Modern republicanism is a guiding political philosophy of the United States that has been a major part of American civic thought since its founding. It stresses liberty and unalienable individual rights as central values, it recognizes the sovereignty of the people as the source of all authority in law; rejects monarchy, aristocracy
and hereditary political power, expects citizens to be virtuous and
faithful in their performance of civic duties, and vilifies corruption. American republicanism was articulated and first practiced by the Founding Fathers
in the 18th century. For them, "republicanism represented more than a
particular form of government. It was a way of life, a core ideology, an
uncompromising commitment to liberty, and a total rejection of
aristocracy."
Republicanism was based on Ancient Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and English models and ideas. It formed the basis for the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Constitution (1787), and the Bill of Rights, as well as the Gettysburg Address (1863).
Republicanism includes guarantees of rights that cannot be repealed by a majority vote. Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the "tyranny of the majority" in a democracy, and suggested the courts should try to reverse the efforts of the majority of terminating the rights of an unpopular minority.
The term 'republicanism' is derived from the term 'republic', but the two words have different meanings. A 'republic' is a form of government (one without a hereditary ruling class); 'republicanism' refers to the values of the citizens in a republic.
Two major parties have used the term in their name – the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson (founded in 1793, and often called the 'Jeffersonian Republican Party'), and the current Republican Party, founded in 1854 and named after the Jeffersonian party.
Republicanism was based on Ancient Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and English models and ideas. It formed the basis for the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Constitution (1787), and the Bill of Rights, as well as the Gettysburg Address (1863).
Republicanism includes guarantees of rights that cannot be repealed by a majority vote. Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the "tyranny of the majority" in a democracy, and suggested the courts should try to reverse the efforts of the majority of terminating the rights of an unpopular minority.
The term 'republicanism' is derived from the term 'republic', but the two words have different meanings. A 'republic' is a form of government (one without a hereditary ruling class); 'republicanism' refers to the values of the citizens in a republic.
Two major parties have used the term in their name – the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson (founded in 1793, and often called the 'Jeffersonian Republican Party'), and the current Republican Party, founded in 1854 and named after the Jeffersonian party.
The Capitol exalted classical republican virtues
The American Revolution
Republican virtues
The
colonial intellectual and political leaders in the 1760s and 1770s
closely read history to compare governments and their effectiveness of
rule. The Revolutionists were especially concerned with the history of liberty in England and were primarily influenced by the "country party" (which opposed the court party that held power). Country party philosophy relied heavily on the classical republicanism
of Roman heritage; it celebrated the ideals of duty and virtuous
citizenship in a republic. It drew heavily on ancient Greek city-state
and Roman republican examples. The country party shared some of the political philosophy of Whiggism
as well as Tory critics in England which roundly denounced the
corruption surrounding the "court party" in London centering on the
royal court. This approach produced a political ideology Americans
called "republicanism", which was widespread in colonial America by
1775. "Republicanism was the distinctive political consciousness of the entire Revolutionary generation." J.G.A. Pocock explained the intellectual sources in America:
The Whig canon and the neo-Harringtonians, John Milton, James Harrington and Sidney, Trenchard, Gordon and Bolingbroke, together with the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance masters of the tradition as far as Montesquieu, formed the authoritative literature of this culture; and its values and concepts were those with which we have grown familiar: a civic and patriot ideal in which the personality was founded in property, perfected in citizenship but perpetually threatened by corruption; government figuring paradoxically as the principal source of corruption and operating through such means as patronage, faction, standing armies (opposed to the ideal of the militia); established churches (opposed to the Puritan and deist modes of American religion); and the promotion of a monied interest – though the formulation of this last concept was somewhat hindered by the keen desire for readily available paper credit common in colonies of settlement.
American republicanism was centered on limiting corruption and greed.
Virtue was of the utmost importance for citizens and representatives.
Revolutionaries took a lesson from ancient Rome; they knew it was
necessary to avoid the luxury that had destroyed the empire.
A virtuous citizen was one who ignored monetary compensation and made a
commitment to resist and eradicate corruption. The republic was sacred;
therefore, it was necessary to serve the state in a truly
representative way, ignoring self-interest and individual will.
Republicanism required the service of those who were willing to give up
their own interests for a common good. According to Bernard Bailyn, "The
preservation of liberty rested on the ability of the people to maintain
effective checks on wielders of power and hence in the last analysis
rested on the vigilance and moral stamina of the people. ... " Virtuous
citizens needed to be strong defenders of liberty and challenge the
corruption and greed in government. The duty of the virtuous citizen
became a foundation for the American Revolution.
