Republicanism and Ideology
Author(s): Joyce Appleby
Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4, Republicanism in the History and Historiography
of the United States (Autumn, 1985), pp. 461-473
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712577
Accessed: 05/11/2010 10:19
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
American Quarterly.
http://www.jstor.org
REPUBLICANISM AND IDEOLOGY
JOYCEAPPLEBY
Los Angeles
University
ofCalifornia,
THE AMERICANQUARTERLYHERE OFFERS A SPECIAL ISSUE ON REPUBLICANISM.
slippedintothescholarlylexiconin thelate 1960sandhas since
Republicanism
on thecultureofantebellum
becomethemostproteanconceptforthoseworking
referred
to a bodyofideas said
America.In itsinitialappearancerepublicanism
Drawnfromthevivid
to haveanimated
themenoftherevolutionary
generation.
ideologyfilledAmericanswitha
republican
polemicsoftheEnglishopposition,
of theBritish
corruption
powerand a fearof theincipient
horrorof arbitrary
movement
presided
Constitution.
Sincethemenwholed thecolonialresistance
be
yearsitcouldreasonably
overtheaffairsofthenewnationforthenextfifty
inferred
thattheywouldcarrytheirrepublicanworldview withthemintothe
lettingit settheagendaforpoliticaldiscourseforyearsto
nineteenth
century,
as thereigning
come.Andso ithasbeen.The recentdiscoveryofrepublicanism
a
of
America
has
reaction
among
social theory eighteenth-century
produced
historians
akinto theresponseofchemiststo a newelement.Once havingbeen
years
it can be foundeverywhere.
Thus scholarsin thelast twenty
identified,
wisdomon thedebatesoverthe
to reviseconventional
haveused republicanism
divisionsofthe
theopposition
politicsofthe1790sandthepartisan
Constitution,
like the
Jacksonianera.1 Similarlyold nuclei of Americanhistoriography
of the frontier,
the role of women,thepoliticsof New England
significance
officer
corps-havebeenformedinto
clergy-eventheactionsofWashington's
2
newcompounds
withtheadditionofrepublicanism.
Antifederalism
and the Historians,"
'JamesH. Hutson,"Country,Court,and Constitution:
Persuasion
38 (July1981),337-68;Lance Banning,TheJeffersonian
Williamand MaryQuarterly,
Virtueand
andAttachment,
"Independence
(Ithaca:CornellUniv.Press,1978); RowlandBerthoff,
1787-1837,"inRichardL. Bushman,et al.,
Interest:
FromRepublicanCitizento FreeEnterpriser,
eds., UprootedAmericans(Cambridge:HarvardUniv. Press, 1979), 97-124. For two excellent
The
see RobertE. Shalhope,"Towarda RepublicanSynthesis:
evaluativeessayson republicanism,
Williamand Mary
inAmericanHistoriography,"
ofRepublicanism
ofan Understanding
Emergence
andEarlyAmericanHistoriography,"
29 (Jan.1972),49-80,andidem,"Republicanism
Quarterly,
ibid.,39 (April1982),334-56.
2DrewR. McCoy, The ElusiveRepublic(Chapel Hill: Univ. of NorthCarolinaPress, 1980);
LindaKerber,WomenoftheRepublic(ChapelHill: Univ.of NorthCarolinaPress,1980); Nathan
(New Haven:Yale Univ.Press,1977); andCharlesRoyster,
0. Hatch,TheSacredCause ofLiberty
A Revolutionary
Peopleat War(ChapelHill: Univ.ofNorthCarolinaPress,1979).
462
AmericanQuarterly
has
thisvolume,I wouldlike to discusswhatrepublicanism
In introducing
meantto my cohortof Americanhistorians.Packed into the conceptare
hypothesesabout the natureof social experiencewhich would have been
canbe
toan earliergroupofscholars.Forthisreasonrepublicanism
unthinkable
contemporary
theveryambitious
as a traceelementforfollowing
usedfruitfully
ourknowledgeof thepastwithnewand highlysophisticated
to integrate
effort
observer
andbyno meansimpartial,
modelsofhumanbehavior.As an attentive,
of the dramaticrevisionswroughtunder its influenceI have noted that
to certain
has actuallyhad two careers,thefirstas a reference
republicanism
and earlynineteenth
throughthe eighteenth
ideas said to have reverberated
centuries,and the second issuingfromits close connectionwith another
resonatingconcept,ideology.This has meantthattwo revisionshave been
ofwhatmen
theone dealingwitha newdescription
simultaneously:
progressing
worldand anotherinvolvinga
believedin theearlymodernAnglo-American
of how ideas enterintothemakingof events.The conceptof
new explanation
of classicalpoliticaltheoryis
whichpointsto theornaterhetoric
republicanism
thusboundup-extricably,I think-witha complexof theoriesaboutlanguage
In itsfirstcareerrepublicanism
has sweptthecolonialhouse
andconsciousness.
