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Affairs of State, Affairs of Home: Print and Patriarchy in Pennsylvania, 1776-1844

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Affairs of State, Affairs of Home: Print and Patriarchy in Pennsylvania, 1776-1844 Affairs of State, Affairs of Home: Print and Patriarchy in Pennsylvania, 1776-1844 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Emily J. Arendt Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Professor John L. Brooke, Advisor Professor Joan Cashin Professor Judy Wu Copyright by Emily Jane Arendt 2014 Abstract This dissertation is a cultural and intellectual history of patriarchy in Pennsylvania from the American Revolution through the beginning of the Civil War. The erosion of patriarchal control in the years following the American Revolution only occurred when social obedience to perceived superiors became less important than personal obedience to moral conscience. The process by which some Pennsylvanians' mentalities changed, measured by linguistic shifts in Pennsylvania's print culture, occurred slowly and unevenly over the first seventy years of the state's existence. The language of the American Revolution was distinctly anti-patriarchal: colonists denounced the king's longstanding role as father of his people and encouraged Americans to think about duty and obligation in terms of reciprocity. Love of country and love of family were the highest duties and patriarchal authority was given rhetorical short shrift during this era. By the 1790s, however, consensus unraveled amidst torrid partisan fighting. Debates about familial authority mirrored political debates over tyranny and authority with no clear consensus. Although some painted familial relationships as sentimental and reciprocal, many authors continued to promote hierarchical or antagonistic familial paradigms. In both cases discussions about family intimately attached to broader themes of social control in the new nation. The language of brotherhood provided the most salient conceptualization of how political society was ii rhetorically linked to the family. While this language helped to dismantle some of the lingering obligations of paternal patriarchy, it retrenched conjugal patriarchy as consenting men in civil society continued to exercise complete control over their female dependents in the private realm. Throughout the nineteenth century, the language of duty tracked the political debates of the era and mapped onto partisan conflicts at both the state and national level. Although the establishment of universal male suffrage—and the imagining of the embodied male, martial citizen as morally autonomous—all but rendered the patriarchal model of governance obsolete, the question of patriarchy within the household lingered as a model of Democratic-Republican motherhood emerged. It was not until the Second Great Awakening that some began to think differently about interpersonal relationships and the treatment of all humans more generally. Duty and obligation in the new revival mindset no longer related to social station but instead to individual moral autonomy. Rather than being obligated to one's superiors, an autonomous individual owed obedience to God and had the duty to fulfill their own sense of moral dictates. The language of affection, as seen in the discourse of Christian love, allowed room for women to exercise moral autonomy and situated their duty within an individualized framework that worked against absolute patriarchal control within the home. Although Democrats maintained a patriarchal household, radicals and Whigs explored other familial dynamics. For at least some Americans, the 1830s and 1840s were transformative in remapping what obligation and authority meant in both political and personal terms. Although these years created iii the language and frameworks for questioning all forms of patriarchy, they failed to render it completely obsolete. iv For my Kai. v Acknowledgments I am fully indebted to many colleagues, mentors, friends, and family whose patience and guidance have facilitated the completion of this project. Thanks to John Brooke, who has been the perfect example of what an advisor should be. Also, huge thanks to the rest of my committee and other interested faculty I had the good fortune to work with at The Ohio State University. These scholars have helped hone my thinking, writing, and researching skills over the years, especially Joan Cashin, Alan Gallay, Margaret Newell, Judy Wu. To my colleagues Mark Boonshoft and Cameron Shriver I owe an especial debt of gratitude for their relentless willingness to read and comment on my work—and of course drink PBRs all the while. Last but not least, special shout-outs to my VIPs: my family who put up with me as I struggled through another graduate degree. Mom and Dad, you are simply the best. And Kai, you are perfect. Thanks for keeping your otherwise insane, workaholic mom grounded. vi Vita 2007................................................................B.A. History, University of Wyoming 2009................................................................M.A. History, University of Wyoming 2010 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University Publications “‘Ladies Going About for Money’: Female Voluntary Associations and Civic Consciousness in the American Revolution,” Journal of the Early Republic (Summer 2014) “The Wyoming Experiment and the Case for Practical Propaganda,” Annals of Wyoming: The Wyoming History Journal (Winter 2009) Fields of Study Major Field: History vii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication. .......................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi Vita .................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. viii List of Charts...................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The American Revolution and the American Political Family ....................... 17 Chapter 2: Fathers, Sons, and Brothers: Partisan Debates and Parental Politics .............. 67 Chapter 3. Political Families Reunited: Gender, Politics, and Patriotism ...................... 112 Chapter 4: Expansion, Authority, And Ardor: The Politics of Love, 1815-1828 ........... 165 Chapter 5: Masonic Menaces and Whig Women: The Second Party System and Antebellum Familial Politics .......................................................................................... 224 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 281 Appendix: Early American Newspaper Data .................................................................. 330 viii List of Charts Chart 1. Newspapers: Values and Family Language, 1776-1860 .................................... 11 Chart 2. Newspapers: Fraternal and Paternal Language, 1776-1790............................... 45 Chart 3. Newspapers: Fraternal and Paternal Language, 1770-1800............................... 89 Chart 4. Newspapers: Fraternal and Paternal Language, 1798-1816............................. 130 Chart 5. Newspapers: Fraternal language, 1822-1845 ................................................... 240 Chart 6. Newspapers: All Familial and Emotional Language, 1820-1834 .................... 265 ix List of Figures Figure 1. The title page for Francis Bailey's 1779 Lancaster Almanack ........................ 38 Figure 2. Poor Will's Almanac for 1825 (Philadelphia: J. Rakestraw, 1824). ............... 203 Figure 3. Pennsylvania Agricultural Almanac for 1824 (Lancaster, PA: William Albright, 1823). ............................................................................................................... 204 x Introduction In 1844, scores of Pennsylvanians gathered at Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia to attend the unveiling of a portrait of Henry Clay. This affair, bringing together high culture and politics, "was thronged with thousands, and many ladies" whose "Whig spirit was fully aroused." The event opened with stirring verses of pro-Clay songs and speeches, all done with the approbation of the nation's "fair country women—so many of whom were present to cheer by their smiles, and aid by their countenance." The most noted orator of the evening, Joseph G. Clarkson, made repeated reference to the attendance of so many women and analyzed the political and historical significance of female participation. Men, he noted, "generally thought as the women wished—man governed the world, while woman governed man." The magnificence of American women, he elaborated, stemmed from the era of the American Revolution when women "managed to take part in that glorious struggle, by confronting and encouraging their fathers, husbands, and brothers—without unsexing themselves, or departing from
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