Cause of revolution
The commitment of Patriots to republican values was a key intellectual foundation of the American Revolution. In particular, the key was Patriots' intense fear of political corruption and the threat it posed to liberty. Bernard Bailyn
states, "The fact that the ministerial conspiracy against liberty had
risen from corruption was of the utmost importance to the colonists." In 1768 to 1773 newspaper exposés such as John Dickinson's series of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania"
(1767–68) were widely reprinted and spread American disgust with
British corruption. The patriot press provided emphasized British
corruption, mismanagement, and tyranny.
Britain was increasingly portrayed as corrupt and hostile and that of a
threat to the very idea of democracy; a threat to the established
liberties that colonists enjoyed and to colonial property rights. The
greatest threat to liberty was thought by many to be corruption – not
just in London but at home as well. The colonists associated it with
luxury and, especially, inherited aristocracy, which they condemned.
Historian J.G.A. Pocock
argues that Republicanism explains the American Revolution in terms of
virtuous Republican resistance to British imperial corruption.
Historian Sarah Purcell studied the sermons preached by the New
England patriot clergy in 1774–1776. They stirred up a martial spirit
justified war against England. The preachers cited New England's Puritan
history in defense of freedom, blamed Britain's depravity and
corruption for the necessity of armed conflict. The sermons called on
soldiers to behave morally and in a "manly" disciplined fashion. The
rhetoric not only encouraged heavy enlistment, but helped create the
intellectual climate the Patriots needed to fight a civil war. Historian Thomas Kidd
argues that during the Revolution active Christians linked their
religion to republicanism. He states, "With the onset of the
revolutionary crisis, a major conceptual shift convinced Americans
across the theological spectrum that God was raising up America for some
special purpose."
Kidd further argues that "new blend of Christian and republican
ideology led religious traditionalists to embrace wholesale the concept
of republican virtue."
Historian Gordon Wood has tied the founding ideas to American exceptionalism:
"Our beliefs in liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and the
well-being of ordinary people came out of the Revolutionary era. So too
did our idea that we Americans are a special people with a special
destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy." Americans were the protectors of liberty, they had a greater obligation and destiny to assert republican virtue. In Discourse of 1759
Jonathan Mayhew states "An absolute submission to our prince, or
whether disobedience and resistance may not be justified able in some
cases ... to all those who bear the title of rulers in common but only
to those who actually perform the duty of rulers by exercising a
reasonable and just authority for the good of human society." The notion
that British rulers were not virtuous, nor exercising their authority
for the "good of human society" prompted the colonial desire to protect
and reestablish republican values in government. This need to protect
virtue was a philosophical underpinning of the American Revolution.
Founding Fathers
The "Founding Fathers" were strong advocates of republican values, especially Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.
Thomas Jefferson defined a republic as:
... a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by the majority; and that every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen ... for such short terms as should render secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. This I should consider as the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a large scale of country or population ... we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient.
The Founding Fathers discoursed endlessly on the meaning of
"republicanism." John Adams in 1787 defined it as "a government, in
which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and
people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are
equally subject to the laws."
Virtue vs. commerce
The open question, as Pocock suggested, of the conflict between personal economic interest (grounded in Lockean liberalism) and classical republicanism, troubled Americans. Jefferson and Madison roundly denounced the Federalists for creating a national bank as tending to corruption and monarchism; Alexander Hamilton
staunchly defended his program, arguing that national economic strength
was necessary for the protection of liberty. Jefferson never relented
but by 1815 Madison switched and announced in favor of a national bank,
which he set up in 1816.
John Adams often pondered the issue of civic virtue. Writing Mercy Otis Warren
in 1776, he agreed with the Greeks and the Romans, that, "Public Virtue
cannot exist without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation
of Republics." Adams insisted, "There must be a positive Passion for the
public good, the public Interest, Honor, Power, and Glory, established
in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government,
nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all
private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be
happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay
their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in
Competition with the Rights of society."
Adams worried that a businessman might have financial interests
that conflicted with republican duty; indeed, he was especially
suspicious of banks. He decided that history taught that "the Spirit of
Commerce ... is incompatible with that purity of Heart, and Greatness of
soul which is necessary for a happy Republic." But so much of that
spirit of commerce had infected America. In New England, Adams noted,
"even the Farmers and Tradesmen are addicted to Commerce." As a result,
there was "a great Danger that a Republican Government would be very
factious and turbulent there."