accessibleslogansabout no taxation
of intellectclean of those wonderfully
about
chastersetoftruths
a sterner,
it
with
retrofitted
and
representation
without
In
its
second
of
uncivil
of civil orderand the ferocity
passions.
the fragility
thatrealityis
theconviction
inserted
intoourhistory
careerithas surreptitiously
sociallyconstructed.
feel
indicateshowkeenlyhistorians
of republicanism
popularity
The wildfire
of
This
explain
helps
the
ineffable
past
politics.
aspects
theneedto talkabout
whywe hearmoreand moreaboutpoliticalceremoniesand less and less about
andsymbolstodiscussparty
politicalcampaigns,whywe nowevokesympathies
wouldoncehavebeenmore
divisionswhereevidenceaboutvoters'occupations
of Jefferson,
about the sentiments
pertinent.Because scholarlystatements
Adams,Hamiltonand a hostof lesserfigureshave congealedwithassertions
has cometo
of beliefandbehavior,republicanism
aboutthedynamicinterplay
fromolder scholarshipin American
a declarationof independence
represent
by two
politicalhistory.Indeed, our approachhas now been revolutionized
enterthepoliticalarena.
The firstdeals withhow interests
linkedassumptions.
those
Men andwomenrespondtotheirinterests,
accordingtohowtheyinterpret
interests,it is now said. Thereforeideas interveneand mediatebetween
The secondassumption
and responsesto thosecircumstances.
circumstances
schemesand pointsto the factthat
deals withthe characterof interpretive
fromgeneralconvictionsabout the
are constructed
frameworks
interpretive
movingoutfromthisbase topoliticalaffirmations.
natureofhumanexperience,
individual
oncestoodatthecenterofouranalysisof
Wherethedecision-making
have
politics,ideologyhas pushedto theforethesocial forcesthatpresumably
shapedthe consciousnessof the individualswe study.Withthis changeof
and Ideology
Republicanism
463
haveburnedtheirbridgesnotto thepast-but
Americanhistorians
perspectives,
rather
topastwaysoflookingatourpast.
embeddedin a
containsa theoryof socialpsychology
Because republicanism
oftheworldviewin therevolutionary
era, ithas providedus witha
description
foilagainstwhichto examineourpreviousaccountsof thisperiod.We can see
From the original
more clearlynow the liberalbias in our historiography.
throughthe
by contemporaries
historiesof the AmericanRevolutionwritten
actsof nation-building
ofthe1950s,theeighteenth-century
Consensuswritings
men.3
self-improving
have been construedas thedoingsof forward-looking,
First,Americanpatriotsas individualloversof libertybandedtogetheras a
the
The Beardianrevisiondisaggregated
wholepeopleto repelEnglishtyrants.
remainedselfgroups,buttheindividuals
wholeAmericanpeopleintointerest
The patriotleadersin progressivehistoriography
consciouslyself-improving.
became American capitalistsassertingthemselvesagainst their British
while inadvertently
drawingintothe conflictordinarycolonists
counterparts
who,likethechildrenin Locke's "Second Treatise,"came intotheirpolitical
manhoodand began agitatingfor rightson theirown behalf.With a later
emphasisupon consensus ratherthan conflict,our historiesmergedthe
contentious
leadersand democratsintomembersof a prosperousmiddleclass
theirproperty
andthevote.
longusedtopossessingthemselves,
as unproblematic
elementsintheminds
In all oftheseaccounts,ideas figured
then-inthemuckraking
era
Firsttheyweretrueprinciples,
oftheparticipants.
rationalizations
of theearlytwentieth
becamewindow-dressing
century-they
and finally,in the self-congratulatory
nationalmood afterWorld War II,
abouthumanbehavior.Men-sometimeseven womenobviouspropositions
weredepictedas choosingideasmuchas theyboughtandsoldinthefreemarket,
difficulties
accordingto thevalue received.The onlytimethatideas presented
contradicted
forscholarswas whenpeopleclungtothosebeliefsthategregiously
autonomy,
progressandnaturalrights.
liberalaffirmations
aboutindependence,
In such instances,custom,ignorance,superstition,
dogma or upper-class
could be invokedto explainthedeviationsfromtheself-evident.
intimidation
and
usingtheconceptof republicanism
betweenhistorians
Thusthedifferences
of
ofideas,butrather
thecharacter
theirpredecessors
is notovertheimportance
ideasin socialexperience.For thisreasontheworkofthepasttwodecadestells
us as muchaboutthemindof thelate twentieth
centuryas of thatof thelate
eighteenth.
Withthe publicationof BernardBailyn's The Ideological Originsof The
3DavidRamsay,HistoryoftheUnitedStatesfromtheirFirstSettlement
as EnglishColonies,in
1607, to theYear1808, 3 vols. (Philadelphia,1818); Carl L. Becker,HistoryofPoliticalPartiesin
theProvinceofNew York,1760-1776(Madison:Univ. of WisconsinPress, 1909); and RobertE.
Brown,Middle-ClassDemocracyand theRevolution
inMassachusetts
(Ithaca:CornellUniv.Press,
1955).
