HIS410: Exam 2 Part 2: Am. Revolution + The Critical Period

Republicanism

A political philosophy emphasizing government based on the consent of the governed, civic virtue, and opposition to corruption and monarchy. Significance: Formed the ideological foundation of the new American republic after 1776. It redefined political legitimacy as deriving from the people, not divine right. Republicanism also created a civic identity built around active participation and vigilance, shaping U.S. political culture and distinguishing it from European monarchies.

[Civic] virtue

The moral duty of citizens to act selflessly for the common good and uphold republican values. Significance: Seen as essential for the survival of the republic, since liberty depended on the virtue and vigilance of its people. Leaders believed corruption would destroy freedom, making personal morality and public service inseparable. The emphasis on virtue fostered education, religious morality, and civic responsibility as national priorities.

Property

Land and material assets symbolizing independence and responsibility. Significance: Property ownership was considered the basis of political participation and moral autonomy in the new republic. It provided the material security that allowed citizens to make rational, independent political decisions. The Revolution challenged inherited property systems and linked ownership to personal merit and hard work rather than birthright.

Farmer-citizen

The ideal republican citizen envisioned as a self-sufficient, land-owning farmer. Significance: Represented moral independence and simplicity, contrasting with the corruption of urban elites. This Jeffersonian ideal became a cultural and political standard for the new republic, tying virtue to agricultural life and reinforcing the belief that democracy flourished best among free, self-reliant farmers.

Res publica

Latin for “public thing” or “commonwealth.” Significance: The conceptual root of republicanism, emphasizing that political power belongs to the people collectively, not to monarchs. It reflected the idea that governance was a shared civic duty, not a private privilege. “Res publica” became the moral foundation for institutions that sought to serve the common good over individual ambition.

Patriots

Colonists who supported independence from Britain. Significance: Their revolution against monarchy established the world’s first large-scale republic and redefined loyalty as devotion to shared ideals rather than a ruler. Yet within their ranks were divisions—some sought full democracy, others feared mob rule. Patriots thus embodied both unity and ideological tension in the revolutionary struggle.

Property ownership

The qualification for voting and holding office in most early states. Significance: Though it restricted suffrage, it reflected the belief that propertyholders had the independence to exercise judgment free from outside influence. Gradual loosening of these restrictions marked early democratic expansion and foreshadowed the shift toward universal white male suffrage in the 19th century.

Montesquieu

French Enlightenment thinker whose Spirit of the Laws (1748) influenced American political theory. Significance: Advocated for separation of powers and warned that republics relied on virtue and balance to avoid tyranny. His work inspired American constitutional design, especially the checks and balances system, blending classical republicanism with modern liberalism to create a stable republic.

Patronage

System of political favors or appointments based on personal loyalty rather than merit. Significance: Seen as corrupt and antithetical to republican ideals. Rejecting patronage symbolized America’s break from aristocratic politics, as early leaders sought to build a government grounded in merit, civic duty, and the public interest rather than privilege and favoritism.

Republican equality

Belief that all citizens were politically equal under the law, though not necessarily socially or economically equal. Significance: Encouraged the breakdown of aristocratic privilege, fostered broader suffrage, and helped ordinary citizens see themselves as political equals. It was revolutionary in redefining status from inherited hierarchy to civic participation, influencing later democratic and reform movements.

Elitism

Belief that educated, property-owning elites should lead government. Significance: Coexisted uneasily with democratic ideals—many founders believed the uneducated masses could not be trusted with full power. This tension between elite leadership and popular sovereignty persisted in early American politics, shaping debates over the Constitution, suffrage, and the nature of representation.

Northwest Territories

Lands west of the Appalachians organized by the Northwest Ordinance (1787). Significance: Established a model for westward expansion, banned slavery in the region, and promoted public education. The ordinance reflected republican ideals of orderly growth and civic virtue, transforming the frontier into a proving ground for democratic institutions and free labor.

Society of the Cincinnati

Hereditary organization of Revolutionary War officers formed in 1783. Significance: Criticized as aristocratic and anti-republican because membership passed by inheritance. The backlash revealed postwar anxieties about equality and the fragility of republican virtue. Its existence forced elites to redefine honor and service in non-hereditary, civic terms.

Egalitarianism

Belief in human equality, especially in political and legal rights. Significance: The Revolution advanced egalitarian ideals by dismantling aristocratic privilege and emphasizing equality before the law. However, it remained limited by race, gender, and class. Its lasting impact was the cultural belief that merit—not birth—determines status, fueling movements for democracy, abolition, and women’s rights.

Self-made man

Ideal of an individual rising by talent and effort rather than birth. Significance: Embodied the Revolution’s challenge to aristocracy and became central to American identity. It celebrated industriousness, virtue, and ambition as moral duties, shaping the nation’s ethos of opportunity and linking republican freedom with personal achievement.

Virtuous education

Schooling designed to instill civic virtue, morality, and republican responsibility. Significance: Education was viewed as essential for sustaining a free society. Leaders like John Adams and Noah Webster saw ignorance as a threat to liberty. Public education thus became not only an intellectual project but a moral and political necessity for preserving the republic.

