Neither Separate nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s

Abstract

Neither Separate nor Equal: Congress in 1790s. Edited by Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000. Illustrations. Pp. xi, 344. $44.95.) This volume, second in series Perspectives on History of Congress, 1789-1801, contains essays first presented at United States Capitol Historical Society conferences in 1995 and 1996. work, which is divided into three sections, offers findings of heterogeneous group of independent, public, and academic scholars, including several editors of documentary history or papers projects. volume's title is somewhat misleading. Neither Separate nor Equal: Congress in 1790s provides diverse fare and is not as tightly focused as its title suggests. Kenneth R. Bowling and Anne Coxe Toogood offer essays on The Physical and Social Context. Discussing late 1790 into March 1791, Bowling shows that Philadelphians, in futile effort to retain capitol, labored to erase their city's image as culturally stodgy. Utilizing decidedly top-down approach, Bowling documents expansion of Philadelphia's genteel amusements. Toogood, whose praise of Philadelphia's social reforms smacks of boosterism, also emphasizes that Philadelphians wanted their city to remain nation's capitol. With impressive detail, some dealing with less powerful elements of society, she describes State House Square as the epicenter of cultural ferment and federal (37). Four authors provide instructive miniature biographies in The Social and Political Lives of Members in Philadelphia. John D. Gordan III demonstrates that Egbert Benson, who served in Congress from 1789 to 1793 but is hardly remembered (63) today, based his political actions, including accommodation to slavery, on unyielding commitment to establishing and supporting an invigorated national government (87). Mary A. Giunta considers those who opposed powerful national government. Investigating Congressman William Branch Giles's work on the front line of political battle(139) in 1790s, she stresses that this Virginian was a leader of opposition (154) who strove to promote South's sectional interests and protect states' rights by advocating strict construction of Constitution. As she assesses growing political animosity between Federalists and Republicans, Giunta emphasizes the defining debates on Jay Treaty (144). Elizabeth Miles Nuxoll shows that, in his 1789-1795 Senate career, Robert Morris championed issues and nationalism that had marked his tenure as superintendent of finance. She also devotes considerable effort to challenging-and successfully so-Gordon Wood's depiction of Morris as having turned his back on pursuit of wealth in effort to become republican aristocrat. William C. diGiacomantonio studies Sarah Thatcher, 1787-1792, as Congressional Wife at Home on Maine frontier. He rightly maintains that letters between members of Congress and their spouses are vital sources for understanding interpersonal arrangements that, in Sarah's case, supposedly made her a congressional partner in every sense worthy of term (180). Unfortunately, only extant letters Sarah and George Thatcher exchanged are those he sent; therefore, Sarah's thoughts, when they appear, come through filter of George's responses. To deal with problem, diGiacomantonio makes extensive use of other sources, especially Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's classic, A Midwife's Tale: Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990), to reconstruct inferentially Sarah's life at home (164). result is essay that, though informative, is bothersomely characterized by repeated use of might have or may have. …