464
AmericanQuarterly
AmericanRevolution,the study of the AmericanRevolutionwas itself
does not figure
althoughcuriouslythe word, republicanism,
revolutionized,
in his text.WhatBailyndid was to effectthatfusionof substantive
prominently
has come to represent.
In a single
meaningthatrepublicanism
and theoretical
America.
studyhe turnedaroundtheentirefieldworkingon eighteenth-century
to a powerful
By joining earlierwork on the EnglishCommonwealthmen
events,he made
ofhowideasenterintotherealmofhistory-making
explanation
ideologythe centralconceptin our currentaccountsof thebreakwithGreat
rhetoric
Bailyndroppedthemesintoour
Britain.In his analysisofrevolutionary
on the
in
a
have
and
coloredourwritings
vat
permeated
history
whichlikedye
Jeffersonian
the
from
the
Act
crisis
through
Stamp
whole era stretching
he replacedthetiredold notionof intellectual
presidencies.More significantly
only
influence
withtheexcitingconceptof ideology.Ideas, Bailynmaintained,
The
structure.
influence
politicalactionwhentheyare partofa socially-created
their
in
America
because
Cassandrasof theBritishOppositionshapedevents
otherwise
too vagueto be actedupon,because,as
opinionsorganizedattitudes
Ideas, to use Bailyn's
otherwiseinchoatediscontent.
he said, theycrystallized
wired so that
metaphor,compose themselvesinto intellectualswitchboards
reactions.The colonialelite,
certaineventsalmostsurelywillprovokeparticular
reformsof the 1760s, for example, was
the Parliamentary
confronting
the new measuresas signsof a tyrannical
impulsein
compelledto interpret
exerciseofpowertrippedexistingfearsabout
Englandbecausethisunexpected
in their
oftheconstitutional
orderwhichpreservedEnglishmen
theunbalancing
liberties
andestates.4
It remainedforBailyn's student,GordonWood, to connectexplicitlythe
in
tradition
to theclassicalrepublican
conceptualorderoftheAmericanpatriots
England.This,he did, in TheCreationoftheAmericanRepublicwhichcarried
of
withrepublicanism
thedrafting
through
thestoryof Americans'engagement
as they did upon the foundingacts of
the Constitution.Concentrating
the
and constitution-making,
Bailynand Wood leftunexamined
independence
inthecolonies.Content
to
genesisoftheEnglishideologytheyfoundflourishing
organizedtheconsciousnessof themost
explorehow classical republicanism
influential
generationin Americanhistory,theypresentedthe source of the
founders'ideologyas a kindof grabbagof radicalWhignotionsaboutpower,
rightsand virtue.It was leftto J.G.A. Pocock to providea centralnervous
systemfor the new skeletonof Americanpoliticalculturewhichtheyhad
fashioned.And this he did in The MachiavellianMoment.A keystonein
thearchesraisedin
Moment
TheMachiavellian
completed
Pocock'sscholarship,
4BernardBailyn,Ideological Originsof theAmericanRevolution(Cambridge:HarvardUniv.
in
Press, 1967) and idem,"The CentralThemesof theAmericanRevolution:An Interpretation,"
StephenG. Kurtzand JamesH. Hutson,eds., Essays on theAmericanRevolution(Chapel Hill:
Univ.ofNorthCarolinaPress,1973).
and Ideology
Republicanism
465
andPolitics,Languageand Time. LikeBailyn,Pocock
hisAncientConstitution
menactuallybelieved
aboutwhateighteenth-century
thought
hadsimultaneously
as well as how beliefsfigurein thehistoricaldramaof situation,actionand
reaction.UnlikeBailyn,Pocockhas pursuedthesequestionsas partof a larger
crisisthataccompaniedthebirthof
of thespiritual
enterprise-aninvestigation
themodernworld.
In his Ancient Constitution
Pocock explored the emergenceof civic
consciousnessamongthoseEnglishmencentrallyinvolvedin theircountry's
centuryof revolution.Followingthe twinhistoriesof the commonlaw and
emergedwhenthekingcould
he showedhowtheidea ofcitizenship
Parliament,
obedienceof his subjects.Accordingto
no longercounton the unthinking
Pocock, afterthe executionof Charles I and the subsequentfailureof the
of
came face to face withthetemporality
Puritans'Elect Nation,Englishmen
theirpolity.Then theyturnedto thatgreattheoristof fortuneand design,
workof
Machiavelli.AlthoughPocockdid notdrawfromtheanthropological
thatideologies
CliffordGeertz,his findingsaccord withGeertz'scontention
emergeandtakeholdat preciselythetimewhena societybegins"to freeitself
'6 Only Pocock's
fromthe immediategovernanceof the receivedtradition.
