we 1783 British troops left New York on November25 (see Map 5-7). The Declaration of Independence was at last a statement of fact, not a wish, rere Waaas (on) At Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, Americans had fought against Parliamentary taxation. Alter july 2, 1776, they had fought for independence, though in the beginning probably few of them had any clearidea cof what independence would mean besides the end of British tyranny. Between 1776 and 1789, they ex- plored the possibilities of their new freedom, These thirteen years may be considered the Experimental Period! in American history, the time when Americans were trying their wings, discovering their nationality, They formulated ideas and ideals that had been only balfarticulate before, and they found ways and means to put their ideas and ideals into practice. During this period the Americanisms discussed earlier (see Chap- ter 3) underwent further development, and some of them were transformed from characteristic attitudes {nto national principles, ‘The Fruition of Americanisms American ideas about the separation of church and state and about education advanced less rapidly during the Experi- mental Period than did political and social concepts, 130. cHapren s AN AMERICAN PEOPLE ‘But the assumption that widespread education was desirable did show itself in a revival of schooling, ‘which had lapsed during the war, and in the prolfera- tion of new educational institutions, most of them private, Many academies were founded (especially in ew England) to furnish instruction at the secondary evel, and sometimes beyond, to both boys and girs. ‘And the number of colleges in the United States dou- bled. In 1776 there were nine, and by 1789 as many ore had been opened or chartered, Every state but Delaware had at least one in operation or being orga: nized. Writers in newspapers and pamphlets argued bout what kind of education was best suited ro Amex- cans, Many demanded that it be race more practical and new textbooks reoriented traditional subjects like arithmetic and grammar in this direction, “The colonists’ wariness of allowing their clergy & hand in government gave rise roa greater separation of church and state. Though most states continued 19 Tevy taxes in support of the Protestant religion, the “Anglican Church lost the exclusive claims to that sup- port which it had enjoyed in the Southem colonies Under all the state constitutions, people could atleast specify which Protestant church their taxes should suppor. And in Virginia the principle of complete Seperation of church and state received its finest ex: pression in an act drafted by Thomas Jefferson and opted by the Virginia legislature in 1786. Beginning swith the assertion that “Almighty God hath created the mind free,” the act provided that “noman shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious wor- ship, place, or ministry whatsoever.” ‘elferson was also author of the phrase that «rans laced social mobility into an American principle. By declaring on July 4, 1776, that “all men are created qual,” the United States committed itself to a doc {rine that was o prove the world’s most powerful lever for social and political change. The declaration was intended sienply to justify the colonists’ withdrawal from the mother country, which had refused to teat them as equals. But no great imagination was needed to see wider implications in Jefferson's axiomatic starement of human equality. its relevance to black slavery was inescapable. As soon as Americans complained that British taxation jwould reduce them to slavery, they began to feel un- tasy about their own enslavement of Afticans. They even forswore the slave trade in their nonimportation agreements. In the Experimental Period most of the Suites, Southern as well as Northern, forbade the fur- ther importation of slaves, and the Northern states provided for the eventual liberation of those already Negroes for sale HA Cargo of very fine flout Men and Womens. good order and fit fer ineedte fomen, oh iene fom tie Windward Coaft of Afri- Foon take Ship Toto Brother Conditions are one Thadf Caff or Produce, the other Ialf payee the ff of siary mgs giving Bord and Scctrty if required. F: The Sale. tobe opened ato v'Cinck;eath Daj, in an Boudeaur’s Yard, a4 Ney 485 onthe Bo Shay a9) 2784” JOHN MITC within thelr borders. Many Southerners also freed their slaves voluncarly at this time. But Americans ‘vere not yet ready to face up to the racial meaning of their egalitarian creed. No Southern state provided for the legal abolition of slavery. Jefferson himself contin~ ‘ued to hold slaves throughout his ifesime, and South- tem laves continued to do the work that accounted for the major export of the whole United States, Fventu- filly Americans would have 0 pay for their failure Meanwhile the contradiction between the creed of equality and the practice of slavery was heightened as “Schite Americans gradually turned theie written com- tpitment into an active force to better their own lives. ‘The principle of equality was as hostile t0 aristoc- racy 28 to slavery. Having got along without a tiled roblity for a century and a half, Americans were de- termined to continue without one and looked suspi- Ciously at anything that smacked of special privilege. States