History 432
Outlines of Lectures
Spring 2008


Background

            origins of the colonies
            representative bodies  (assemblies or houses of representatives)
            rights of Englishmen

            Economic control/imperialism
                    Navigation Acts (1651-1696)
                    money and the balance of trade
                            British policy & imperial problem for colonists
                            American (local) problem of liquidity and expedients
                                    land banks/loan offices
                    governmental (public) problems and currency finance
                    British government/Board of Trade policy
                            Currency Act of 1751

            Political control and the Glorious Revolution 
                            Dominion of New England (1685-1688)
                            threatened changes in English government
                    Glorious Revolution (1688) and constitutional monarchy
   
                         principles won or confirmed
                                     equal or parallel forms of government
                    legacy of ambiguities
                                    colonialism/imperialism and representative government?
                                    Navigation Acts and English rights?
                    continuing problems (1689-1720): reconciling Commons and Crown
                    solution
                    effects of constitutional solution (patronage) on colonies

                           economic: effect on Navigation Acts enforcement
                           government: e.g. colonial governors

 Political Critique/Ideology
       
parody of Walpole and Whig party
              analysis
                     balanced government/constitution
                      "corruption" 
                       political parties      
                             
                       independence (personal)
                      American opinion

  Massachusetts (background)
             political cliques & adversaries
                         Hutchinsons & Olivers vs. Otises & Adamses
                         clashes
                                land bank vs. silver bank (1741-'42)
                                chief justiceship (1760)
                                writs of assistance
                                genealogy
                                Stamp act moderation--Hutchinson
              economic and social trouble in Boston
                         wars, fatalities, poverty and taxes
                         disorder, rioiting
              1764, 1765 riots 
                         Ebenezer Macintosh and the "mob"/"Sons of Liberty" 
                         other resistance groups 

John Wilkes and "Liberty"  (1763-1769)  
   
           "North Briton"  #45
               prosecutions
               exile, return, trial & conviction
               St. George's Fields "massacre" (May 1768)
               elections (1769)
               issues or principles

Army in Boston 
               quartering
               desertions
                courts
                propaganda and the press
                harassment                     

Non-Importation/Boycott (1767-1770)  
   
 
          operation and difficulties
                      NO depression
                      fair application--universal sacrifice
                      effectiveness and success (?)
              British politics, attitudes, & change of government 
              repeal of (some) taxes and its causes
              legacy of distrust 
                        John Mein and "free" press  

First Midterm Exam (Feb. 25. Monday)    


Resistance and Local Politics in Pennsylvania
          
preface (1748-1764)
                    political alignment in Pa.
                                    Thomas Penn (proprietor & executive)                         Benjamin Franklin (legislative)
                                    Lt.-governor                                            VS               House of Representatives/assembly
                                    proprietary clique                                              Quaker Party

              power contest
                            appropriation and spending (1748+), property taxes (1755)         
              French and Indian War crisis (1755+) 
              Pontiac's Rebellion (1763), Conestoga massacres (Dec.), and Paxton march or riot (Feb. 1764)
                    Franklin's "spin" & Penn's "conspiracy"

              Campaign for royal government in Pa. (1764-1768)
                            public relations and petitions
                            election failure of 1764
                      politics of ingratiation
                            Stamp Act and collectors
                                    quiet in Philadelphia
                     Townshend episode
                             Circular Letter and Hillsborough's reply
                      failure of campaign (1768)
                      sequel: Franklin remakes self
                legacy: disorder in Pa. politics 

Hiatus, 1770-1773
   
         Pennsylvania vs Connecticut: Wyoming Valley contest
                        links: Lazrus Stewart, Indian relations, and the Susquehanna Company
                        Pennamite "war," 1769-1775 
            Pennsylvania vs Virginia 
                        Ohio lands and conflicts
            New York vs Massachusetts
                        Vermont lands
   
         Tea
                        consumption and smuggling

Tea Party episode
   
         East Indian Company Act origins (1773)
            reception in America
            extraordinary Boston
                        reputation for hypocrisy
                        tea imports
                        Hutchinson-Whatley letters (June 1773)
                        tea agents in Boston
            confrontation and dumping of tea  (Dec. 16, 1773)
            English reaction
                        Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts (March-June 1774)
            Massachusetts reaction to Coercive Acts (summer-fall 1774)
                        revolution 

First Continental Congress
            origin: "conservatives" & merchants in New York
             At Congress (Sept-Oct. 1774)
                        Massachusetts-Virginia "axis" (1774-1780)
                        cajoling Galloway/Plan of Union 
                         adoption of Suffolk Resolves (Oct. 8)
                         Continental Association adopted (Oct. 20) 
                          adjournment (Oct. 22)
                           radical triumph
                Continental Association
                            transfer of sovereignty


