Republicanism in Old and New Contexts

Abstract

W rHAT did Americans in late eighteenth century mean when they spoke about republicanism? This is question that Lance Banning addresses in foregoing article and one that I shall explore in this companion piece requested by editor of William and Mary Quarterly. For many men-and this was primarily a male discourse-republicanism represented something new. Thus Thomas Paine in Common Sense referred to new republican materials of House of Commons on whose virtue depended freedom of England. Eight years later, Paine defined a republic as a sovereignty of justice, in contrast to a sovereignty of will.1 Writing at about same time, an angry critic denounced Philadelphia stage for insidiously fostering aristocratic values and alluded sarcastically to our present state of imaginary republican equality.2 In this man's mind, republicanism entailed reformation of social mores along democratic lines. Addressing American Philosophical Society on subject of innovative farming techniques, Timothy Matlack spoke of the great Republican Virtues of Industry and Economy.3 Here Matlack associated republicanism with private virtues and linked them to productivity. For John Adams, republicanism retained its historical connection with classical and Renaissance texts. Abigail Adams described her husband's immersion in those texts as his travelling through Itallian Republicks.4 The results of Adams's scholarly perambulations-his Defence of Constitutions of Government of United States of America-did not, however, restore pristine meaning of republicanism. We can read James Madison, an equally learned man, lamenting presence in