Other influences
A second stream of thought growing in significance was the classical liberalism of John Locke, including his theory of the "social contract". This had a great influence on the revolution as it implied the inborn right of the people to overthrow their leaders should those leaders betray the agreements implicit in the sovereign-follower relationship. Historians find little trace of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influence in America. In terms of writing state and national constitutions, the Americans used Montesquieu's
analysis of the ideally "balanced" British Constitution. But first and
last came a commitment to republicanism, as shown by many historians
such as Bernard Bailyn and Gordon S. Wood.
Historiography
For
a century, historians have debated how important republicanism was to
the Founding Fathers. The interpretation before 1960, following
Progressive School historians such as Charles A. Beard, Vernon L. Parrington and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., downplayed rhetoric as superficial and looked for economic motivations. Louis Hartz refined the position in the 1950s, arguing John Locke was the most important source because his property-oriented liberalism supported the materialistic goals of Americans.
In the 1960s and 1970s, two new schools emerged that emphasized
the primacy of ideas as motivating forces in history (rather than
material self-interest). Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood from Harvard formed the "Cambridge School"; at Washington University the "St. Louis School" was led by J.G.A. Pocock. They emphasized slightly different approaches to republicanism. However, some scholars, especially Isaac Kramnick and the late Joyce Appleby,
continue to emphasize Locke, arguing that Americans are fundamentally
individualistic and not devoted to civic virtue. The relative importance
of republicanism and liberalism remains a topic of strong debate among
historians, as well as the politically active of present day.
New Nation: The Constitution
The
Founding Fathers wanted republicanism because its principles guaranteed
liberty, with opposing, limited powers offsetting one another. They
thought change should occur slowly, as many were afraid that a
"democracy" – by which they meant a direct democracy
– would allow a majority of voters at any time to trample rights and
liberties. They believed the most formidable of these potential
majorities was that of the poor against the rich. They thought democracy could take the form of mob rule that could be shaped on the spot by a demagogue.
Therefore, they devised a written Constitution that could be amended
only by a super majority, preserved competing sovereignties in the
constituent states, gave the control of the upper house (Senate) to the states, and created an Electoral College,
comprising a small number of elites, to select the president. They set
up a House of Representatives to represent the people. In practice the
electoral college soon gave way to control by political parties. In
1776, most states required property ownership to vote, but most citizens
owned farms in the 90% rural nation, so it was not a severe
restriction. As the country urbanized and people took on different work,
the property ownership requirement was gradually dropped by many
states. Property requirements were gradually dismantled in state after
state, so that all had been eliminated by 1850, so that few if any
economic barriers remained to prevent white, adult males from voting.
"Republican" as party name
In
1792–93 Jefferson and Madison created a new "Democratic-Republican
party" in order to promote their version of the doctrine. They wanted to
suggest that Hamilton's version was illegitimate. According to Federalist Noah Webster,
a political activist bitter at the defeat of the Federalist party in
the White House and Congress, the choice of the name
"Democratic-Republican" was "a powerful instrument in the process of
making proselytes to the party. ... The influence of names on the mass
of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of
the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the
denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the
popularity of Washington's character and services, and contributed to
overthrow his administration." The party, which historians later called the Democratic-Republican Party, split into separate factions in the 1820s, one of which became the Democratic Party.
After 1832, the Democrats were opposed by another faction that named
themselves "Whigs" after the Patriots of the 1770s who started the American Revolution. Both of these parties proclaimed their devotion to republicanism in the era of the Second Party System.
Republican motherhood
Under the new government after the revolution, "republican motherhood" became an ideal, as exemplified by Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren. The first duty of the republican woman was to instill republican values in her children, and to avoid luxury and ostentation.
Two generations later, the daughters and granddaughters of these
"Republican mothers" appropriated republican values into their lives as
they sought independence and equality in the workforce. During the
1830s, thousands of female mill workers went on strike to battle for
their right to fair wages and independence, as there had been major pay
cuts. Many of these women were daughters of independent land owners and
descendants of men who had fought in the Revolutionary War; they
identified as "daughters of freemen". In their fight for independence at
the mills, women would incorporate rhetoric from the revolution to
convey the importance and strength of their purpose to their corporate
employers, as well as to other women. If the Revolutionary War was
fought to secure independence from Great Britain,
then these "daughters of freemen" could fight for the same republican
values that (through striking) would give them fair pay and
independence, just as the men had.