Virginia and Revolution
   
        speculation in Ohio Valley lands
            personal independence and political ideology
            honor and etiquette of debt
            Virginia debt crisis
 
            the Engish conspiracy            

Revolution at Home--Pennsylvania (Jan-July 1776)
        Preface
            reapportionment of Pa House of Representatives
              May 1 election and failure
        Main Effort 
               Congress meddles
                            May 10 and 15 resolutions (Middlekauff, p. 330)
                                    rage of the moderates
                           Pa radicals conspire
                           Pa House stymied (June)--boycotted 
                                    concedes to Congress (June 8)
                            new boycott! and adjournment (June 14)
                                     revelation

Votes on Independence (July 1, 2)

Lectures hereafter are on the final exam  

New Regime in Pennsylvania (June 18+)
        
preparations for a new state government
                       Conference (June 18)
                                composition
                                rules for state constitution convention
                                            franchise and oaths: widened and narrowed
        Pennsylvania constitutional convention
                        election to: misapportionment
                        preliminary business
                        new state constitution
                                franchise, elections, offices
                                ratification?
                        revenge of the opposition 

Meaning of 1776 and the Revolution
   
   "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (Meaning of Revolution, Part I)
                    Manifestos:
                        Tom Paine, "Common Sense"
                        Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence"
            
     Old Order
                        hierarchy (monarchy and aristocracy)
                        hereditary status/attributed status
                        universal deference
                New Order (liberal)
                        natural rights;life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
                         particular deference and many hierarchies

          Republicanism  (Meaning of Revolution, Part II.)
                    models/history lessons: ancient republics and republicans
                    community (common good, public interest)  vs. individualism
                    republican virtues or ideals
                    property and leisure
   
                 agricultural society
                `   personal independence 
                    monarchical order and power vs. republican order
                                laws, courts, punishment, state church, standing army
                    conflicting values
                                republicanism and community vs. individualism and pursuit of personal happiness

        
   Adam Smith, "Wealth of Nations"  (1776)
                    reconciling conflicting values                         

Slavery, Abolition, and the Revolution
                   slavery in the language of the Revolution
                   American responses
                            Thomas Jefferson
                                    paradoxes
                                    color, beauty
                                    racial mixing
                                            chain of being
                                            colonization
                                    nature versus nurture
                                            nature: species, monogenesis, polygenesis
                                            environmental debate and examples
                    Abolition:  "runaway" emancipation
                    Abolition in South: private and runaways
                    Abolition in North: public
                           judicial (Mass., 1781)
                           statutory and gradual                          
                                    Pennsylvania (1780)
                                            resistance
                                            the law: gradual
                                            early decline of slavery
                                    other Northern states
                    Constitution and slavery
                            characterizing the framers/compromising
                            3/5 clause
                            slave trade
                            other provisions  

The Economy and Divisions in Politics and People in Pennsylvania, 1779
   
                       price rise
                           agitation and protests
                           price controls (May 1779)
                           protests and competing economic theories: public interest versus free markets
                           complexity of controls and factions produced
                           "Ft. Wilson" riot (Oct. 5, 1779)
                            end of controls (fall 1779)
                           division in the radicals/Constitutionalist Party
                            Paine's surprising realignment

Financing the Revolution: national versus state power
   
                     paper currency ($226M)
                         commissary and quartermaster certificates ($95M)
                         loan certificates (bonds) (about $60M)
                         foreign loans ($2.3M in specie)
                
                         power shifts
                                    1775-1779    national power
                                    1779-1781    state power
                                                                specific supplies, army pay, and redemption of commissary certificates
                                    1782-1784    national resurgence  
                                                                                    Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance
                                                          problem: Articles of Confederation
                                                          Morris's program      
                                                                 no supplies, pay, or redemption of certificates
                                                                 specie from states
                                                                 impost tax
                                                                 Bank of North America
                                                           outcomes
                                                                  debt collected by U.S. government
                                    1783-1787     state resurgence
                                                           dismantling Morris, redistributing the debt 

                           Constitutional convention

                            Bank of North America
                                    public and private character
                                            assets
                                    specie-backed currency
                                            fear of depreciation
                                    loan policy and practice
                                            Pa. taxes--1782
                                    European investors' and bankers' opinions
                                    jeopardy & liability of American speculators                             

`                           Constitution

                            Hamilton's program (1791)
                                     funding the U.S. debt
                                     assuming and funding the states' debts
                                     "full faith and credit" 

Ratification
                                   
Pennsylvania and ratification
                                    the vote in the U.S.
                                    Hamilton (Federalist Paper, #35) and the vote
                                    Madison (Federalist Paper, #10)  and divisions