Alexis
De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
 | Like a human being, you can track its future by its childhood, so you can track a country by its origins to determine its natural character or destiny. |
| We can see such a national infancy in America |
| Emigrants to the colonies differed in goals and principles but similar in language. |
 | British – factious past, importance of how to protect, parish system |
| Emigrants have no notion of superiority – happy and powerful do not go into exile |
| If the elite did come they found the soil not suited for territorial aristocracy |
| Too poor to support any but the owner |
| Because the land can only support a few people – the land is naturally broken into small portions which the proprietor cultivates himself |
Lowi and Ginsbrug Chap. 2
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There were five sectors in colonial society |
1) New England Merchants
2) Southern planters
3) Holders of royal lands, patents, and officers
4) Shopkeepers, artisans, laborers
5) Small farmers
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The merchants, planters and royalists comprised the colonial elite the ruled |
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1720-1750 was a period of salutary neglect as distance and limits of communications mean the colonies are neither heavily regulated nor heavily taxed. – between 1740 and 1748 only about 148,000 pounds are spent on the colonies |
Whig ideology, Lockean philosophy and English history hold that power can be abused and so must carefully be watched
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1754-1763 – the French-Indian War costs about a million pounds |
French threat is removed and allows colonists to look inward
British post soldiers in people’s homes and colonists told they don’t have same rights as the English
Rise in colonial patriotism
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British debt motivates parliament to start taxing the colonies |
Then the Stamp Act and other taxes in the 1760s threaten the interests of the merchants and the planters – an alliance between the 1, 2, 4, and 5 is created
The act is eventually repealed and the alliance disbands with the traditional elite supporting the soldiers during the Boston Massacre
In 1773, the British grant a monopoly on the export of tea from Britain and the company works to sell directly to the colonies instead of through merchants
Merchants unite with 4 and 5 – the Boston Tea Party
(radicals hoped it would provoke a response, merchants just hoped it would rescind the monopoly)
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Britain responds with by closing the Boston port, changes the provincial government of Massachusetts, accused persons could be taken to England for trial, and restricted movement to the West (this further alienated the Southern planters) |
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1775 – Battle of Lexington – troops going to Concord to destroy arms |
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Declaration of Independence (1776) written |
Calls for inalienable rights
Attempts to unify a disparate country by articulating a history and set of principles to forge a national unity
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So the causes of the revolution: |
- economic – taxes, monopolies challenge economic interests
- political – the rights of the people are being taken away – Lockean
The shift from salutary neglect sparks a powerful reaction because of Locke, Whig ideology and British history
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Articles of Confederation (1777) |
No executive branch
Enforcement left to the states
No judicial branch
No agency for resolving disputes between the states
Just a unicameral legislature
- one member selected by the state legislature
No means of regulating interstate commerce
States could tax each others goods
No federal enforcement powers
As a result: foreign countries could play states against each other in trade deals
- radical elements control Pennsylvania and Rhode Island Leg – instituting currency inflation – frightens the elite but the federal gov is powerless to intervene
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Annapolis Conventions (1786) |
Calls for Congress to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia to revise the articles
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Shay’s Rebellion – attempts to stop foreclosure by keeping courts in Mass. from sitting |
Shay tries to capture the federal arsenal at Springfield
Appeal made to federal gov gets no response
State militia is able to disperse mob within a few days
Insurrection is embarrassing and worrisome
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Constitutional convention (May 1787) |
29 delegates selected by state governments – none from Rhode Island
Hot Philadelphia summer, windows shut to keep deliberations secret