National debt
Jefferson and Albert Gallatin
focused on the danger that the public debt, unless it was paid off,
would be a threat to republican values. They were appalled that Hamilton
was increasing the national debt and using it to solidify his
Federalist base. Gallatin was the Republican Party's chief expert on
fiscal issues and as Treasury Secretary under Jefferson and Madison
worked hard to lower taxes and lower the debt, while at the same time
paying cash for the Louisiana Purchase and funding the War of 1812.
Burrows says of Gallatin:
- His own fears of personal dependency and his small-shopkeeper's sense of integrity, both reinforced by a strain of radical republican thought that originated in England a century earlier, convinced him that public debts were a nursery of multiple public evils – corruption, legislative impotence, executive tyranny, social inequality, financial speculation, and personal indolence. Not only was it necessary to extinguish the existing debt as rapidly as possible, he argued, but Congress would have to ensure against the accumulation of future debts by more diligently supervising government expenditures.
Andrew Jackson believed the national debt was a "national curse" and
he took special pride in paying off the entire national debt in 1835.
Politicians ever since have used the issue of a high national debt to
denounce the other party for profligacy and a threat to fiscal soundness
and the nation's future.
Democracy
Ellis
and Nelson argue that much constitutional thought, from Madison to
Lincoln and beyond, has focused on "the problem of majority tyranny."
They conclude, "The principles of republican government embedded in the
Constitution represent an effort by the framers to ensure that the
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would
not be trampled by majorities."
Madison, in particular, worried that a small localized majority might
threaten inalienable rights, and in "Federalist #10" he argued that the
larger the population of the republic, the more diverse it would be and
the less liable to this threat. Jefferson warned that "an elective despotism is not the government we fought for."
As late as 1800, the word "democrat" was mostly used to attack an opponent of the Federalist party. Thus, George Washington
in 1798 complained, "that you could as soon scrub the blackamoor white,
as to change the principles of a profest Democrat; and that he will
leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country." The Federalist Papers
are pervaded by the idea that pure democracy is actually quite
dangerous, because it allows a majority to infringe upon the rights of a
minority.
Thus, in encouraging the states to participate in a strong centralized
government under a new constitution and replace the relatively weak Articles of Confederation, Madison argued in Federalist No. 10
that a special interest may take control of a small area, e.g. a state,
but it could not easily take over a large nation. Therefore, the larger
the nation, the safer is republicanism.
By 1805, the "Old Republicans" or "Quids", a minority faction among Southern Republicans, led by Johan Randolph, John Taylor of Caroline and Nathaniel Macon,
opposed Jefferson and Madison on the grounds that they had abandoned
the true republican commitment to a weak central government.
Property rights
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
(1779–1845), made the protection of property rights by the courts a
major component of American republicanism. A precocious legal scholar,
Story was appointed to the Court by James Madison in 1811. He and Chief
Justice John Marshall made the Court a bastion of nationalism (along the lines of Marshall's Federalist Party) and a protector of the rights of property against runaway democracy. Story opposed Jacksonian democracy
because it was inclined to repudiate lawful debts and was too often
guilty of what he called "oppression" of property rights by republican
governments.
Story held that, "the right of the citizens to the free enjoyment of
their property legally acquired" was "a great and fundamental principle
of a republican government."
Newmyer (1985) presents Story as a "Statesman of the Old Republic" who
tried to rise above democratic politics and to shape the law in
accordance with the republicanism of Story's heroes, Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall, as well as the New England Whigs of the 1820s and 1830s, such as Daniel Webster.
Historians agree that Justice Story – as much or more than Marshall or
anyone else – did indeed reshape American law in a conservative
direction that protected property rights.
Military service
Civic
virtue required men to put civic goals ahead of their personal desires,
and to volunteer to fight for their country. Military service thus was
an integral duty of the citizen. As John Randolph of Roanoke put it, "When citizen and soldier shall be synonymous terms, then you will be safe."
Scott (1984) notes that in both the American and French revolutions,
distrust of foreign mercenaries led to the concept of a national,
citizen army, and the definition of military service was changed from a
choice of careers to a civic duty.
Herrera (2001) explains that an appreciation of self-governance is
essential to any understanding of the American military character before
the Civil War. Military service was considered an important
demonstration of patriotism and an essential component of citizenship.
