This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The End of the Scottish Enlightenment in its Transatlantic Context: Moral education in the thought of Dugald Stewart and Samuel Stanhope Smith, 1790-1812 Charles Bradford Bow School of History, Classics & Archaeology University of Edinburgh Submitted by Charles Bradford Bow for the degree of PhD in the University of Edinburgh, 19th March 2012 ! ""! Abstract The thesis explores the history of the Scottish Enlightenment in its transatlantic context and, in particular, the diffusion of Scottish Enlightenment moral philosophy in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Scotland and the United States. This project is the first full-scale attempt to examine the tensions between late eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment intellectual culture and counter-Enlightenment interests in the Atlantic World. My comparative study focuses on two of the most influential university educators in Scotland and the newly-founded United States. These are Dugald Stewart at the University of Edinburgh and Samuel Stanhope Smith at the College of New Jersey (which later became Princeton University). Stewart and Smith are ideal for a transatlantic comparative project of this kind, because of their close parallels as moral philosophy professors at the University of Edinburgh (1785-1810) and the College of New Jersey (1779-1812) respectively; their conflicts with ecclesiastical factions and counter-Enlightenment policies in the first decade of the nineteenth century; and finally their uses and adaptations of Scottish Enlightenment moral philosophy. The broader question I address is how the diffusion and fate of Scottish Enlightenment moral thought was affected by the different institutional and, above all, religious contexts in which it was taught. Dugald Stewart’s and Stanhope Smith’s interpretations of central philosophical themes reflected their desire to improve the state of society by educating enlightened and virtuous young men who would later enter careers in public life. In doing so, their teaching of natural religion and metaphysics brought them into conflict with religious factions, namely American religious revivalists on Princeton’s Board of Trustees and members of the Scottish ecclesiastical Moderate party, who believed that revealed religion should provide the foundation of education. The controversies that emerged from these tensions did not develop in an intellectual vacuum. My research illustrates how the American and Scottish reception of the French Revolution; the 1793-1802 Scottish Sedition Trials; Scottish and American ‘polite’ culture; Scottish secular and ecclesiastical politics; American Federalist and Republican political debates; American student riots between 1800 and 1807; and American religious revivalism affected Smith’s and Stewart’s programmes of moral education. While I identify this project as an example of cultural and intellectual history, it also advances interests in the history of education, ecclesiastical history, transnational history, and comparative history. The thesis has two main parts. The first consists of three chapters on Dugald Stewart’s system of moral education: the circumstances in which Stewart developed his moral education as a modern version of Thomas Reid’s so-called Common Sense philosophy, Stewart’s applied ethics, and finally, his defence of the Scottish Enlightenment in the context of the 1805 John Leslie case. Complementing the chronology and themes in part one, the second part consists of three chapters on Smith’s programme of moral education: the circumstances that gave rise to Smith’s creation of the Princeton Enlightenment, Smith’s applied ethics, and finally, Smith’s defence of his system of moral education in the contexts of what he saw as two converging counter- Enlightenment factions (religious revivalists and rebellious students) at Princeton. In examining these areas, I argue that Dugald Stewart and Samuel Stanhope Smith attempted to systematically sustain Scottish Enlightenment ideas (namely Scottish philosophy) and values (‘Moderatism’) against counter-Enlightenment movements in higher education. ! """! Declarations I, Charles Bradford Bow, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 88,681 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. The ideas developed in part two of this thesis has appeared, with my supervisors’ approval, in my article, ‘Samuel Stanhope Smith and Common Sense Philosophy at Princeton’, Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 8:2, (September 2010): 189- 209. Signature_______________________________________________________ Charles Bradford Bow ! "#! Table of Contents Abstract ii Declarations iii Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Defining the Scottish Enlightenment in the Atlantic World: methodology, historiography, and Thomas Reid’s Common Sense philosophy Part 1: Dugald Stewart and the Scottish Counter-Enlightenment Chapter One 33 Building Upon Reid’s Legacy: Dugald Stewart’s programme of moral education, 1790-1802 Chapter Two 66 The Science of Applied Ethics in Scottish ‘Polite’ Society: Dugald Stewart on the ‘auxiliary principles of the moral faculty’ Chapter Three 99 In Defence of the Scottish Enlightenment: Dugald Stewart’s role in the 1805 John Leslie Affair Part Two: Samuel Stanhope Smith and the Princeton Enlightenment Chapter Four 137 Creating Enlightenment at Princeton: Samuel Stanhope Smith’s programme of moral education, 1790-1805 Chapter Five 172 The Primacy of the Mind at Princeton: Samuel Stanhope Smith on the ‘rules of duty’ ! #! Chapter Six 206 Princeton’s War of 1812: Student riots, religious revivalism, and the end of Samuel Stanhope Smith’s system of moral education Conclusion 245 Reflections on the Scottish Enlightenment in the Atlantic World Epilogue 253 Bridging Tradition and Modernity: James McCosh at Princeton, 1868-1888 Bibliography 264 Appendix 293 Charles Bradford Bow, ‘Samuel Stanhope Smith and Common Sense Philosophy at Princeton’, The Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 8:2, (September 2010): 189-209. ! #"! Acknowledgements The completion of this project owes a debt of gratitude to the help and support of many people. My first thanks goes to my supervisors, Dr Thomas Ahnert and Professor Francis Cogliano, whose intellectual guidance, gentle criticism and unwavering support greatly assisted every stage of this study. For this, I shall always be appreciative of their considerable help. I am grateful for Professor Susan Manning and Dr Alexander Murdoch’s excellent suggestions in reading my early draft chapters and my enlightening conversations with Professor Paul Wood, Professor Nicholas Phillipson, Professor M.A. Stewart, Professor Cairns Craig, Professor Gordon Graham, Professor Alexander Broadie, Professor John Wright, and Professor Jane Rendall. I also benefited from Trent Orme’s generous reading and thoughtful comments of my many draft chapters. Thanks are also due to the School of History, Classics & Archaeology for awarding me two McMillan scholarships, the Jeremiah Dalziel Prize and its support in my attendance of conferences. I would also like to thank the University of Edinburgh for awarding me the American Friends of the University of Edinburgh Scholarship in my first year of study. I take this opportunity to thank the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities, the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, and Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society for their support of my projects and research. I would also like to thank the assistance by the staff at Seeley Mud Manuscript Library at Princeton University; Special Collections, Princeton University Library; Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library; and Special Collections, University of Glasgow. Above all, I am and forever will be grateful for my family’s encouragement and patience with my academic endeavors. If not for the selfless support of my wife Nicole and daughters Ashton and Harper, this work would not have been possible. ! #""! Abbreviations AUP Aberdeen University Press CCSE Alexander Broadie (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Cockburn, Memorials Henry Cockburn, Memorials of His Time, two volumes, (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1856). CU Richard Sher, Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Moderate Literati of Edinburgh, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985). CUP Cambridge University Press EUL Edinburgh University Library EUP Edinburgh University Press FM ‘Resolves and Minutes of Faculty’, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton