Transcript Conservative Movements: 19 th Century (Founding

Conservative Movements
From the Colonial Period to the Civil War
Lecture 3
May 18
Colonial Period
Puritans
The Reformation in England (1530s)
Migration to America (1610-1620)
Expansion throughout New England
Conservative Character of Puritans
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Higher Law
Human Nature
Community-Culture
Civic Duty
Vocation
Leading Puritan writers:
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John Winthrop
John Cotton
Nathaniel Ward
John Eliot
among others
Instances of Conservatism:
1) Witch Trials
More info
2) Opposition to Independence from England
The Revolution
Loyalists
Revolutionaries
Conservative Character of
Loyalists & Revolutionaries
The Effects of Change on:
- Order
- Prosperity
- Culture
- Life, Liberty and Property
Leading Loyalist writers:
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Joseph Galloway
Samuel Seabury
William Franklin
Thomas Hutchinson
Famous quote:
• Samuel Seabury wrote, "If I must be
enslaved let it be by a King at least, and not
by a parcel of upstart lawless
Committeemen."
Leading Revolutionary writers:
• John Adams
• George Washington
The Founding
• Federalists
• Successful Independence from Britain
• Failure of the Articles
To promote prosperity
To promote order
To provide security
• Shay’s Rebellion (1786-1787)
Conservative Character of
the Federalists
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Suspicion of Human Nature
Limited Government
Order and Safety
Protect Property
Protect certain institutions
Opposition to Bill of Rights
Leading Federalist writers
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James Madison
John Adams
Alexander Hamilton
John Marshall
John Marshall’s Conservative Legacy
• Judicial Legacy
Property Rights
Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Dartmouth College vs. Woodward (1819)
Judicial Review
Marbury vs. Madison (1803)
Federalism
Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824)
McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819)
Some quotes:
“The utility of the UNION to your political
prosperity -- The insufficiency of the present
Confederation to preserve that Union The
additional security which its adoption will
afford to the preservation of that species of
government, to liberty, and to property.”
Alexander Hamilton Federalist 1
Some quotes:
“God Almighty has decreed in the creation of
human nature an eternal aristocracy among
men. The world is, always has been and ever
will be governed by it”
John Adams
Some quotes:
“If men were angels, no government would
be necessary. If angels were to govern
men, neither external nor internal controls
on government would be necessary.”
James Madison
Federalist 51
Important tradeoffs:
Titles of Nobility
Provision of Representation
No-Property Qualifications for Federal
office holdings.
New States eq. to older
No Religious Test
Bill of Rights
The Whig Party
• Lack of an Opposition Party
• Opposition to Jackson’s policies:
Universal Suffrage
“Manifest Destiny”
The Conservative Character of
the Whig Party
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Support for Modernization (Capitalism)
Against Universal Suffrage
Avoided discussion of Slavery (status quo)
Weak coalition that had three major
conservative groups:
Nativists
Moralists
**Gave birth to the Republican, Constitutional
Union and Know-Nothings Party
Famous quote:
“Universal suffrage, for example, could not long exist in a
community where there was great inequality of property. In
the nature of things, those who have not property, and see
their neighbors possess much more than they think them to
need, cannot be favorable to laws made for the protection of
property. When this class becomes numerous, it grows
clamorous. It looks on property as its prey and plunder, and
is naturally ready, at all times, for violence and revolution.”
Daniel Webster First Settlement of New England 1820
The Road to the Civil War
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Conserving the Union
The Southern Tradition
Human Nature
Origin of Inequality
Institution of Slavery
Leading Conservative Writers
• John C. Calhoun
• George Fitzhugh
Famous quote:
“The Southern States are an aggregate, in fact,
communities, not of individuals. Every plantation
is a little community, with the master at its head,
who concentrates in himself the united interests of
capital and labor., of which he is the common
representative. […] Hence the harmony, the union,
the stability of that section.”
John Calhoun