John Phillips

Founder of Phillips Exeter Academy (1781), who promoted education for moral and civic development. Significance: His vision reflected the republican belief that education should cultivate virtue, discipline, and civic awareness. Phillips embodied the Enlightenment faith that a moral citizenry, not hereditary elites, would safeguard liberty.

Republican marriage

Ideal of marriage based on mutual respect, love, and equality rather than patriarchal authority. Significance: Symbolized how revolutionary ideals reshaped private life, portraying families as “little republics” where both partners shared moral responsibility. It also elevated women’s roles as educators of virtue, laying groundwork for early feminist arguments about equality within domestic and civic spheres.

Anti-slavery societies

Organizations formed in the 1770s-1780s (especially in the North) to advocate gradual emancipation. Significance: Reflected the Revolution’s contradiction between liberty and slavery. They advanced abolitionist discourse and moral reform, challenging Americans to reconcile republican values with human bondage. Though their impact was limited, they marked the birth of organized abolitionism.

William Manning (The Key of Liberty)

Massachusetts farmer and writer (1798) who criticized elite domination and defended the common man’s right to self-rule. Significance: Articulated the democratic spirit of post-Revolution America, warning that elites were betraying republican values. Manning’s work gave voice to rural populism and showed that ordinary citizens, not elites, were the true guardians of liberty.

The Critical Period (1780s)

The decade after the American Revolution (1781-1789) under the Articles of Confederation, marked by weak central authority and economic turmoil. Significance: This period tested the viability of republican government as states struggled with debt, inflation, and class conflict. It exposed the dangers of excessive democracy and inadequate federal power, ultimately leading to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 as a means to restore balance and national stability.

Written constitutions

Formal documents created by each state after independence to define government structure and protect rights. Significance: Represented a radical break from British unwritten constitutional tradition by placing authority in written, amendable laws rather than in inherited precedent. They embodied Revolutionary ideals of popular sovereignty, setting the belief that power derived from the people and that government was a social contract open to reform.

Unicameral legislature

A single-house legislature, as in Pennsylvania’s 1776 constitution, emphasizing democratic responsiveness. Significance: Seen as a triumph of popular sovereignty but criticized for instability and susceptibility to mob influence. The debates over unicameralism versus bicameralism reflected tensions between direct democracy and checks on popular passions-a defining question of republican design.

Populist schemes

Economic and political measures (like paper money issuance or debt relief) proposed by debtors and small farmers to ease postwar financial burdens. Significance: Embodied the democratic drive for economic fairness but alarmed elites who saw them as threats to property rights and social order. These “schemes” revealed deep class divides between indebted farmers and wealthy creditors, foreshadowing the populist rebellions of the late 1780s.

Suffrage

The right to vote, often limited to property-owning white men in the early republic. Significance: Expansion of suffrage after the Revolution reflected republican ideals of equality and civic participation, though it remained constrained by class, race, and gender. The debates over suffrage rights showed the tension between democratic inclusion and fears of “mob rule.”

Right to instruct

The principle that voters could direct their elected representatives on specific policies. Significance: Expressed radical democratic ideals of accountability and popular sovereignty. However, critics argued it undermined deliberative independence, exposing the tension between representation and direct democracy in the new republic.

Natural aristocracy

Belief that leadership should arise from merit and virtue rather than birth. Significance: Revolutionary elites like Jefferson and Adams embraced it as a replacement for hereditary privilege, asserting that talent and civic virtue-not lineage-should guide governance. Yet, it still preserved hierarchies, revealing how republican meritocracy often coexisted with elitism.

Legislative tyranny

The concentration of power in popularly elected legislatures that ignored minority rights or constitutional restraints. Significance: After independence, many saw legislatures as the new threat to liberty-replacing royal tyranny with majority oppression. This fear drove the push for stronger constitutions, independent courts, and checks and balances to prevent democratic excesses.

Leveling spirit

Popular drive to reduce social and economic inequality after the Revolution. Significance: Reflected democratic energy among farmers and laborers who viewed the Revolution as a promise of genuine equality. Elites, however, viewed this “leveling” as dangerous radicalism, prompting constitutional reforms to rein in popular power and protect property.

Balanced or mixed government

Political system dividing power among branches and classes to prevent tyranny. Significance: Rooted in classical republican theory (inspired by Montesquieu), it became the dominant model for post-Revolution constitutions. The balance between democratic participation and institutional restraint defined the enduring structure of American governance.

Debt peons

Debtors trapped in cycles of repayment, imprisonment, or land loss. Significance: Widespread after the Revolution as farmers faced deflation and creditor demands. Their plight exposed how economic inequality undermined republican freedom and motivated populist uprisings such as Shays’ Rebellion, where ordinary citizens demanded justice against elite financial control.

Clean slates

Movements calling for the cancellation of debts, inspired by Biblical Jubilee traditions and moral appeals to fairness. Significance: Represented a radical challenge to property rights and class privilege. The demand for “clean slates” captured the moral and political conflict at the heart of the 1780s-whether liberty meant honoring contracts or protecting citizens from economic ruin.

Debt crisis

The widespread economic depression following the Revolution, marked by deflation, scarcity of hard currency, and high taxes to repay war debts. Significance: The crisis fueled class conflict between debtor farmers and creditor elites, undermining faith in the Articles of Confederation and prompting constitutional reform. It also illustrated the moral and political tension between economic justice and financial order, a recurring theme in American democracy.