THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

 

In an age where there was no photography, no television, and no mass media to bombard the American people then, with sense impressions of what Lexington and Valley Forge and Yorktown must have been like, Lincoln in his attempt to define the legacy of the American Revolutionary War, used the memories of the remaining old men to make tangible the remembrances of this historic event.   Lincoln provocatively asked whether, in the long run, the war, except for its obviously crucial outcome made any real difference? Or had its effects faded quickly after the fighting had stopped in 1783? (Basler, et. Al, 1953)

Historians have suggested two contradictory conclusions: one is that the important effects of the war are too obvious to need discussion: and the other is that the war itself, as contrasted with its outcome, was actually not very important.  This study bodes closer to the former conclusion as it explores three interrelated arguments assessing the political legacy of such revolution.

The first argument finds its setting on November 25, 1783, during the public dinner hosted by Governor George Clinton of New York where George Washington and his generals were present. After dinner, they raised thirteen toasts, three of which touched on the cause of liberty in the world (Hastings, 1914). 

The international character of the Revolution, as invoked by the toasts, was underscored by other Revolutionary Americans like Thomas Paine who declared in Common Sense, that "the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind" and that "we...have it in our power to begin the world over again."  (Foner, 1945). Thomas Jefferson struck much the same note: "We feel that we are acting under obligations not confined to the limits of our own society. It is impossible not to be sensible that we are acting for all mankind." (Lipscomb & Bergh, 1904) This leads us to the first argument of this study which states that the Revolutionary Americans inspired oppressed people abroad to follow their example and eventually rise up against repressive regimes. The colonists regarded their campaign against British imperial policies as an episode in the   struggles between liberty and tyranny, then under way in different countries worldwide, like Ireland, Scotland, Spain, France, Turkey, Poland, Corsica, England, and Russia.

One important contribution of the American Revolution was the invention of the "constitutional convention" as the means of making, unmaking, and remaking a written constitution, a method which had never before been tried by any other nation. The resultant constitution, embodying the sovereignty of the people, created and defined the powers of government and spelled out the "inalienable" rights of the people. The governments emerging from the constitutional conventions were hamstrung with checks, balances, restrictions, and prohibitions, while the rights and liberty of the people were jealously guarded. Having escaped from "a long train of abuses and usurpations" by the British government and impressed with the prevalence of European autocracy, the Americans were determined to make their government limited and moderate.   The second argument posited by this study states that the Revolutionary Americans took theoretical republican ideas out of its ivory tower and turned them into an effective revolutionary instrument and a workable governmental institution.

Related to the second argument is the observation that the Revolutionary Americans feared power, regardless of where it was located and who wielded it, because they understood the inevitable tendency of its possessor to abuse it. The most dramatic illustration of this fear of power was the incorporation into the new state constitutions of various bills of rights, giving such things as religious toleration, freedom of press and assembly, freedom of person under the protection of habeas corpus, and trial by juries, and subordination of the military to the civilian authority.  Using this train of thought, the study wants to argue (third argument) that, in the hands of the Revolutionary generation, the fear of power was made into an innovative force of liberty that aided in the transformation from British rule to independence and from the state constitutions to the federal system.

These political legacies of the American Revolution are still very relevant in this day and age, in a world where tyranny (which finds its guise in terrorism), still grips the world in ways which are more dangerous than what happened over 300 years ago.  This study aims to point out that these three chosen arguments illustrate some of the more enlightening lessons from the American Revolution.

References:

 

Basler, Roy P. ed., et al. 1953. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols.  New Brunswick, N.J.

 

Foner, Philip S. (1945). The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine. 2 vols.

 

Gerlach, Larry R., Dolph, James A., Nicholls, Michael L. (1978). Legacies of the American Revolution Utah State University Press: Logan, UT

 

Hastings, Hugh ed., (1914). Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777-1795, 1801-1804, 10 vols. New York and Albany.

 

Lipscomb, Andrew A. & Bergh, A.L. eds. (1904). Jefferson to Joseph Priestly, June 19, 1802, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 20 vols. Washington, D.C.