The Social Contract in America, 1774-1787: Revolutionary Theory as a Conservative Instrument

Abstract

I F the theory of the social contract were judged by its fruits, on a pragmatic test of truth, Sir Ernest Barker has written, could bring to the bar of judgment a of rich achievement.' Men have at various times acted upon the principles of the contract despite its deficiencies. Its hopelessly abstract and unhistorical qualities have not deterred them. They have employed the contract most often to justify the overthrow of one government and establishment of another, exercising the right of revolution which the theory permitted when a ruler transgressed natural law or violated the terms of the original contract.2 Primarily it is the number of such successful revolutions that constitutes the record of rich achievement. The American Revolution carried forward this tradition of putting the ideas of the contract theory into practiced Its appeal to the contract as the principal justification for armed resistance is especially familiar. What is less frequently seen is the additional use of contractual principles to explain the process of separation from