Executing Character: Of Sympathy, Self-Construction and Adam Smith, in Early America, 1716-1826 by KRISTIN A. COOK Doctor of Philosophy English Literature The University of Edinburgh 2011 Cook 2 ABSTRACT This PhD thesis asks the following question: how does Adam Smith’s moral sense philosophy, particularly his notion of sympathy, as articulated through his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (delivered 1762-63), rationally and relationally inform an understanding of socio-political character in Early America? Prioritising the American Revolutionary period, broadly marked by the years 1716 and 1826 (introduced by the opening of the first theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia), my analysis employs Smith’s theory as a rhetorical device for understanding discursive fields of human interconnection, wherein “sensible” selves are being rationally constructed and theatrically conceived. I read the culture of sensibility and the language of sentiment as underpinning legal and logical intellectual development within this context (drawing upon scholarship by Andrew Burstein, Gary Wills, Sarah Knott and Nicole Eustace in this regard), where sympathy is foregrounded as one particular aspect of sensible self-construction. I understand the sensible self within this environment as a conceit that is always already theatrically informed and performed: this character is ever responsive to surrounding audiences and ‘interpretive communities’ (à la Stanley Fish, and Rhys Isaac in his dramaturgic and ethnographic approach to The Transformation of Virginia), and is bound up in underlying rhetorics of costume, composition and comportment (engaging with Jay Fliegelman’s study concerning the performative underpinnings of American Independence: Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Natural Language, & the Culture of Performance). I develop this thesis through the course of four illustrative case studies wherein sensible American characters (in principle) and American characters (in fact) are standing trial. With respect to these, I enact a series of rhetorical executions, engaging with Adam Smith’s notion of sympathy—which is itself theatrically informed—alternately as follows: as a dialogue of conviction; as a grammar of œconomy; as a translative rhetoric of passage; and as a rhetorical conceit of logic and law. Each study depicts a different historical narrative relative to specific modes of sensible self-construction and “transformative” character development, and I treat each scenario with the same tool in order to effectively delineate and examine the original point. This approach is timely insofar as it qualifies Jonathan Lamb’s investigation into The Evolution of Sympathy during the Long Eighteenth Century (2009): it usefully extends Lamb’s work on sympathy more generally by prioritising Adam Smith’s theory in particular, and by reading Smith’s paradigmatic conceit (distinguished via the impartial spectator) into legal and logical fields of “lived interactions”. This thesis argues that Smith’s sympathetic system offers a uniquely incisive mechanism for engaging with the socio-political processes whereby American characters are being transformed into “sensible” American citizens. Cook 3 ABSTRACT OF THESIS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF FIGURES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: EXECUTING CHARACTER I. INTRODUCTION . 12 II. TRANSFORMATIVE RHETORIC IN EARLY AMERICA . 25 PROLOGUE: YE BEAR AND YE CUBBE, 1665 THE LOGIC BEHIND “SENSIBLE” SELVES ADAM SMITH’S SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM THE IMPARTIAL SPECTATOR THE SYMPATHETIC IMAGINATION THE SYSTEM PART II: STAGES OF EXECUTION . 43 III. FIGURES OF SPEECH . 46 (dialogues) TRANSATLANTIC SYMPATHY CHARACTER AND CONVICTION: 1763 (negotiations) PRESENTING A ‘TRUE FIGURE’ MR JEFFERSON AS “MR SPECTATOR” CANDID “CITIZENS”: 1774 IV. COPY-WRITING CHARACTER: FEELING THE PINCH IN . 94 SHERIDAN’S SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL AND ROYALL TYLER’S CONTRAST A TRANSATLANTIC DISCOURSE Cook 4 THE COMMERCE OF FEELING CREDI(TA)BLE EXCHANGE FEELING THE PINCH AFFECTIVE CONSIDERATION THE FIGURE OF MORAL JUDGMENT IMPARTIAL HEIRS CANDOUR CARES THE CONTRAST: GIVING DEPTH TO THE SURFACES TRANSFERABLE TYPES REPUTATION AS RIGHT PARTIAL ACCOUNTS: COLLUSION AND CONSENT BLOCKING: (DIS)-CONNECTION RISE AND FALL: CONSCIENCE AFTERPIECE: CONVERSION OFFSHORE CREDIT CITIZEN REPAIRS AFFETTUOSO V. ASGILL: TRANSLATING CHARACTER VIA RHETORICS OF CONCEIT . 146 A NARRATIVE HISTORY NATIONAL CHARACTER AND ILL-FEELING IMPARTIAL JUDGMENT, RETALIATION AND JUSTICE THE F(R)ICTION OF FRATERNITY SYMPATHETIC PASSAGE ‘INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES’ ASGILL; OR, IMAGINING ABDIR SENSIBLE CITIZENS: LADY ASGILL AND GENERAL WASHINGTON MODEST DISPLAY / BENEVOLENT COMMAND “TRANSLATED” ASGILL Cook 5 VI. ‘PLAYING AT PUSHPIN’: SYMPATHY AS A RHETORICAL STRUCTURE IN . 