American Literature I Professor Cyrus R. K. Patell Lecture Nine: The American Enlightenment New York University
Names and Terms
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) John Bunyan (1628–1688), Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) perfectionism Deism Franklin, “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America” (1782) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) declaration (form of pleading in English Common Law) syllogism / erratum John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690) : possessive individualism (life, liberty, property)
Points to Remember
Benjamin Franklin
• How does Franklin reveal himself to be a man of the Enlightenment? • What does he share with Jonathan Edwards? • How is Franklin different from Edwards? What are his attitudes towards Christian religion? How does he make use of religious rhetoric? See, for example, The Way to Wealth. • How does The Way to Weatth revise Puritanism: for example: . 452, “God helps them that help themselves.”; or p. 453: “Trusting too much to others’ care is the ruin of many; for, as the Almanac says, in the affairs of this World, Men are saved, not by Faith, but by the Want of it.” • Franklin’s Autobiography: as classic statement of the American dream of material success, a paean to economic individualism and social mobility. Franklin as autodidact. • What sorts of attitudes towards individualism does Franklin seem to have?Franklin’s youthful “Want of Religion” (p. 561): how does this passage exemplify Franklin’s ironic style and subtle transformation of Calvinist doctrine? What is Franklin’s view of Deism? What use is he making of religious ideas and forms? • Augstinian nature of autobiography: as a conversion narrative, transform self into author and then character. • The Autobiography as a secular version of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1684). • Importance of reputation, appearance over reality: p. 515: “In order to secure my Credit and Character as a Tradesman …” • Franklin’s perfectionism: note use of the idea of erratum on pp. 484, 494 (Vernon’s money), 496, 499 (Miss Read), 513, 517. • P. 526: Franklin describes how he has “conceiv’d the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection.” Note his approach to virtue; for example, “Rarely use Patell / American Literature I / Lecture 9 2
Venery but for Health or Offspring: Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation.” • Franklin’s liturgy, p. 577 • How does Franklin correct errors in his actual life? How is the writing of the Autobiography itself a way of identifying and correcting error. • Franklin’s “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America” (1782):
Tolerably good workmen in any of those mechanic arts are sure to find employ, and to be well paid for their work, there being no restraints preventing strangers from exercising any art they understand, nor any permission necessary. If they are poor, they begin first as Servants or Journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal, they soon become Masters, establish themselves in Business, marry, raise Families, and become respectable Citizens. (p. 531)
Thomas Jefferson
• Later in his life, Jefferson wrote that the “object of the Declaration of Independence” was “not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent”; it was “intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.” Compare Jefferson’s original version to the version finally accepted by Congress. What do the differences between original and the revised texts tell us about the nature of American “common sense” in 1776? • The document’s strength is not its originality but its ability to forge consensus. Some of its well-known precursors: the Mecklenburg Resolves of North Carolina (May 1775); the preamble to the Virginia Constitution (adopted in June 1776); and George Mason’s Declaration of Rights for Virginia (adopted and widely circulated in the same month). • Locke’s Second Treatise of Government is a key source. Locke: life, liberty, property. Jefferson: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. • The power of the Declaration’s rhetoric is the aura of inevitability that characterizes both its language and its form of argumentation. • The Declaration takes the form of a syllogism, a form of logical argument in which a conclusion is supported by two premises: the major premise contains the term (major term) that is the predicate of the conclusion; the minor premise contains the term (minor term) that is the subject of the conclusion. Common to both is a middle term that is excluded from the conclusion. A common from is: “All A is C; all B is A; therefore, all B is C.” • In the Declaration, the syllogism works this way:
Major premise: A people have the right to overthrow a tyrannical and destructive government. Minor premise: The British government under King George is such a tyrannical and Patell / American Literature I / Lecture 9 3
destructive government. Conclusion: The people of the American colonies have no choice but to overthrow the British government
Jefferson stresses the minor premise in the document and further focuses his charges of abuse on the person of the King. By focusing its “long train of abuses and usurpations” on the king himself, the Declaration avoids either using the vocabulary of rebellion or taking part in existing debates over the proper jurisdiction of parliament and thus glosses over some troubling complexities. Part of the self- confidence of the Declaration can be seen in what it decides not to talk about.
• Essentially the declaration casts the colonists as plaintiffs and the king as defendant; it thus implicitly asserts that the colonists stand on equal footing with the king, thus ennobling them. • The Declaration is part of a a tradition that includes the English Petition of Right of 1628 (a demand of the House of Commons declaring essential rights and sent directly to Charles I) and the Bill of Rights of 1689 (a similar act that declares the rights and liberties of English subjects after a listing of evils under James II). All three documents are declarations, the only form of legal pleading that can be brought before a king. • For a more detailed discussion of the Declaration’s rhetoric and its place within English legal traditions, see Robert A. Ferguson, “The American Enlightenment,” in The Cambridge History of American Literature, Volume 1, ed. Sacvan Bercovitch.
FOR FURTHER THOUGHT:
Thomas Jefferson on Race and Slavery
• Jefferson was opposed to slavery, but believed that one of the main obstacles to abolition was the belief that there were inherent racial differences between whites and blacks that would prevent them from living together peacefully. • In his Notes on the Present State of Virginia (1781-82), Jefferson discusses some of these supposed differences. His views may be seen as an example of the way in which ideology and cultural context can hem in even the most critical and rigorous of minds. Or, it might be seen as a demonstration that despite their ostensible universality, the principles of the Enlightenment secretly depend on relations of domination, an idea we will explore further next week. • Jefferson favored the abolition of slavery and the subsequent deportation of freed blacks to Africa.
Today’s Song
Thomas Dolby, “She Blinded Me with Science” “Children of the Revolution” by T. Rex, performed by Bono, Gavin Friday, and Maurice Seezer” Patti Smith, “Ravens” Patell / American Literature I / Lecture 9 4