free.They
as findthemselves
unhappily
Englishdidnotso muchfreethemselves
Whighistory
whomovethrough
notliketheParliamentarians
are emphatically
by the consentof the
championinga new era of government
confidently
governed.In Pocock's account,England's leaders reachedbackwardsfor
classicalmodelstoteachthemhowto staythemarchoftime.Atonceenamored
and deeplyaware of the demonicforceof
of theirunchanging
constitution
rebellion,theylookedto theresidualwisdomofthepastfora theoryofhowto
remainin place. And theyfoundit in the classical writingsof Aristotleand
PolybiusandtheirRenaissanceinterpreters.
according
FromMachiavelli'sanalysisof ancientpoliticstheEnglishgentry,
to Pocock,tooktheidea ofcivicvirtue.The exerciseofcivicvirtueenabledmen
at thesametimeitimposedformon theflotsam
to realizetheirhumanpotential
couldbe virtuous
andjetsamofhumanevents.Onlymensecureintheirproperty
be made
theexertionsof suchvirtuousmencould property
and onlythrough
outlookofEngland'srulingclass denieda
secure.7Thustheclassicalrepublican
carriersofchangeandmadeeveryadvancein
placeinthepolityforthecapitalist
economicdevelopment
appearas evidenceof fortune'szone of irrationality.8
5J.G.A.Pocock, The MachiavellianMoment:FlorentineRepublicanThoughtand theAtlantic
and
Princeton
Univ.Press,1975); idem,TheAncientConstitutions
(Princeton:
RepublicanTradition
Univ.Press,1957);andidem,Politics,Languageand Time
theFeudalLaw (Cambridge:Cambridge
1960).
(New York:Atheneum,
of Cultures(New York:
Geertz,"Ideologyas a CulturalSystem,"TheInterpretation
6Clifford
Basic Books,1973),219.
7Pocock,MachiavellianMoment,184.
8Ibid.,461.
466
AmericanQuarterly
Shrewdlyaware thatbothMarxistsand liberalsdrewtheirintellectual
hubris
froma commonassumption
thattheyunderstood
progress,Pocockremovedthe
place forprogressfromtheAnglo-American
worldview.Takenas a whole,his
workcan be seenas a formidable
of thereductionism
in liberaland
indictment
Marxisthistoriography.
BothPocock'stheoretical
aboutEnglishpolitical
assumptions
andhisfindings
of how materialadvance
discourseare essentialto his stunning
interpretation
was receivedinthehomelands
Pococksaysthatthe
ofcapitalism.Theoretically,
conceptuallanguageof a societystructures
bothpersonality
and the world.
People do not choose theirbeliefsso muchas theyfeel an affinity
for an
explanation
ofexperience
whichthereafter
entailstheminitsmultiple
meanings.
"Men cannotdo whattheyhave no meansof sayingtheyhave done," he has
said, "and whattheydo mustin partbe whattheycan say and conceivethatit
is."9 Social languagesthusconfinemorethantheyliberate.The precedentshatteringeconomic innovationsdid not seem like precedent-shattering
economic innovationsbecause there was no conceptual language for
understanding
themas such.Insteadtheyappearedas threats
to thatbalanceof
the one, the few and the manywhichalone securedorderand libertyfor
Englishmen.Innovationinvolvedchange and change evoked fears of the
of theconstitutional
disruption
balance. This was especiallythecase, Pocock
says, because the new wealth-generating
activitiesof the late seventeenth
centurybecame entangledactuallyand in men's mindswithfiscalschemes
which extendedthe range and size of the king's patronage.10
The purely
economicfeaturesof the commercialrevolutionwere subsumedunderthe
sinceitwas a maximofclassicalrepublicanism
politicalrubricofcorruption
that
onlythosecapableof subordinating
theirowninterests
to thewell-being
ofthe
whole could performthe crucialjob of protecting
the constitution.
English
classicalrepublicans
couldnotsaythatitwas otherwise.
ThomasHobbes and JohnLocke had providedan alternative
way of talking
about privatemen and public policy, but Pocock maintainsthat Locke's
notoriousindifference
to history
rendered
hima nugatory
in his day.
influence
DispensingwithLockeinthismannerhascutthetaproots
oftheliberaltradition
in bothEnglandand America,forestalling
untila laterday thetriumph
of the
naturalrightsphilosophy
in Americaanda bourgeoisrevolution
in England.No
Locke,no Marx,itseems,andtheshotheardaroundtheworldwentbackwards.
As Pocockwrotewithcharacteristic
audacity,"an effectof therecentresearch
has been to displaythe AmericanRevolutionless as the firstpoliticalact of
" 91I
revolutionary
enlightenment
thanas thelastgreatactoftheRenaissance.
9Pocock, "Virtue and Commercein the EighteenthCentury,"Journalof Interdisciplinary
History,
3 (Summer1972), 122.
'0Pocock,MachiavellianMoment,122-26,426.
"Pocock, "VirtueandCommerce,"124.
