Bit more about. What you did . In our upcoming discussions now good morning, everybody. Welcome to history 3011, the american revolution. I hope all of you had a great spring break last weekend. I look forward to hearing a little bit more about what you did and in our upcoming discussions. Now, we spent the last two weeks talking about the war of independence. The actual war. And the amazing thing about the revolution is that while war was raging, americans wrote constitutions, and debated how to construct a government that would protect the peoples rights. And facilitate their happiness. This word happiness is not the declaration of dependence, it appears over and over again in discussions around the formation of state constitutions, and in earliest bills of rights. So, you know, we need to think about how emotion and sentiment are part of the goals of the revolution, a really creating a government that is gonna contribute to individual fulfillment, as well as the common good. Both of those goals were intertwined. The fulfillment unhappiness of the individual, that we can all be our best selves, but also, the good of the whole, there the twin goals of this period of creation of the republic. Well were not gonna talk about today is the confederation, because that was a sideshow. That was the National Government. It was not of interest to these contemporaries. They put very little, you know, philosophy, political science, and consideration into its construction. In many ways, they took the existing congress they had and, you know, gave it some rights and powers. The philosophical ideas, all the hopes and dreams, all of the plans for the future, all of the experiments, they were conducted at the state level. Today im gonna talk about three state constitutions that were very influential in the period, they created templates and other states borrowed, templates that influenced our own u. S. Constitution, 1787 1788. They engaged in a radical democratic experiments that some other states followed, some other states thought were a bridge too far, went too far. Or they represented, well we might call a movement, a pushback was against what some call an excess of democracy. In a create a 1776 with a desire to figure out how to maintain the order of the british constitution that they had rejected without creating aristocracy, monarchy, et cetera. Trying to figure out how to create an Orderly Society was important to some americans, while pursuing the greatest degree of democracy was important to others. Democracy is not a shared value in 1776. Many feared it. Particularly in the run up to 1776, and the declaration of independence, many people were not ready to separate from england. This includes people within the Continental Congress and within the state conventions, these assemblies that had emerged in the collapse of the british government. Many people who were colonial officials at the state level were not ready to declare independence. In some ways, we talked about the ways in which the militia service, military service, the arrival of war, forced people to choose, to choose sides. Are they going to come out as loyalist or support the patriot cause . These were more moments of crisis in 1775 and 1776. This call for the creation of State Government was a way to galvanize. It was pushed by the more radical groups within congress and within the colonies, within the state conventions. Hes taken functions, these irregular bodies, the former legislators that were now these ballooned bodies including committees, extra people, had been pushing for creating more formal frames of government. They want to move the revolution forward politically. At the top, there was a resistance. In some colonies, there was resistance. People were not right to declare independence. Pennsylvania, the place where the concept of congress was meeting, its legislator was dragging its feet. It was one of the holdouts in terms of improving independence. In the period between when common sense was written, in american, in england, or in this period, the war has started. In the period between when common sense was written and the declaration of independence, there is a lot of maneuvering around these issues. With an individual colonies, now states, moving into statehood, some groups are like we need to do something in the short term. Lets just use our charter. So, connecticut, which had a Royal Charter dating back to the 17th century, they use that as a framework of government. Some people in massachusetts wanted to do the same. Others, in massachusetts, wanted to take this opportunity to do something new. The virginia convention, they passed laws. They did not know what to do without the royal governor to enact them. Lord dunbar had fled the area. He is on ship. They are antagonistic with him. There is a concern or a concern about, how do we make laws illegal . How do we make them binding . How do we make people listen to us. How do we run these governments from our new position at these conventions . We need to figure out what makes this legitimate, how to make the government of function. Replace what we had before, make it better. This is the energy, this is the push. John adams, sam adams, jefferson, other figures who are in this pro adam independence faction within congress felt that once people create a government, had recreated their governments, we are not just using some leftover british model. That would be a true revolution. There would be no going back. This is literally the word that jefferson uses. There would be no going back when people have created these new get governments at the state level. Between my tenth and may 15th, Congress Worked on this resolution for the states. They called upon them to adopt the shell representative of the people. The best conduces to the can deterrents and to america in general. This is a job for the states. Theres still a notion of the collective of america. At the declaration of independence would, in some ways, invent and create a month later. Think about it, this comes before the declaration of independence. In fact, it gets in the way of some of the business of congress. Everyone is so excited about this, and what this represents. People want to go back to their home colonies and work on these constitutions. Thomas