Main currents in American thought

I. Alexander Hamilton—The Leviathan State: Representative of conservative interests. A master of finance, administrator rather than thinker. Inadequate intellectual equipment. A political realist: men are swayed by self-interest; the rule of the strong. Undemocratic. The doctrine of vox justiciae. His plan of government—the fallacy of his argument. As a statesman: necessity of allying the wealthy with government: position on funding, taxation, the tariff, the industrial revolution. Statesman of the rising capitalism

II. John Adams—Realist: Compared with Dr. Johnson—apostle of common sense. Shift from earlier position. Intellectual qualities. His early constitutionalism—a federated British empire. A Defense of the Constitution of Government, and Discourses on Davila. Opposition aroused by latter. His political philosophy: theory of human nature, doctrine of rivalry, the class struggle, natural aristocracy. Foolishness of French doctrines of equality and fraternity. Faction the weakness of democracy—the end anarchy or absolutism. The fact of property rule. Hence need for system of checks and balances. Sources of his philosophy—Harrington. Hostility to Hamilton. A notable political thinker

Stirred party passions afresh. Popularized democracy in America and provided a body of philosophy: doctrines of the majority will, expediency, local self-government. Later party divisions. Democratic clubs. The odium theologicum. Paine’s Rights of Man and J. Q. Adams’s Publicola. The shift of positions

I. Tom Paine—Republican Pamphleteer: An internationalist. Odium attaching to his name. A social inefficient. Common Sense—appeal to expediency; attack on monarchy and the British Constitution. Political philosophy: doctrine of continuous compact, of the res publica. The Rights of Man—a reply to Burke’s theory of civil contract and the expediency of aristocratic rule. The business of the revolution. Agrarian Justice: civilization and poverty; relation to Babeuf; theory of unearned increment; a tax proposal. Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance—an attack on funding. A pacifist. Sources of his philosophy. His position in contemporary American opinion

II. Thomas Jefferson—Agrarian Democrat: Position. His inconsistencies due to a slowly clarifying philosophy. An intellectual, holding to American experience. Chief doctrines: the social compact, the res publica, the diminished state—a philosophy of decentralization. Belief in the excellence of an agrarian economy—a Physiocrat; fear of cities and industrialism. Suspicious of appeal to past experience: the evils of the past due to leviathan state; consolidation would repeat those evils in America. Excellence of home rule; the majority will. Fear of judicial encroachment, the Common Law. Class rule serves class interests. Faith in the common people. The industrial revolution and a new centralization

1. The Hartford Wits: Arch conservatives. Sources of Connecticut Federalism—Calvinism and business. The Connecticut fear of democracy. Members of the group. Theodore Dwight. Timothy Dwight—his contemporary reputation, likeness to Increase Mather, a clerical Federalist. His literary work

1. Philip Freneau—Poet of Two Revolutions: A revolutionary volunteer—effect on his reputation. A radical advocate of all liberal movements. Effect on his poetic career. Spirit of his satire—attack on England. His desire to strip colonial loyalties from the American. Influence on Freneau of the French Revolution. The National Gazette—a leader of anti-Federalism. The consequences. His growing reputation

2. Joel Barlow—Jacobin: Early career: his experience abroad and his adoption of Jacobin views. Cost to his reputation. Advice to the Privileged Orders: the doctrine of res publica; social responsibility for the individual. Letter to the National Convention of France, and the machinery of a democratic state. The Columbiad—a republican poem

3. Hugh Henry Brackenridge—Free-Lance Democrat: An independent critic of the shortcomings of democracy. Modern Chivalry—a frontier book, a satire of current manners. Democracy must not be sacrificed to selfish individualism—the folly of the political climber and of the electorate. A notable book