American Exceptionalism Vol 2

Timothy Roberts

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138750098
• eBook ISBN: 9781351576871
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

American exceptionalism the idea that America is fundamentally distinct from other nations is a philosophy that has dominated economics, politics, religion and culture for two centuries. This collection of primary source material seeks to understand how this belief began, how it developed and why it remains popular.

EDITORIAL NOTES

Comte de Mirabeau, Reflections on the Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution

1. discord ever be scattered among these nations of brethren: Proverbs 6:19.

2. the respectable writer of the ‘Observations on the Importance of the Amer. Rev’: Richard Price. See headnote.

3. libertatem deperibant, utpote sanguine partam: loved freedom, as much as blood.

4. It must be trusted… with a power … for discharging them: from R. Price, ‘Of the Importance of the Revolution which has Established the Independency of the United States’, in B. Peach (ed.), Richard Price and the Ethical Foundations of the American Revolution (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1979), p. 188.

5. The security that an Englishmenformerly had … act of impoverishing their constituents: not identified.

6. The actual debt of the united states is computed to amount to nine millions sterling: The total national debt in 1786 was $42,000,325. J. B. McMaster, History of the People of the United States, 8 vols (New York: Appleton, 1920), vol. 1, p. 356.

7. pater-familias: father of the family.

8. It is the birthright of an Englishman not to be taxed … already wounded, perhaps beyond cure?: from W. Meredith, Political letters, written in March and April M.DCC.LXXXIV (London: John Stockdale, 1785), pp. 78–81.

9. DEUS, ETIAM SI DEUS VOLUIT, SERVARE REMPUBLICAM NON POTEST: God, although he is God, cannot protect the state.

10. immortal Turgot: Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune (1727–81) was an early advocate of economic liberalism. His Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth (1776) argued that land is the only source of wealth, that only the net product of land should be taxed, and that commerce and industry should be unregulated and unprotected. Turgot supported the American Revolution but believed that the new US federal and state governments too closely resembled the British mixed government model. He wrote to Richard Price in 1778 that Americans erroneously acted ‘as if the same equilibrium of powers which has been thought to balance the enormous preponderance of royalty, could be of any use in republics, formed upon the equality of all the citizens’. Price included this letter in Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution. Quoted in G. Wood, Creation of the American Republic: 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), p. 236.

[Dwight], ‘An Essay on American Genius’

1. The learned Jefferson, in his excellent ‘notes on Virginia … to America, deserve republication: Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) responded to questions about Virginia, posed to him in 1780 by Francois Barbe-Marbois, then Secretary of the French delegation in Philadelphia. Jefferson used the book to argue with the propositions of French philosophes Guillaume Thomas Francois Raynal (1711–96) and Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–88), who in Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements des Europeens dans les Deux Indes (1770) and Histoire Naturelle (1749–89), respectively, deprecated America as a place of natural and moral degeneracy.

2. ‘The History of the Revolution in the Southen States’, written by Doctor RAMSAY of South-Carolina: probably D. Ramsay, History of the Revolution of South Carolina, 2 vols (Trenton: Isaac Collins, 1785).

3. desideratum: something highly longed for.

4. the famous Cartoons of Raphael: The Raphael Cartoons are seven large cartoons for tapestries, belonging to the British Royal Collection, painted by the Renaissance painter Raphael in 1515–16 and showing scenes from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

5. Mr. West of Philadelphia … a set of sacred paintings for the king’s chapel at Windsor: Benjamin West (1738–1820). Works are Death of General Wolfe, 1770, and Departure of Regulus, 1769. In 1772 King George III appointed West Royal Historical Painter, and in 1779 West was commissioned to paint thirty biblical scenes illustrating the theme of ‘Revealed Religion’ for the St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The project was partly completed before funding was cut off in 1810.

6. Mr. Copley, of Boston, in the same walk of genius … the floating batteries at Gibraltar: John Singleton Copley (1738–1815). Works are Death of the Earl of Chatham, 1779; Brook Watson and the Shark, 1778; Death of Major Pierson, 1784; and Siege and Relief of Gibraltar, 1810 (commissioned by the City of London 1783).

7. Mr. John Trumbull, of Connecticut ..from the specimen he has already given in the battle of Bunker-Hill and the death of Montgomery: John Trumbull (1756–1843). Works are Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775 (1786); and Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, 1775 (1786).

8. Mr. Taylor, of Philadelphia, in landscape; Mr. Steward, of Rhode-Island, and Mr. Brown, of Boston, in portrait painting: possibly John Taylor (c. 1745–1806), Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (1755–1828), Mather Brown (1761–1831).

9. Mr. Barlow: Joel Barlow (1754–1812).

10. Proud Albion’s sons: British military forces.

11. For daring DWIGHT: Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), whose 1785 poem Conquest of Canaan, an attempt to make an Iliad out of the Old Testament, is considered to be the first American epic poem.

12. Hanniel’s fate: Hanniel was a son of Ephod, who was appointed by Moses to help divide the land among several Israelite tribes. Numbers 34:23.