jefferson is one of those people. A certain accent that he was in philadelphia to be part of the writing of the admiration of independence, he was subletting for his cousin. He writes about how hes trying to finish, finish, finish, and go back. He comes back, wraps up the decorative independence, and then wants to go back. Jefferson wrote a three draft of the constitution that he tried to get people interested in and get people behind. He was very active and involved in the constitution that virginia did create. So, it is easy in opposition to be united. So they had some notions of what they did not want. They did not want standing armies. They did not want to royal governors who could sit down and shut down their colonial adventures. They do not want to accept its sovereignty over all matters pertaining to local government. They thought that their local government should have a role in this. What did they hold up in opposition to english rule . They were local legislators. This is going to have a lot of interest and a lot of excitement. They know what they do not want. The specifics of what they want, that is where the work had to occur. That process is whats really revealed a lot of differences amongst americans. Even those who are united and desiring independence, we are not necessarily united on what they want to see, in terms of government. One thing that people agreed about was that these governments should be republics. In fact, that is for the may 15th resolution called for the creation of republican governments with a small are. This is where the Current Republican Party takes its name from this concept. The word republic comes from the latin, like so many other things to do with government and early america. It means the public thing. In other words, the public interest. The main goal of a republic had to be the achievement of the public interest, the achievement of the coffin good. There was a role for individual happiness and individual wellbeing within the goal of this republic. They spread the most basic level, representative government. Americans agreed at this point that although they were interested in the greek city states and the premier democracy they engaged in, they would be impossible to achieve or mimic, even in something a small is a colony, in or to have pretty moxie of the do things like in the towns of new england, where they amass to discuss and debate on local affairs. Anything bigger than a little town, it is logistically impossible. His government was going to have to operate by people choosing representatives, and having those representatives acting in their interest. What kind of representation do you think there they are thinking about . You can answer that. [laughs] well kind of representation do they not want . What representation do they want . They do not want the wealthy and the ruling class. Some people might still want that to happen. That is a great point. Some of them. Some of them are going to want some changes. They are looking at themselves, hey, i am on this committee. Ive become politically active. I might be the person who says, i can do that. Em. So i do want residents requirements. You know, what how are you going to how are you going to enforce these sorts of things got to start thinking about all this . So, you know who should serve should it be t , i can do that. I want to be a representative. Im also thinking about the conduct of actual representation. Will represent the current interest of their constituents. Do you want residents requirements. And how will you enforce the sort of things . Need to start thinking about this. Who should serve . Is that the elites who dominate political office, even in these really relatively 80 of the adult white men had the vote in new england. They are still picking the lead people for office. Will this change . Should its change . John adams feels that this is a good system. James madison and others think it is a good system. People in pennsylvania coming out of the Militia Committee are thinking something different. They are thinking, like connie said, what about me . I can do this. How do we create opportunities for these people who have been serving these communities, militias, and, war to enter into political service. To get elected. How do we make this happen for them if they do not have this reputation, money, power to get into political office. Who should vote . It is a big question. The other thing that we will have in mind was that, how demanding they were. It demanded a lot of people. They demanded a lot of citizens. Within the british system, did they have to work all that hard to be a citizen . Within the system, you will have to work. The work is laid out in these constitutions. What is this mandate of the citizens at a much greater level. To be politically aware, you have to participate in all sorts of direct and indirect ways. They have to pay taxes. You have to serve in the militia. You are going to have serve in the continental army. The military service, your went out to offer taxes to support the war and all the efforts involved. A level of engagement is going to be required to active citizens. The term that is used a lot is virtue. Virtue is an old word, also latin. It went through some transformation in the 15th and 16th century. Machiavellian in the prince, as the adviser to the rule of florence. Colonists said yes we are aware of those discussions as well. The new ideas about virtue and they knew about these modern ideas about how it should go. Today, we think of virtue as something that is private. We also associated with women and a sexual purity. It is a private quality. For these people it was a public quality. In general, it is a male quality. One thing that revolution is changing is that the change of virtue, quality of virtue, to a broad range of people. This is across gender and ethnicities, then had been employed before the revolution. Its still did have this association of military service and willing to sacrifice once self for the good of the country. There are other ways that americans can engage in some sacrifice. This was going to demand self sacrifice of people. They used disinterested is. They did not mean boredom or withdraw but they meant altruism. The ability to have the good of the whole