University:
Arizona State University
Course:
HST 200 | Historical Themes
Academic year:

2024
Views:

123

Pages:

1
Author:

Thuyoul US

Creating Republican Governments, 1776-1790 Common Sense: Transitioning from a Monarchy to a US Republic The idea that all men are created equal' was never fully realized after the Revolutionary War because the revolutionary generation was unable to reconcile the dualities of freedom and slavery in the newly formed United States. Figure 71, a painting by Trumbull of George Washington from 1780, demonstrates some of these inconsistencies. What mindset do you believe Trumbull was attempting to express? Billy Lee was enslaved by Washington; why did Trumbull include him in this picture, and what does Lee represent? Americans made significant efforts to define American equality in the 1770s and 1780s. State constitutions that outlined the nature of government and who might engage in politics were drafted in constitutional conventions in each state. The concept of majority control, which is the cornerstone of democracy, horrified many aristocratic revolutionaries, who believed it would essentially establish "mob rule" and end the arduous fight for freedom. Statesmen all around the world held the view that the British monarchy ought to be replaced by a republic, a government in which only representative men of intellect and refinement would be given authority over critical matters. While eighteenth-century Europe was ruled by monarchs, American revolutionaries were resolved to discover a way to govern differently. Thomas Paine, a radical pamphleteer, promoted a republic-a state without a king—in his wildly famous essay Common Sense, which was originally published in January 1776. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which was published six months later, confirmed the split with England but did not provide a replacement for the monarchy, which was the only system of government that the majority of English colonists had ever known. There were very few republics in the late eighteenth century. Though many European Enlightenment philosophers questioned the stability of a republic, republics without kings such as Genoa, Venice, and the Dutch Republic served as precedents. Nevertheless, Americans looked to republicanism for their new form of governance following their separation from Great Britain.