Early American Republic

From Blood Vessels to Global Networks of Exchange: The Physiology of Benjamin Rush’s Early Republic

by Sari Altschuler

Journal of the Early Republic 32.2 (Summer 2012): 207-232

This essay explores Benjamin Rush's ideas about physiology in an effort to revise current understandings of Rush's... more This essay explores Benjamin Rush's ideas about physiology in an effort to revise current understandings of Rush's medico-political model and shed new light on conversations about circulation and sympathy in the early republic. Rush's non-hierarchical model of circulation broke with European medicine. For Rush, circulation was the key to corporeal and national health. Circulation needed to remain unfettered for individuals to realize republican promise and for the body to be properly invigorated-but free flow was problematic when it allowed information, goods, and bodies to flow unchecked. Sympathy was the secondary, essential mechanism that controlled this movement. Whereas circulation importantly opened both body and country to external stimuli, sympathy-physiological, social, political-managed responses to those stimuli, directing them along salubrious routes that were both natural and teachable. Rush himself worked tirelessly to mold these sympathies through rhetoric. This physiology and Rush's rhetorical medicine challenge the common understanding of Rush's "republican machines"; American bodies were, rather, dynamic living systems that could, through the cultivation of proper sympathies, become virtuous citizens. This essay extends current work on circulation by reconnecting it to physiology and suggesting that physiology's dynamism-rather than static "anatomy"-ought to inform discussions of the young nation. Rush knew bodies and nations were "tremendous oscillatory mass[es] of matter." America would maintain national health not by restricting circulation but by influencing citizens' reactions to free-flow systems that were only somewhat predictable and always dynamic. This physiology provides a new model for thinking about early American circulation and sympathy.

"An Opinion of Our Own": Education, Politics, and the Struggle for Adulthood at Dartmouth College, 1814-1819

by Jane Fiegen Green

History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 2 (May 2012): 173-195

Historians, legal scholars, and education scholars have analyzed Dartmouth v Woodward (1819) based on the writings of... more Historians, legal scholars, and education scholars have analyzed Dartmouth v Woodward (1819) based on the writings of the conflict's adult stake-holder. This article shifts to focus to explore Dartmouth students' responses to the political battle over the College's management in the 1810s. Through an analysis of student writings and the activities of student literary societies, this article shows how Dartmouth students used conceptions of maturity to positioned themselves as a central constituency within the legal dispute. By controlling the enrollment at Dartmouth and their own student libraries, students leveraged their definition of maturity to counter the states’ attempt to control the institution. The students’ involvement in the Dartmouth case reflected their changing view of youth and represents a cultural shift away from the disinterested ideal of the Early Republic.

Making an American Feminist Icon: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Reception in US Newspapers, 1800-1869

by Eileen Hunt Botting

History of Political Thought, forthcoming

This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft... more This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft was portrayed to the American public as a philosopher of women’s rights, a new model of femininity, and a pioneer of women’s political activism. Although these iconic uses of Wollstonecraft were regularly negative, they grew more positive as the women’s rights movement gained steam alongside the abolition movement. This study thus shows the significance of Wollstonecraft in early representations of women’s rights issues and debates in the US, and underscores the role of journalistic media in the spread and growth of feminism.

The Yankee Soldier’s Might: The District of Maine and the Reputation of the Massachusetts Militia, 1800-1812

by Joshua Smith

New England Quarterly, June 2011, Vol. 84, No. 2, Pages 234-264

In post-Revolutionary Massachusetts, the militia was a well-respected institution. So when the commonwealth expanded... more In post-Revolutionary Massachusetts, the militia was a well-respected institution. So when the commonwealth expanded into the far-flung District of Maine, Jeffersonians and Federalists battled one another for the plum. As external forces bred internal dissent, the militia fell into disarray just as the country drifted toward another war with England.

"Friendly Relations: Situating Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic, 1780–1830"

by Cassandra Good

published in Gender & History April 2012; please send me a note to receive a copy of this article

Men and women who became friends in the early American republic struggled with societal worries about the purity and... more Men and women who became friends in the early American republic struggled with societal worries about the purity and chastity of their friendships. More so than other pairs of friends, heterosocial friends had to attend to how their friendships appeared to those around them. One of the most important ways of doing so was positioning a friendship in relation to spouses. In an era when marriage was the central structure for relations between men and women and fears of seduction and ruin were rampant, friends of the opposite sex needed to integrate their friendships within their marriages. This paper examines how men and women did so through the lens of their correspondence. Navigating a society without clear boundaries or rules for conducting a friendship between a man and a woman, individual pairs of friends improvised to create safe friendships in person and in letters. The careful intertwining of marriages and friendships they created demonstrates the way intimate social relationships were embedded in the social fabric of the early American republic.