Republicanism
and Ideology
467
Againstthe pull of two
The sweep of Pocock's revisionis breathtaking.
ofunexamined
ofeconomicprogress,
assumptions
aboutthereception
centuries
plantedintheirown
menfirmly
he has succeededingivingus eighteenth-century
inthe
withthesensibilities
oftheirpredecessors
future
time,facingan uncertain
outofsight.As he wrote
andthevaluesoftheirdescendents
properly
foreground
abouthis MachiavellianMoment,it was concernedwith"ways in whichmen
of their
perceivedchangein theirtimes,ratherthanwithour endorsement
perceptions."12 Pocock's formidableeruditionhas contributedto his
of political
but so have his brilliantinsightson thefunctioning
achievement,
ordertheirresearch
languages.Here ThomasKuhn'sanalysisof how scientists
himan appropriate
templateforunderstanding
aroundmodelsof natureoffered
13 IndeedwhatGeertzwas to Bailyn,Kuhn
thestructuring
of politicalthought.
of ideas as discreteunitswhich
was to Pocock. Rejectingtheliberaltreatment
people picked up and droppedaccordingto need and preference,all four
in
as partsofwholes,paradigms
scholarsmaintained
thatideasexertedinfluence
reality.Thosewho
Kuhn'slexicon,andthenonlybecausethewholeilluminated
became
Kuhn's scientific
practitioners
sharea paradigmforma community.
analoguesforPocock's Englishgentry.For each groupa commonlanguage
made coherentsocial actionpossible. As Pocock explained,social thought
and politicalprocessesbecauseanysocially-organized
involvedbothlinguistic
authority,as well as
way of thinkingbecame a means for distributing
authority
as and
communicating
ideas. Indeed,all politicallanguagesdistribute
thewisdomofthesociety.Withthosewho livedby
becausetheycommunicate
thestrictures
ofclassicalrepublicanism
were
onlymensecureinlandedproperty
freeto practicecivic virtue.Powerthusflowedto thosemenand away from
why.Pocockrecognizes
andeveryoneunderstood
entrepreneurs
andfinanciers,
thelanguageof
distinguish
thatthesymbolicandevasionaryaspectsof rhetoric
politicsfromthelanguageof a disciplinedinquiry.However,theirsimilarities
may
lie in thecontrolimplicitin both.As he wrote,"the individual'sthinking
nowbe viewedas a socialevent. 14 KuhnshowedPocockthewayto discomfit
both liberal and Marxist historians.The reigningparadigmof classical
freedom-loving
makersof
republicanism
deniedliberalstheirforward-moving,
Marxistswitha rulingclass
history-theinnovator
as hero-whileitconfronted
outofthepoliticalscript.
speakinga languagewhichwroterisingcapitalists
reached out for social
The republicanrevisionistshave self-consciously
rationalistic
scientific
modelsto freeintellectual
historyfromits distortingly
aboutthelife of the mind.In the sympathetic
analysisof belief
assumptions
"
12Pocock,"The MachiavellianMomentRevisited:A Studyin Historyand Ideology,"Journalof
ModernHistory,
53 (March1981),61.
'3Pocock,Politics,Language and Time, 14-15; ThomasS. Kuhn, The Structure
of Scientific
Revolution
(Chicago:Univ.ofChicagoPress,1962).
14Ibid.
468
AmericanQuarterly
as a
thought
theyfoundthemeansforstudying
donebyanthropologists
systems
also offeredwas a conceptof
social phenomenon.What anthropologists
ideology which concentratedupon the means ratherthan the causes or
consequencesof specificbeliefs. Approachedas "systems of interacting
intoa
meanings,"ideologywas fashioned
of interworking
symbols,as patterns
withlinguistic
analysis,or in
social psychology
conceptwhichcould integrate
15 The
the language of historians, motivation with documentation.
helpfulto thosestudying
conceptof ideologywas particularly
anthropologists'
people actually
whateighteenth-century
earlyAmericabecause in presenting
thought,historianshad all too oftencollapsed the colonial past into the
historian'spresent.The ideological approach encourageda dispassionate
forthosebeyondone's ken; it invitedscholarsto look forstructured
sympathy
beyond the filiopietistic
meaning;and it moved Americanhistoriography
itwas nowpossibleto
acts.As Bailyncommented,
evaluationofnation-building
boththeEnglishandthecolonialpositionsintheRevolution.
understand
theconceptof ideologylightedup whole new
Like all fruitful
borrowings
areas whichcouldnotbe seen before.Whileearlierscholarsmayhave sensed
that thinkingwas a social activityor that assertionsabout realitywere
or that individualsinterpretedtheir experiencethrough
interconnected,
had neverbeforebeen systematically
notions,thesepropositions
preconceived
texts.Withtheconceptof ideology,
exploredand appliedto concretehistorical
wereabletobreakawayfroman ariddebateovercausality
historians
intellectual
in which pecuniaryinterestswere arrayedagainstpoliticalconvictionsas
of the
mutuallyexclusivecauses of action.Ideologyinvitedan examination
whichnecessarilylinkedbeliefand behavior.But the
processesof thinking
conceptof ideologywhichhas fusedwiththe recentrecoveryof republican
thoughtremains a borrowing.Its limitationsare inherentin that fact.
