Defining Noah Webster: Mind and Morals in the Early Republic

In the first decade of the twentieth century, a rising generation of British colonial administrators profoundly altered British usage of American history in imperial debates. In the process, they influenced both South African history and wider British imperial thought. Prior usage of the Revolution and Early Republic in such debates focused on the United States as a cautionary tale, warning against future ‘lost colonies’. Aided by the publication of F. S. Oliver's Alexander Hamilton (1906), administrators in South Africa used the figures of Hamilton and George Washington, the Federalist Papers, and the drafting of the Constitution as an Anglo-exceptionalist model of (modern) self-government. In doing so they applied the lessons of the Early Republic to South Africa, thereby contributing to the formation of the Union of 1910. They then brought their reconception of the United States, and their belief in the need for ‘imperial federation’, back to the metropole. There they fostered growing diplomatic ties with the US while recasting British political history in-light-of the example of American federation. This process of inter-imperial exchange culminated shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles when the Boer Generals Botha and Smuts were publicly presented as Washington and Hamilton reborn.

Download Full-text

Review: A Nation of Speechifiers: Making an American Public after the Revolution, by Carolyn Eastman, Enemyship: Democracy and Counter-Revolution in the Early Republic, by Jeremy Engels, Imagining Deliberative Democracy in the Early American Republic, by Sandra M. Gustafson, Founding Fictions, by ennifer R. Mercieca

Rhetorica A Journal of the History of Rhetoric ◽

10.1525/rh.2013.31.1.113 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 113-118

Keyword(s):

Deliberative Democracy ◽

Early Republic ◽

Early American Republic ◽

Early American ◽

The Revolution

Download Full-text

Congress Declares War: Rhetoric, Leadership, and Partisanship in the Early Republic, by Ronald L. Hatzenbuehler and Robert L. IvieCongress Declares War: Rhetoric, Leadership, and Partisanship in the Early Republic, by Ronald L. Hatzenbuehler and Robert L. Ivie. Kent, Kent State University Press, 1983. xiv, 165 pp. $19.50.

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.19.3.444 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 444-446

Author(s):

Reginald C. Stuart

Keyword(s):

Early Republic ◽

State University ◽

Kent State University ◽

War Rhetoric

Download Full-text

Building America

10.1093/oso/9780190696450.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jean H. Baker

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Early Republic ◽

Critical Role ◽

Water System ◽

The United States ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Early American ◽

Transatlantic Exchange ◽

The Us ◽

Private Homes

Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe is a biography of America’s first professionally trained architect and engineer. Born in 1764, Latrobe was raised in Moravian communities in England and Germany. His parents expected him to follow his father and brother into the ministry, but he rebelled against the church. Moved to London, he studied architecture and engineering. In 1795 he emigrated to the United States and became part of the period’s Transatlantic Exchange. Latrobe soon was famous for his neoclassical architecture, designing important buildings, including the US Capitol and Baltimore Basilica as well as private homes. Carpenters and millwrights who built structures more cheaply and less permanently than Latrobe challenged his efforts to establish architecture as a profession. Rarely during his twenty-five years in the United States was he financially secure, and when he was, he speculated on risky ventures that lost money. He declared bankruptcy in 1817 and moved to New Orleans, the sixth American city that he lived in, hoping to recoup his finances by installing a municipal water system. He died there of yellow fever in 1820. The themes that emerge in this biography are the critical role Latrobe played in the culture of the early republic through his buildings and his genius in neoclassical design. Like the nation’s political founders, Latrobe was committed to creating an exceptional nation, expressed in his case by buildings and internal improvements. Additionally, given the extensive primary sources available for this biography, an examination of his life reveals early American attitudes toward class, family, and religion.

Download Full-text

‘Importunity Which Mocked All Denial’: The Amherst Charity Fund and the Foundation of Amherst College

10.1093/oso/9780198807025.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carl I Hammer

Keyword(s):

Early Growth ◽

Historical Record ◽

Williams College ◽

Education Society ◽

Amherst College ◽

History Of ◽

Noah Webster

This chapter discusses the complex history of the Amherst Charity Fund and Amherst College, located in western Massachusetts. The story of the Charity Fund, an independent fund which financed the foundation and early growth of Amherst College through designated scholarships and loans, incorporates many elements of the larger American myth. This chapter offers an alternative story based on the surviving historical record. In particular, it draws on the accounts of Noah Webster and Rufus Graves. It also cites the founding in 1815 of the Hampshire Education Society, whose aims contrast sharply with those embraced by the trustees of Amherst Academy, and how Amherst’s history was intertwined with that of Williams College. Finally, it highlights the important roles played by such men as Pastor David Parsons and Samuel F. Dickinson.

Download Full-text