13. Ai’s midnight flames: Ai was a Canaanite royal city conquered by Joshua through luring its defenders away from the city’s walls then sending Israelite soldiers in to set the city on fire. Joshua 8:3–13.

14. On glory’s wing … so great a son: J. Barlow, Vision of Columbus: A Poem in Nine Books (Hartford, CT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1787), VII:331–70.

Dwight, A Discourse on Some Events of the Last Century

1. in the days of old and the years of preceding generations: Deuteronomy 32:7, which reads, ‘Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations.’

2. to praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men: Psalm 107:31.

3. a work of Cluverius, a Dutch Geographer, and was published in 1697: Philipp Clüverius (1580–1622), an early modern geographer, whose Introductionis in Universam Geographiam, first published 1624, became a standard geography textbook.

4. Heylin, a British Geographer, and was published in 1703: Peter Heylin or Heylyn (1599–1662), an ecclesiastic and geographer who incorporated political concepts into his books. His Cosmographie of 1657 attempted to describe every aspect of the known world in 1652, and likely had the first description in print of Australia, and perhaps of California, Terra del Fuego, and other territories in the New World. DNB.

5. Reiskius, one of his annotators: Johann Jakob Reiske (1716–74), a German scholar of Arab philology.

6. BUNO, another annotator on the same writer: Conrad Buno (1613–71), a German copperplate engraver and cartographer, prepared a set of maps for a 1641 edition of Philipp Cluver’s Introductio in Universam Geographicam, with text written by his brother Johann Bruno (1617–97).

7. acknowledged law of the European nations: E. de Vattel, The Law of Nations (1758).

8. from the time of Clovis: Clovis (466–511), the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, and the first Catholic ruler of Gaul.

9. He hath not dealt so with any nation: Psalm 147:20.

10. the seminary of science: Yale College, established 1701.

11. the war, which began in 1755: The Seven Years’ War, known among British North Americans as the French and Indian War.

12. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world … lest his deeds should be reproved: John 3:19–20.

13. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh … as they were from the beginning of the creation: 2 Peter 2:18–19, 3:4.

14. authors of vain and deceitful philosophy … wretched of all slaves, the slaves of corruption: Colossians 2:8, 2 Peter 3:3, 2 Peter 2:19.

15. the mines of Golconda are ransacked … mountains of Potosi transported across the ocean: Golkonda, near modern Hyderabad, India, was the capital of a sixteenth-century Persian kingdom the Qutb Shahi dynasty. Mines surrounding the city yielded many diamonds, including the Hope Diamond. Zacatecas, Mexico, and Potosi, Bolivia, among other sites, after discovery of silver there, produced vast wealth for the Spanish Empire.

16. ‘the iron rod of the oppressor was broken, and that ‘the oppressed would soon be universally set free: Isaiah 9:4, 58:6.

17. the bull Unigenitus had thrown this kingdom into a flame: Unigenitus was a papal bull of Pope Clement XI that condemned practices of the French Catholic Church, which Jesuit critics referred to as Jansenism, named for a Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen. These included the writings of a French theologian Pasquier Quesnel who in Morality of the Gospel, Abridged (1671) emphasized human depravity, the necessity and irresistibility of divine grace, predestination and church restriction to the elect, and the necessity for all to read the Bible, and criticized Jesuit immorality. The French clergy divided over whether to accept Unigenitus until the late eighteenth century.

18. a wilderness, where there is no way: Job 12:24.

19. Voltaire: Francois-Marie Arouet, pen name Voltaire (1694–1778), prolific writer of Enlightened books and pamphlets advocating civil liberties and separation of church and state.

20. a Bastile: The Paris fortress Bastille was a state prison used by the kings of France until stormed 14 July 1789 during the French Revolution, becoming an im...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• American Exceptionalism
• copy
• Contents
• Introduction
• Honore Gabriel de Riquetti, comte de Mirabeau, Reflections on the Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, trans. Richard Price (1786)
• Timothy Dwight, Search for Cultural and International Security
• James Tilton, ‘An Oration, Pronounced on the 5th of July, 1790’, Columbian Magazine or Monthly Miscellany (1790)
• Elhanan Winchester, An Oration on the Discovery of America (1792)
• Thomas Barnard, Thanksgiving Sermon (1795)
• Morgan John Rhees, The Good Samaritan (1796)
• Abiel Holmes, Two Discourses, on the Completion of the Second Century from the Landing of the Forefathers of New England at Plymouth (1821)
• Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of Louisiana (1845)
• Catholicism in the Early United States
• Southern Quarterly Review
• William Stiles, Address Delivered before the Georgia Democratic State Convention (1856)
• George Washington Williams, The American Negro (1876)
• Alpheus H. Snow, ‘Colony’,-or ‘Free State’? ‘Dependence’,-or ‘Just Connection’? ’Empire’,-or ‘Union’? (1907)
• Editorial Notes