nonliterate
societies
observingsmall,cohesiveand frequently
Anthropologists
of a people's worldviewand linkedthatuniformity
emphasizedtheuniformity
and statishavebeen
of stablecultures.Comprehensiveness
to themaintenance
of ideology. Yet neither
inseparablefromtheir theoreticalinterpretation
Americaweretightly-knit
seventeenth-century
Englandnoreighteenth-century
the
encouraged
or cohesivesocieties.The highlevelofliteracyinbothcountries
freecirculationof printedmaterial.Neithercensorshipnor limitedaccess to
printingpresses existed to inhibitthe publicationof divergent,even
inflammatory,
pointsof view. The Englishgentrywho consideredthemselves
thekingdom'snaturalleaderscould no morecontrolthereadingpublic'staste
of
couldcurbthepopularity
forDaniel DeFoe thantheirAmericancounterparts
an incendiarypropagandistlike Thomas Paine. Both countries were
The conceptualworldof theelite
pluralistic.
as well as culturally
intellectually
viewsall classes,butit could notand did notexcludecompeting
permeated
15Geertz,"Ideologyas a CulturalSystem,"207.
Republicanism
and Ideology
469
viewswhichin timeexercisedgreaterinterpretive
powersforthosedifferently
positionedin society.By insisting
uponthehegemonyof a particular
political
tradition
on theoretical
grounds,therepublican
revisionists
haveresistedseeing
thatin pluralistic,
uncensored,
literatesocieties,theideologicalpredispositions
of humanbeingshave an oppositeeffect.Insteadof insuringsocial solidarity,
itandembarrass
theefforts
ofgovernment
tosecure
competing
ideologiesthwart
order.The eighteenth
century,
as Bailynhas pointed,was an ideologicalage. In
no small partthis was because the changingnatureof workand wealthin
of societyand
westernEuropewas forcingintotheopen different
conceptions
politics.
Reviewingthe receptionof his MachiavellianMomentten years afterits
publication,
Pocockreiterated
hisprinciple
contentions.
The financial
revolution
theGloriousRevolution
inthehistory
ofideology;neo-Harringtonian
outweighs
conceptsguidedhow theEnglishand theircolonialbrethren
perceivedchange;
andthepotential
forreadingLocke as theinterpreter
ofa neworderwas missed
because contemporaries
viewed commercialgrowththroughthe conceptual
lensesof classicalrepublicanism.'6All threeof thesepropositions
dependupon
the theoretical
assumptionthatone languageof social analysisprecludesthe
coexistenceof others.Yet therewere otherlanguagesavailableand used. As
important
as the financialand gloriousrevolutionswere in the historyof
ideologythecommercial
revolution
was evenmoreimportant.
Herea paradigm
like Kuhn's scientific
ones had to be invented.The worriesabouttheBankof
to the
Englandandthenationaldebtin no wayprecludedmenfromresponding
aboundingevidenceof economicchangein politically
explosiveways.Indeed,
manywritersman ed to thinkin bothlanguages,pointingoutthedangersof
politicalcorruptions
fromextendedpatronagewhileanalyzingthenew market
17
economywitha totallydifferent
vocabulary.
on economictopicsappearedeach yearin theclosing
Dozens of publications
of writing
aboutthe
decadesof theseventeenth
century.Out of a halfcentury
ininternal
noveltiesoffarming
techniques,
marketing,
andinforeign
tradecame
the means for talkingabout societyas a naturaland spontaneously-ordered
system.To theseobserversof commercialchangewhatwas mostremarkable
was notthenewscope of politicalcorruption
butratherthepropensity
formen
and womento disciplinethemselves
in theireconomicdealings.To somethese
universaltraitssuggestedthathumanbeingscarriedwithinthemthe
apparently
naturalantidote
totheancientdiseaseofanarchy.In thesepamphlets
naturallaw
froman ethicalintoa scientific
onewhichelevated
was transmogrified
category,
previouslyvulgar materialpursuitsinto dependableregulatorsof human
'6Pocock,"MachiavellianMomentRevisited,"65.
'7JoyceOldham Appleby,Economic Thoughtand Ideologyin Seventeenth-Century
England
(Princeton:PrincetonUniv. Press, 1978). See especiallyreferencesto RobertFilmer,Francis
Gardiner,
JohnBriscoe,andRogerCoke.
470
AmericanQuarterly
behavior.Work-uncoerced,productive;rewardingin the new languageof
ofsociety.
economics-becametheintegrator
fromthe
a manas JohnLocke did notescape infection
Even as sophisticated
visionary
aspectsofthisnewparadigm.Amonghispapersis a scribblednotein
whichhe observedthatifeveryoneintheworldworked,theworld'sworkcould
to imaginea morevividindicator
in halfa day.18 It is difficult
be doneroutinely
of the inherent
levelingtendenciesof the marketeconomy.Since thesenew
economicexpansion,
werecoheringduringa periodofremarkable
observations
the possibilityof unchecked economic advanced occurred to some,
oftheadvocatesofeconomicchangewhilelaying
theenthusiasm
strengthening
fortheidea ofprogress.Totallynewtoowas thefrankdelightin
thefoundation
the artifactsissuingfromthe presses,potteriesand looms of England.No
ofeconomicdevelopment
can ignorethesheeraesthetic
accountofthereception
by theprintedcalicoes,
to the imagination-created
pleasure-theincitement
decoratedplates,coloredmaps, and mechanicalgimmicksthatcirculatedin
19To claimthatthesewritings
are notpoliticalis to misswhat
greatabundance.