To soldiers, military service was a voluntary, negotiated, and temporary
abeyance of self-governance by which they signaled their responsibility
as citizens. In practice self-governance in military affairs came to
include personal independence, enlistment negotiations, petitions to
superior officials, militia constitutions, and negotiations regarding
discipline. Together these affected all aspects of military order,
discipline, and life.
Role of the South
In reaction to the Kansas–Nebraska Act
of 1854 that promoted democracy by saying new settlers could decide
themselves whether or not to have slavery, antislavery forces across the
North formed a new party. The party officially designated itself
"Republican" because the name resonated with the struggle of 1776. "In
view of the necessity of battling for the first principles of republican
government," resolved the Michigan state convention, "and against the
schemes of aristocracy the most revolting and oppressive with which the
earth was ever cursed, or man debased, we will co-operate and be known
as Republicans."
J. Mills Thornton argues that in the antebellum South the drive to
preserve republican values was the most powerful force, and led
Southerners to interpret Northern policies against slavery as a threat
to their republican values.
After the war, the Republicans believed that the Constitutional
guarantee of republicanism enabled Congress to Reconstruct the political
system of the former Confederate states. The main legislation was
explicitly designed to promote Republicanism.
Radical Republicans push forward, to secure not only citizenship for
freedmen through the 14th amendment, but to give them the vote through
the 15th amendment. They held that the republicanism meant that true
political knowledge was to be gained in exercising the right to vote and
organizing for elections. Susan B. Anthony and other advocates of woman suffrage said republicanism covered them too, as they demanded the vote.
Progressive Era
A
central theme of the progressive era was fear of corruption, one of the
core ideas of republicanism since the 1770s. The Progressives
restructured the political system to combat entrenched interests (for
example, through the direct election of Senators), to ban influences
such as alcohol that were viewed as corrupting, and to extend the vote
to women, who were seen as being morally pure and less corruptible.
Questions of performing civic duty were brought up in presidential campaigns and World War I. In the presidential election of 1888, Republicans emphasized that the Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland had purchased a substitute to fight for him in the Civil War, while his opponent General Benjamin Harrison had fought in numerous battles. In 1917, a great debate took place over Woodrow Wilson's
proposal to draft men into the U.S. Army after war broke out in Europe.
Many said it violated the republican notion of freely given civic duty
to force people to serve. In the end, Wilson was successful and the Selective Service Act of 1917 was passed.
Legal terminology
The term republic does not appear in the Declaration of Independence,
but does appear in Article IV of the Constitution which "guarantee[s]
to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government." What
exactly the writers of the constitution felt this should mean is
uncertain. The Supreme Court, in Luther v. Borden (1849), declared that the definition of republic was a "political question"
in which it would not intervene. During Reconstruction the
Constitutional clause was the legal foundation for the extensive
Congressional control over the eleven former Confederate states; there
was no such oversight over the border slave states that had remained in
the Union.
In two later cases, it did establish a basic definition. In United States v. Cruikshank
(1875), the court ruled that the "equal rights of citizens" were
inherent to the idea of republic. The opinion of the court from In re Duncan (1891)
held that the "right of the people to choose their government" is also
part of the definition. It is also generally assumed that the clause
prevents any state from being a monarchy – or a dictatorship. Due to the
1875 and 1891 court decisions establishing basic definition, in the
first version (1892) of the Pledge of Allegiance, which included the word republic, and like Article IV which refers to a Republican form of government, the basic definition of republic
is implied and continues to do so in all subsequent versions, including
the present edition, by virtue of its consistent inclusion.
Democracy
In March 1861 in his famous First Inaugural Address,
Abraham Lincoln denounced secession as anarchy and explained that
majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints in the
American system:
- "A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people."
Over time, the pejorative connotations of "democracy" faded. By the
1830s, democracy was seen as an unmitigated positive and the term
"Democratic" was assumed by the Democratic Party and the term "Democrat" was adopted by its members. A common term for the party in the 19th century was "The Democracy." In debates on Reconstruction, Radical Republicans, such as Senator Charles Sumner,
argued that the republican "guarantee clause" in Article IV supported
the introduction by force of law of democratic suffrage in the defeated
South.
After 1800 the limitations on democracy were systematically
removed; property qualifications for state voters were largely
eliminated in the 1820s. The initiative, referendum, recall,
and other devices of direct democracy became widely accepted at the
state and local level in the 1910s; and senators were made directly electable by the people in 1913. The last restrictions on black voting were made illegal in 1965.
