In this Virginia History Blog, we look at two titles relating to citizenship and constitution making, a legal history, and two biographies of early antislavery Virginians. “The Citizen Revolution” shows the change from “subjects” to “citizens. “Ratification” describes the debates set before the public in the state Federal Conventions.
“Aggressive Nationalism” shows economic policy of President James Madison and Chief Justice John Marshall. “Crusade Against Slavery” tells the story of Jefferson’s neighbor slaveholder and free soil Illinois Governor, Edward Coles. “I Am Murdered” tells the tale of the trial of George Wythe’s grandnephew George Wythe Sweeney for the murder of George Wythe.
The Citizenship Revolution
Douglas Bradburn wrote The Citizenship Revolution: Politics and the Creation of the American Union, 1774-1804 in 2009. Available from the Louisiana State University Press, on eTextbook and online new and used.
The American colonial understanding of political participation was as “subjects” of the British Crown, alterable only by leave of the King. But with the creation of an American republic, questions arose about national loyalty and rights of “citizens”. The issues were provoked by differences in political thought and the various people and groups they mobilized. Individually, free blacks became excluded by white racism. While ethnic foreigners such as Irish in the North were able to secure some inclusion, this period also saw the rise of anti-immigration sentiment in the Midwest and South.
Federalist concerns related to the French Revolution led to their efforts to establish a “national character” based on American national institutions and practices. They sought to impose a national, homogenous identity and allegiance culminating in the Alien and Sedition Acts. But in the contests of the 1790s, concepts of citizenship underwent a change under the challenges of the Jeffersonian Republicans, who held the view that citizenship was a “collection of contracting” people who chose their own citizenship, allowing for local state diversity emphasizing natural rights.
To buy “Citizenship Revolution” on Amazon, click here.
Ratification: The People Debate
Pauline Maier wrote Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 in 2010. It is available from Simon and Schuster, on Kindle and online new and used. She also wrote American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1997). A TVH top 300 pick for Virginia history sources. Two chapters are devoted to the Virginia Federal (Ratification) Convention.
Maier explores the sequence and debates involved in ratifying the U.S. Constitution. Adopting it was an unsure thing, it was in doubt even after June 1788 when New Hampshire was the ninth state ratifying, technically inaugurating the new regime. New York and Virginia were still out, cutting the new nation completely through into three sections from the Atlantic east to the Mississippi River west (VA) or the Great Lakes (NY). North Carolina and Rhode Island would not ratify for another year, threatening to give foreign smugglers a beachhead north and south. Nearly all admitted the failure of the Confederation.
But Americans divided among those who wanted the Constitution ratified without amendments, those who wanted them after ratification, and those who held out for amendments before ratification. In most state conventions, the amendments before and after groups combined to defeat the up-or-down voters who in the case of Pennsylvania had railroaded ratification with severe repercussions. Massachusetts set the example of accommodating the opposition to get reconciled adopters. Once Virginia ratified, the only issue for New York was joining the new union or not. In the very First Congress the first ten amendments were quickly proposed and ratified for their incorporation by the states to cement the pledges made by the ratifying coalitions.
To buy “Ratification” on Amazon, click here.
Aggressive Nationalism: Federal Authority
Richard E. Ellis wrote Aggressive Nationalism: McCulloch v. Maryland and the Foundation of Federal Authority in the Young Republic in 2007. Available from the Oxford University Press, Kindle and online new and used. A companion to Mark R. Killenbeck M’Culloch v. Maryland (2006).
John Marshall’s 1819 Supreme Court ruling in McCulloch v. Maryland, “the bank case”, is important in establishing the lasting reputation of the Chief Justice. In denying Maryland’s constitutional authority to tax the Second National Bank as a creature of Congress, Marshall put forth the doctrines of national supremacy and implied federal government powers. The holding was central to the ongoing contemporary debate over national-state federalism from the Revolution to the Civil War. Federalism was a surrogate political debate related to a fundamental economic and financial transformation that the United States underwent during the “market revolution”.