in the liberal world view: the replacementof the
was trulyrevolutionary
socialsystem.Pocockhas maintained
economyforthepolityas thefundamental
thatthe classical republicanparadigmprovidedno role forthe capitalistas
the
thefavorby diminishing
citizen:it is equallytruethatliberalismreturned
of societyand
of citizenship
itself.ThomasPaine's differentiation
importance
ofCommon
intheopeningparagraph
Sensemakesthisre-evaluation
government
ofthepublicandprivaterealmsexplicit:"societyis producedbyourwantsand
ourhappinesspositively
by
theformer
promotes
byourwickedness;
government
our vices."20With
thelatternegatively
by restraining
unitingour affections,
to
characteristic
audacity,Paine reducedthevirtuesof classicalrepublicanism
simplepolicingwhile elevatingfreeassociationto a new moralplane. But
of thenatureof societyworkedout duringthe
without
thereconceptualization
wouldnot
of classicalrepublicanism
his stunning
deflation
precedingcentury,
havebeenpersuasive.
To reassertthe significanceof a liberal mode of societygroundedin
observationsof economicadvance and articulatedthroughthe languageof
The recoveryof
scienceis not to returnto the statusquo ante revisionism.
in thecolonieshas changedforeverour
classicalrepublicanmodesof thinking
of early America. Further,because republicanism
has been
understanding
bytheengineof ideologywe can leave behind
propelledintoourconsciousness
functioned
as "an
thatplacewhere,as LouisHartzputit,theAmericanhistorian
"21
of
social
the
average
American.
eruditereflection
ofthelimited
perspectives
'8Locke Manuscripts,
Cambridge
University
Library,Cambridge,
England.
'9This subjectis exploredin ChandraMukerji,GravenImages (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago,
1983).
20Arthur
WallacePeach,ed., Selections
fromtheWorksof ThomasPaine (New York: Harcourt,
BraceandCompany,1928),4.
2'Louis Hartz,TheLiberalTradition
inAmerica(New York:Harcourt,Braceand World,1955),
29.
and Ideology
Republicanism
471
itaffords
Nottheleastofthemeritsoftheideologicalapproachis thepossibility
Whenscholarsrecognizein selfas a culturalartifact.
ofdealingwithliberalism
as conceptuala notionas classicalrepublican'scivic virtue,we can be
interest
of realityhave been
certainthatthenew insightsaboutthesocial construction
havemovedaboutin
absorbed.Like fishunawareofwaterwe Americanwriters
The claritywithwhichrepublicanism
a worldof invisibleliberalassumptions.
has been delineatedenablesus to detecttheelementsof liberalismin our own
themas theyenteredintopublicdiscourseduring
andhenceto identify
thinking
century.
theeighteenth
themefora vastamountof recent
has becomean integrative
Republicanism
researchin social history.In partthisis because thosehistorianswho have
studiedthelives of ordinarymenand womenhave foundin classicalpolitical
withthelivesofearlyAmericans.Although
truths
a clusterofvaluescongruent
has been tracedto the mostpoliticallypowerfuland
classical republicanism
itsemphasisuponvirtuousleaders
century,
menin theeighteenth
sophisticated
as well,we
thepopularmentality
reflected
ofself-interest
andthesubordination
is
in intellectual
historythathumanthinking
are told. The new recognition
also accords withthe social historians'own discoveryof social
structured
patterning.Since it is largelythroughcharts,graphs and tables that the
inaudiblehave been described,thetextsof classicalrepublicanism
historically
ofclassical
In thereigning
assumptions
havebeenwelcomedfortheiraudibility.
moreover,social historianshave foundthe antidoteto the
republicanism,
which
ofthatLockeanliberalism
rationality
logicanddemystifying
instrumental
in
forso long. The presenceof republicanism
historicalwriting
has dominated
to the
the Americanpast has providedrootsat last fora genuinealternative
worldview generatedby liberalcapitalism,a need all themorepressingfor
onperiodsbeforeindustrialization.
thosescholarsworking
andbreadth
theintensity
The articlesin thisspecialissueclearlydemonstrate
They
on earlyAmericanhistorians.