Metes and Bounds: The Forgotten Success of the Frontiersman Surveyor

by Blair Smith

"Our Original Barbarism": Man vs. Nature in Thomas Jefferson's Moral Experience

by Maurizio Valsania

Source Journal of the History of Ideas
Volume 65, Number 4, October 2004
pp. 627-645 | 10.1353/jhi.2005.0022

"…let Cato’s virtues fire:’ Das Catobild in der amerikanischen Revolution [The Image of Cato in the American Revolution]."

by Thomas Clark

Historische Zeitschrift. Beiheft No. 55 (2011): 203-217.

"Making Yellow Fever American: The Early American Republic, the British Empire and the Geopolitics of Disease in the Atlantic World," Journal of Atlantic Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4, December 2010

by Katherine Arner

Between 1793 and 1822, a series of successive yellow fever outbreaks ravaged the eastern seaboard of the United... more Between 1793 and 1822, a series of successive yellow fever outbreaks ravaged the eastern seaboard of the United States. The outbreaks generated not only the biggest public health crisis in that period but also one of the most pressing and contentious disputes in medical theory. Often told as a national story, this article re-examines that controversy by situating it in the context of outbreaks, research, and debates in other parts of the anglophone Atlantic. It argues that American responses to disease were shaped by the young republic’s post-imperial relations to both Great Britain and the West Indies. On a broader level, this study challenges current approaches in the formation of American natural knowledge and identity during this period. It looks beyond both national boundaries and relations to former metropolitan centers, locating some of the above developments in a more ‘‘multi-centered’’ Atlantic world.

Private Taste and Public Accomplishment: Women and Music in the Early Republic

by Glenda Goodman

Colloquium presentation at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and
Culture

Late eighteenth-century Americans were ambivalent about feminine musical accomplishment. When young women played... more Late eighteenth-century Americans were ambivalent about feminine musical accomplishment. When young women played music, was it a sign of the new nation’s cultural sophistication, or was it aristocratic pretension? This essay explores the intellectual and musical climate of the Early Republic through a unique manuscript source: the commonplace book into which the well-educated New Yorker and senator’s wife, Catharine Akerly Mitchill, copied music for her personal use. Copying music by hand, a widespread practice in this era, represented an enormous yet undervalued investment of time and effort. The repertory that women such as Catharine Akerly Mitchill copied and performed was largely sentimental songs in the galant style taken from British comic operas, and connoted European decadence and frivolous self-indulgence. Combined, the two factors—labor and aesthetics—provide crucial clues to understanding why women’s musical accomplishment was controversial.

Review of Eran Shalev, Rome Reborn on Western Shores: Historical Imagination and the Creation of the American Republic (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009)

by Varad Mehta

Published on the US Intellectual History blog, 3 November 2011.

Classical Rhetoric in America.

by James Farrell

"'Above all Greek, above all Roman Fame': Classical Rhetoric in America during the Colonial and Early National Periods," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18:3 (September 2011), 415-436.

The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of... more The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of that ancient discipline, and in the practical approaches to persuasion adopted by orators and writers in the colonial period, and during the early republic. Classical theoretical treatises on rhetoric enjoyed wide authority both in college curricula and in popular treatments of the art. Classical orators were imitated as models of republican virtue and oratorical style. Indeed, virtually every dimension of the political life of early America bears the imprint of a classical conception of public discourse. This essay marks the various specific aspects of the reception and influence of the classical rhetorical tradition in the learning, speaking and writing of Americans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Always Already Vitriolic: The Political News of the Early Republic

by Joseph M. Adelman

Marcus Daniel. Scandal and Civility: Journalism and the Birth of American Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ix + 386 pp. $28.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-517212-6.

The Amos Spafford Farm and the War of 1812 in Ohio: A Case of Historic Memory Loss

by Patrick Tucker

Co-authored with David M. Stothers, Published in the Journal of Northwst Ohio History, 78, no. 1(Fall, 2010): 17-47.

Archaeological test excavations of "Spafford's Grant" in 1977 by the University of Toledo revealed the... more Archaeological test excavations of "Spafford's Grant" in 1977 by the University of Toledo revealed the historic remains and features of a frontier, log farm-house of the Early American Republic destroyed during the War of 1812. The house and farm was owned by Amos Spafford and Family, the second U.S. port collector and inspector of the revenue of Port Miami from 1810 to 1830. The farm was destroyed, along with other family farms, when the British and Indians from Fort Malden, Canada, lead by Captain Peter Latouche Chambers and Shawnee chief Tecumseh, invaded the settlement in August 1812 after the fall of Detroit. Spafford and family returned after the war in 1814 to rebuild their house and farm with other settlers.