over the good of the self. Public service itself requires some of this sublimation of the self. You to put your interest aside. Think about other peoples interest. Working those interests. Maybe you lose money on your home farm, maybe you have to support a program that is going to hurt you. That is absolutely requirement for engaging in good citizenship. It is very demanding. Many people in the revolutionary generation thought, in order to have that degree to sacrifice, you need to have something to sacrifice. You need to be invested in society in some ways. There is a Certain Property requirement for the vote. You had to have skin in the game. You have to be invested in some way. You had property at risk things that risk, or you are willing to give up, to exercise those qualities of citizenship, of selflessness and service. This is going to be a big discussion. Remember tom paine and the declaration of independence also talk about equality. For some of the revolutionary generation, equality is not a forefront goal. For others, it was. Another thing that these constitute constitutional writers thought about was how to achieve equality. Short of taking peoples property away, what could you do to achieve it . Should government have power to take away property if traces of wealth were too great or in the name of the greater good. Is that something that is on the table for these Government Systems to suggest . Another question, another problem challenge for this constitutional writing generation is the question is what will hold society together. The british superiority held its back together. The hierarchical change helps to preserve order. What would hold people together after this is taken away . What would generate these feelings of public spiritedness and selflessness and the willing to sacrifice. What would prevent anarchy . Some people are very worried about anarchy. The folks who do not want to create these State Governments , it is because they have a transition period of where anarchy is going to break loose. You are going to have a state of nature. This is what Thomas Hobbes talked about in the 17th century. Your property was stolen, your person will be endangered , security will be gone. Some people do not have faith that they could make this transition. So, there is a lot of discussion about what will hold society together. What many of the framers of the constitution hopes is that the governments themselves will generate morality. They would generate and train people in good citizenship. That, in some ways, they are trying to instill ethics. This is through government. Today, the idea that politics would be the school of ethics is not necessarily the way that you are thinking. This is what john adams called the divine science of politics. That may be through the creation of these wonderful republican governments that you could actually almost achieve moral goals, make people more moral. Well see as we talk about the specific constitutions that they actually put things in the constitutions to create the kind of society they want, and encourage people to engage in moral behavior. There is also hope, you know , we talked earlier in the class about the influence of english enlightenment figures like john locke. But 18th century, the enlightenment had gone through a couple different phases and changes. In the 18th century, it became a continent wide event in europe. Also, other areas within the uk became engaged in enlightenment texts. These text, 18th century, theyre from france, there from scotland, they were just as exciting to Many Americans as locke had been a century earlier. One of these thinkers was montesquieu , he was a french nobleman, he wrote a book called the spirit of laws and 1748. One of the things that montesquieu talked about was the importance of republics being small. That republics, you know, you cant be a perfect greek citystate, we have to have a republic that is small and homogeneous. Then its a lot easier for people to get along, its a lot easier for people to get why the colonists are thinking the state is what its gonna be in the republic. The nation will not really be a republic in quite the same way, its not gonna be, its not gonna be the locus and focus. Other contemporaries are also reading a lot of philosophers coming into scotland in this period. They like these philosophers because the scottish thinkers, they are on the margins of English Society too. Scotland was subject to the stamp act. They were subjected to all sorts of, you know, they got charge for exporting things to england. They were subjected to a lot of disadvantages relationships visavis london, parliaments, so on. They felt it. They were a little bit on the outskirts and outside. The colonists like to read these thinkers. A lot of them were also thinking about emotion and sentiment in ways that people were interested in the 18th century. Remember, tom paines appeal to reason, its also an appeal to emotion. And altruism is an emotional appeal as well. There is a number of scottish philosophers, Francis Hutchinson adam smith who wrote the bible of capitalism, he also wrote a book called the theory on moral sentiment. He didnt, you know, want the market to run society, he also wanted a moral society, a society, you know, where morality and good feeling operated, not, you know, not endless competition and selfishness, but a pursuit of self interest that benefited everybody and, you know, was still also thinking about the ways in which morality could be part of these discussions. So, americans are thinking a lot about what kinds of social emotional relationships are gonna pull people together. Theyre trying to achieve these things and constitution writing, believe it or not. So, anything, this is George Washington resigning his commission as commander in chief at the end of the war. And just wonder some general reactions to this picture . Does anyone see anything that is interesting . There is a lot of women. A lot of them, so washington, martha and the girls, they were mentioned and never caught, as their children were gonna be adults soon. There is a gallery up there. So one thing that well see, our most radical constitution creates, there is an opening of the doors to government. Literally, an opening of doors. The doors w