A proliferation of banks came and went under a boom-bust business cycle. States rights enthusiasts attributed their misfortunes to competition with the national bank demanding specie from state banks in downturns, and a Marshall Court that seemed bent on political consolidation by economic instruments of aggressive nationalism. The James Madison administration had hoped that a Second US Bank would stabilize the nation’s economy following the disruptions of the War of 1812. Ellis in his discussion of the economic politics and finance of banking, points out that the private corporation was not a government agency and its branches included self-seeking speculators on their boards. Andrew Jackson championed its destruction in his rise to national political prominence, but Marshall’s reasoning was used to justify much of the 20th century New Deal.
To buy “Aggressive Nationalism” on Amazon, click here. https://amzn.to/2QbaJad
Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles
Kurt E. Leichtle and Bruce G. Carveth wrote Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom in 2011. It is available from the Southern Illinois Press, on Kindle and online new and used.
This biography of Edward Coles narrates his journey from slaveholder in Virginia to Governor of Illinois. In his career, Coles developed relationships with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, Benjamin Rush and Nicholas Biddle. On leaving his life as an eastern cosmopolitan behind, Coles freed his inherited estate of 16 adults and 11 children on rafts as they crossed the Ohio River together, and he bought land for them to establish themselves as independent farmers in the free soil Northwest Territory. When he relocated to Illinois, he developed an prosperous farming enterprise during this era of the Jacksonian common man. Chosen as a candidate for governor, Coles successfully ran to abolish slavery in Illinois and to revise the state’s harsh black codes against free blacks.
A graduate of the College of William and Mary, Coles was neighbor and friend of both Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe in Virginia. From 1810 to 1815 as James Madison’s personal secretary in the White House, Coles took away the memory of Madison as an “antislavery republican”. Although Leichtle and Carveth disagree with their subject because at his death in 1836 twenty years later, Madison’s wife Dolly did not free the family slaves.
To buy “Crusade Against Slavery” on Amazon, click here.
I am Murdered: George Wythe
Bruce Chadwick wrote I am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing that Shocked a New Nation in 2009. Available from the John Wiley and Sons Press, Kindle and online new and used. See also W. Edwin Hemphill The Murder of George Wythe (1955), William Clarkin Serene Patriot: The Life of George Wythe (1970), Joyce Blackburn George Wythe of Williamsburg (1975), and Imogene Brown American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe (1981).
George Wythe was a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence, with a long career teaching law at William and Mary. Contemporaries knew Wythe as “the American Aristides”, having tutored such notables as Thomas Jefferson and antislavery jurist St. George Tucker and antagonist former student proslavery, Judge Spencer Roane.
Wythe as a judge had successfully handed down freedom cases for enslaved Virginians that had been upheld on appeal. In 1806 Wythe ruled that Virginia’s 1776 Declaration of Rights made all men in Virginia “presumptively free”, as had Massachusetts Chief Justice William Cushing. Later that year, George Wythe was murdered by poison, along with his mulatto protégé Michael Brown, at the same time his longtime cook, freedwoman Lydia Broadnax had taken violently ill. Wythe’s grandnephew George Wythe Sweeney stood accused of the murders, but was acquitted. Chadwick presents evidence that the prosecution of Sweeney for the dual murder was badly botched through a combination of medical ineptitude and legal technicalities.
To buy “I am Murdered” on Amazon, click here.
See Also
Current releases related to Virginia history in other eras from Spring 2018 journals can be found in previous Virginia History Blogs at Colonial Virginia – Spring 2018, Revolutionary Virginia – Spring 2018, and Civil War Virginia – Spring 2018, and New South and Modern Virginia – Spring 2018.
Summer journal titles begin with the Colonial Virginia Era i , Colonial Virginia Era ii, Revolution and New Nation, and Jefferson and Madison.
The TVH webpage for Revolution, Constitution and New Nation Eras 1750-1824, features our top title picks taken from the bibliographies of three surveys of Virginia History’s 400 years: two that are widely used in Virginia college courses, and one to be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2019. Titles are organized by topics related to Political and Economic Virginia, Social, Gender, Religious, African American Virginia, and Wars in Virginia during this time span.
The Table of Contents divides Political and Economic Virginia, 1750-1824 into Revolution and Constitution Policy, and New Nation Policy. Topical history is treated under headings of Social History, Gender in Virginia, Religious Virginia and African American Virginian. Finally, two wars are featured under American Revolution and the War of 1812.
General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Note: Insights for these reviews include those available from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.