of theinfluence
of republicanrevisionism
has engendered
also revealhow the exuberanceover classical republicanism
and confusions.In "The RepublicanIdeology of the
both opportunities
Revolutionary
Generation,"Linda Kerbersurveysthescholarlyterrainwhich
remappedby the republicanrevisers.Because of her
has been dramatically
periodbetweentheStamp
onthefifty-year
ofearlierandrecentwritings
mastery
on themapthoseareas
Act andtheWar of 1812, she has beenable to pinpoint
ofthe
formrealobstaclesto ourunderstanding
interpretations
wherecontending
as do mostofthewritersin
politicalcultureoftheearlyrepublic.Recognizing,
andelusive,Kerber
was bothenduring
sentiment
thiscollection,thatrepublican
intellectual
inthepastcouldserveas a strategic
also suggestshowrepublicanism
of reality.Exemplaryof this
resourceratherthana compellingrepresentation
facet of republicanismis the way that women turnedaway from the
thecorporatevalues
of thenaturalrightsdoctrineand reaffirmed
individualism
of republicanism.This presentationof liberalismand republicanismas
to
also appearsin JamesOakes's "From Republicanism
ideologicalalternatives
Liberalism:IdeologicalChangeand theCrisisof theOld South." Here Oakes
472
AmericanQuarterly
executesan ambitiousanalysisof economicand social changesas theyfound
of reality.Oakes's depictionof the
expressionin ideologicalrepresentations
opposingperspectivestaken up by plantersand farmersas a slave-based
questionsabout
intonewareasoftheSouthraisesinteresting
commerceintruded
thenatureofideology.
of reality,
a social construction
For Bailynand Wood ideologyrepresented
Contending
drawingits power froma hiddencapacityto shape intentions.
ideologiessuchas theones Oakes describessuggestthatideas are beingused
and hence consciously.While the characterof ideologies
morepurposefully
wouldbenefitfroma
our interpretations
neednotbe thesame in all situations
of our arguments.With Cathy
consensuson the theoreticalunderpinnings
and
Matson'sand PeterOnuf'sessay, "Toward a RepublicanEmpire:Interest
returns
to
ofrepublicanism
America,"thetreatment
Ideologyin Revolutionary
its earlier statusas a culturalperspective.Here theyaddress the central
the
Americanleadersin thedecadesfollowing
ideologicaldilemmaconfronting
Revolution:how to maintainthe moral force of republicanismwithout
to theexpansionof the Americaneconomy.
values antithetical
strengthening
Througha close examinationof the conceptof interesttheyshow how the
was transformed
by thevisionof
elementin classicalthought
anticommercial
weremade
Americaas an expandingempireof liberty.Thus privateinterests
compatiblewith nationalpolicies favoringeconomic developmentwithout
Treatinga laterperiod,Jean
the moralappeal of republicanism.
sacrificing
North"
in theAntebellum
Bakerin "From BeliefIntoCulture:Republicanism
politicalculturedisseminatedthroughthe
carefullyexaminesthe hortatory
public schools. Her essay makes salient the conflictsexperiencedby a
and the
homogeneoussocietytornbetweenthecivic values of republicanism
to theironiccharacter
practicesof liberalizedpoliticians.Attesting
competitive
John Diggins in "Republicanismand
of all intellectualcommitments,
nevertook hold in Americaeven
Progressivism"arguesthatrepublicanism
allureas an unexercisedand probablyunexercisable
thoughit had a persistent
century.Examiningthe writingsof Theodore
optionwell intothe twentieth
Roosevelt,Croly, Wilson, Beard and Dewey, Diggins's essay exploresthe
fora moralpolitical
to finda new grounding
at theturnof thecentury
efforts
in all phases of
order,hopelesslydisorderedby an endemiccompetitiveness
Americanlife.
the
of institutionalizing
Whilemostscholarswouldagreethatthepossibility
ofthe
endedwiththeratification
civicvaluesextolledin classicalrepublicanism
these articlesgive vivid proofof the factthatthe vitalityof
Constitution,
to embarasstheprogressof
republicanideals notonlypersistedbutcontinued
liberalvaluesin America.Whatremainsto be sortedoutare thecircumstances
ofreality.
constructions
andinfluences
whichaccountfortheappealofdifferent
inchoatefeelings,
tocrystallize
ideologyfunctions
Yet tobe resolvedis whether
and Ideology
Republicanism
473
we are dealingwithideologieswhichreflect
as Bailyndescribesit, or whether
society.Is ittrue
pluralistic
choicesmadebydiversegroupsin an intellectually
that men and women must wait for a language to give voice to their
of experience?Or are purposes and-less constructivelyunderstanding
tensionsin themultiplesystemswithinwhichwe mustlive thedrivingforce
Marxsaid thatsocialcategoriescannotbe
ofnewtruths?
behindthearticulation
in thought
untiltheyhavebeenquestionedin practicewhilePocock
transcended
stressesthatmencannotdo whattheyhaveno meansofsayingtheyhavedone.22
is no
ofthetwinpossibilities
The onedoes notexcludetheother,butrecognition
consciousness
of structured
abouttherelationship
forhardthinking
substitute
Onlywhenthesequestionshavebeenaddressedwillwe
andpersonalintentions.
be able to accountforthechangesin theway menand womenthinkas well as
howtheyacteduponthosechanges.
22George
Lichtheim,
"The ConceptofIdeology,"History
and Theory,
4 (1965), 184.