202 LIVINGSTON V. JEFFERSON, CASE OF THE NEW ORLEANS BATTURE TRANSLATING MONTESQUIEU LOUISIANA: LANDSCAPE ET L’HISTOIRE LIVINGSTON V. JEFFERSON, 1810 SYMPATHY’S LEGAL FUNCTION CEREBRAL CITIZENS EMPATHETIC FRIENDS SYMPATHY’S “GEODETIC” CONSERVATISM CONCLUSION . 254 EPILOGUE: SYMPATHETIC RE-UNION . 256 APPENDIX I: FROM AARON HILL’S THE PROMPTER APPENDIX II: FROM ‘THE PROCEEDINGS OF … NEW BERN’ APPENDIX III: FROM JEFFERSON’S PREFACE APPENDIX IV: TIMELINE CONCERNING THE BATTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CONSULTED . 274 Cook 6 TABLE OF FIGURES FIG 1: WILLIAM HOGARTH, THE BENCH, WILLIAM HOGARTH’S “WORKS” (LONDON: BALDWIN & CRADDOCK, [1835?])…28 FIG 2: FRONTISPIECE, WILLIAM HILL BROWN, THE POWER OF SYMPATHY (BOSTON, 1789)…64 FIG 3: DAVID GARRICK AS RICHARD III, OIL PAINTING BY FRANCIS HAYMAN (DATED 1700)…72 FIG 4: ‘THE ALTERNATIVE OF WILLIAMSBURG’ (R. SANGER AND U. BENNET, LONDON, FEBRUARY 16, 1775)…93 FIG 5: FRONTISPIECE TO ROYALL TYLER’S THE CONTRAST; ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM DUNLAP, DON. B. WILMETH COLLECTION…133 FIG 6: MISSISSIPPI RIVER & ALLUVION…218 FIG 7: MISSISSIPPI BATTURE…219 Cook 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is transatlantic in its inception and owes a debt of gratitude to individuals on both sides of the Atlantic . In Edinburgh, I would like to especially thank Susan Manning for her supervision during the writing of this thesis; the STAR (Scotland’s Transatlantic Relations) Project for supporting it within the field of transatlantic studies; and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities for its many kindnesses, both small and large. I am truly grateful to those STAR members and Fellows of the Institute who encouraged this project through to its completion, in particular Lise Sorenson, Andrew Taylor, Karina Williamson and Robert Wright. In addition, I would like to thank Francis D. Cogliano for his supervision and ready support; Jutta Mackwell and Sarah Sholl; the Early American History Group at the University of Edinburgh; and those at the University of Glasgow and the University of Virginia, who contributed to various seminar and video-conference discussions pertaining to portions of this work. In Virginia, I would like to offer sincere thanks to James Horn, the Gilder Lehrman Foundation and the John D. Rockefeller Library, Williamsburg, Virginia, for contributing to an early research fellowship that allowed me to undertake primary research. Special thanks as well to Gaye Wilson and the staff at the Robert H. Smith International Centre for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia, for being so truly hospitable and forthcoming with research assistance. And particular thanks to those who shared their time along the way: Anna Brickhouse, Ron Hoffman, Rhys Isaac, Robert Maccubbin, Sterling Murray, Peter Onuf, Adam Potkay, Hannah Spahn, Jan Swearingen and Fredrika Teute; as well as to John Barrows, Jim Davis and Amy Griffin. I would also like to express gratitude to the library staff in Special Collections at the University of Virginia Library; the Library of Congress; the University of Edinburgh Library and Centre for Special Collections; the Rush Rees Library at the University of Rochester; the Wolf Law Library at the College of William and Mary Law School; the National Library of Scotland; the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary; and the research staff at the T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond. Special thanks are offered to the late Rhys Isaac, who during my time at the Rockefeller Library, when this thesis was in its earliest stages, was among the first to encourage my cross- disciplinary perspective, and who urged me to retain transatlantic performance and notions of character construction as subjects for engaging with Early American history. Sincere thanks as well to my supervisor Susan Manning for her kind support and for sharing with me a chapter from her forthcoming book. And most grateful appreciation to John Guy and Jeremy Lopez, Cook 8 both of whom—through their genuine enthusiasm as educators and scholars—inspired me to pursue doctoral work in the first place. Deep thanks to those family and friends who have borne along with me the peculiar pleasures and pains of transatlantic life. ~ Now to Him who is able . all honour, all glory. Cook 9 Declaration My signature certifies that this thesis represents my own original work, the result of my own original research, and that I have clearly cited all sources and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Kristin A. Cook *I have chosen to use the MHRA Style Book, 5th edn, as my citation scheme throughout. *Eighteenth-century spellings are true to text. Please note the occasional