Welcome to Hard Times: French Merchants and Militiamen Godfroy and Beaugrand Meet the War of 1812 in the Detroit River Region During the Early American Republic

by Patrick Tucker

Manuscript co-authored with Laurel Heyman accepted for publication the Michigan Historical Review 38, no. 1 (Spring 2012) in press. This is a special issue for the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

French fur traders Gabriel Godfroy, Sr., and Jean-Baptiste Beaugrand established a mercantile trade between Detroit... more French fur traders Gabriel Godfroy, Sr., and Jean-Baptiste Beaugrand established a mercantile trade between Detroit and Kekionga (Fort Wayne) during the early 1790s. Their house, store, and outbuildings at the Miami (Maumee) Rapids were destroyed after the battle of Fallen Timbers by General Anthony Wayne's American legion in 1794. After becoming American citizens in 1796, they rebuilt their house and store at the Miami Rapids and expanded their mercantile operation to include transnational merchandise catering to the rural trade of American frontier settlers and Native Americans alike. During the War of 1812, their trade operations on the Miami Rapids and the River Raisin were again destroyed, but by British and Indians this time. After the war, Beaugrand was the only person to be indicted by the United States for murder during the massacre of the Kentucky wounded on January 23, 1813, and Godfroy was indicted for treason. Both were acquitted in court of the charges. Beaugrand was thought to have been possessed by the devil in his act of murder. The jury's decision on Beaugrand's acquittal may be related to their superstitious fear of him as recounted in French folklore of Detroit that recounts his association with the devil disguised as an old mare named "Sans Souci" that he owned.

The Mysterious Village

by Patrick Tucker

Popular Archaeology Vol 4 (Sep. 2011). Co-authored with David M. Stothers. Click on "The Mysterious Village" under "Recent Articles" in the issue.

Historical and Archaeological investigations reveal a thirty-four year old archaeological cold case file that solves a... more Historical and Archaeological investigations reveal a thirty-four year old archaeological cold case file that solves a two-hundred year old mystery about an early American frontier village destroyed during the War of 1812 by a British and Indian force from Upper Canada.

From Fallen Timbers to the British Evacuation of Detroit, 1794-1796: The Roman Catholic Priest Who Was a British Agent

by Patrick Tucker

Michigan Historical Review 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011).

After the battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, the British government in Canada decided to send a Roman Catholic... more After the battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, the British government in Canada decided to send a Roman Catholic priest to Upper Canada to maintain the allegiance of the Native Americans to his Britannic Majesty, counteract the disloyalty of French Canadians, and act as commissary agent to native groups. Father Edmund Burke worked to prevent American General Anthony Wayne and his pro-American Canadians from influencing and escorting Native American leaders going to Fort Greeneville (Ohio) and concluding a peace treaty. A defender of conservative Catholicism and a friend to the British government, Burke failed miserably. Burke traveled to Detroit, River Raisin, Miami Rapids, and Sandusky out of religious habit (garments and clothing) well-armed with two, strong Christian Indians and a hardy Canadian doing the bidding of Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) and Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe becoming involved in scandalous situations and murder plots. After a period of one year, he was ordered to Detroit to evacuate with the British in Upper Canada paving the way for Detroit and western Lake Erie region to become part of the new American Republic.
Burke's report on the desparate state of Catholic missions in Upper Canada sent to the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation "de Prpaganda Fide" (the Red Pope) of the Holy Vatican in Italy in 1797 was shelved due to the turmoil of the Napoleonic War in Italy, the imprisonment of Pope Pius VII, and the dispersal of the cardinals. It wasn't until 1820 when the report was acted upon, but by then it was too late and Burke suffered his final insult with his death that same year.

Slavery and the Meaning of America, 1819-1833

by Robert Pierce Forbes

Dialect Literature and English in the USA: Standardization and National Linguistic Identity

by Lisa Minnick

In Varieties in Writing in English: The Written Word as Linguistic Evidence, ed. Raymond Hickey. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010.

This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and... more This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and especially to authorize and enforce a preferred standard. The roles of gender, race, and linguistic diversity are key considerations to the analysis in light of popular nineteenth-century assumptions that conflated ideas about a preferred national language variety with developing ideologies about national identity. This chapter outlines the ways that these assumptions found voice in the national discourse, including via the deployment of literary dialect, which both documented and participated in that discourse.

Race, Expansion, and Slavery in Eagle Pass, Texas, 1852

by William Kerrigan