Part II

Political Democracy Gets under Way--1787-1800

I. The Impact of the French Revolution--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 321

II. Political Thinkers--The French Group

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 327

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 342

III. The War of Belles Lettres

I. The Federalist Group 357

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 357

2. _The Anarchiad_: Political writings of the Wits. Character of Lemuel Hopkins. The theme of the work--an attack on populism and democracy 363

II. The French Group 367

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 368

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 382

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 390

Conclusion 397

Bibliography 399

Index 405