lorbade their citizens to accept titles from for- tign nations, And when officers of the Continental ‘army formed the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783, they mec with a storm of protest from critics who feared that the association might become the nucleus of an aristocracy. In Connecticut even a medical soci- ety, seeking to raise the standards ofthe profession by licensing practitioners, was at first denied a charter because its members were to be chosen for life and right thus become a privileged order: “The Revolutionary War itself had an equalizing ef fect on property. Wealthy merchants had lost heavily from the British blockade of cormmerce, while many a poor farmer had prospered in selling produce to the Jrmies. The confiscation and sale of loyalists’ lands dnd the abolition of primogeniture (the inheritance of fa man's entire estate by his eldest son) by the state governments likewise contributed to a more equal Eistribution of property by breaking up some of the larger concentrations of wealth. Although in many cases the initial purchasers of loyalist lands were large-scale speculators, the overall effect ofthe contis- cations was probably to increase the number of land- owners, because speculators sold the confiscated lands in small lots, By the time the war ended, many ‘Americans regarded equality of property as a goal in itself. When economic depression struck the 1780s, legislators in some states sponsored bills favoring debtors, on the grounds thae republican government required a general equality of propery. The emerging doctrine of equality can also be de- tected in the reform of voting laws. Property qualifca- tions had distranchised only a small minority of adult males in most colonies (because most owned prop- erty), and there had been few complaints. But every state except Massachusetts reduced the amount of property required for voting. There remained, never- theless, a strong belief that politcal rights should be confined to property holders. Only ewo states, Georgia and Pennsylvania, opened the franchise to all taxpay- ers. And in most states there were higher property qualifications for holding office than for voring. In the eighteenth century it was assumed that a man without property had no reason to participate in government either by voting or by holding office. The major pur- pose of government was to protect property, so a man ‘without any was thought to have little stake in society. Moreover, only property could free a man from the control of employers or landlords. Without property that would support him, 2 man was not a free agent and could not be trusted with authority or even with a voice in the selection of those who were to wield it Hence the concer already note for the maintenance of a wide distribution of property. If America were to become like Europe, with a mass of propertyless workers and peasants, liberty would fall wth equality; and authority, concentrated in the hands of a few, would tum into tyranny. Authority in the hands of the many, of the people, was the essential characteristic of 2 republic, and with independence colonial insistence on responsible representative government turned into a conscious pursuit of republicanism. Although nothing in the Declaration of Independence had precluded the pos- sibility of monarchy, Americans took it for granted. that the new states would be republics. After severing, their ties with England, Connecticut and Rhode Is- land, which in effect were republics already, simply continued the governments defined by their old charters, In other colonies the provincial congress, which replaced the representative assembly (but usu- ally with a larger membership), acted without formal authority until independence was declared. Then, ‘THE EXPERIMENTAL PERIOD sooner or later, it drafted a written constitution estab- lishing and defining a new government, uswally similar in structure to the old one but more responsible to the people. Since the colonial representative assembly (or lower house) had always been the branch of govern- ‘ment most directly dependenton the people, the state ‘constitutions enlarged both the size and the powers of the lower houses in the new legislacures. In some states the lower house chose both the upper house and. the governor. Two states, Pennsylvania and Georgia, did without an upper house during the 1780s. In other statesa marked change occurred in the composition of this body, for the members were not as “upper” in wealth or social position as their colonial counter- parts. Many were former members of a colonial lower hhouse, They sat, nt as the favorites of a governor, but as representatives of the whole people, indistinguish- able in this respect from the lower house. Determination that the government should be the servant of the people and not their master also prompted the inclusion of bills of rights in most of the state constitutions, The Virginia Bill of Rights began by asserting that “all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest cheir paster- ity." Ttthen enumeraced the rights that lay beyond the reach of government, such as freedom of religion and of the press and the right to trial by jury In most states, alter the provincial congress had

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