The Old Dominion and the New Nation: 1788–1801
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 1972 The Old Dominion and the New Nation: 1788–1801 Richard R. Beeman University of Pennsylvania Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Beeman, Richard R., "The Old Dominion and the New Nation: 1788–1801" (1972). United States History. 46. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/46 The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788-1801 This page intentionally left blank RICHARD R. BEEMAN The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788-1801 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN: 978-0-8131-5117-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-190531 Copyright© 1972 by The University Press of Kentucky A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State College, Morehead State University, Murray State University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 For Pamela This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface xi CHAPTER ONE Union or No Union 1 CHAPTER TWO The Continuity of Political Life 28 CHAPTER THREE Antifederalist Fears Confirmed 56 CHAPTER FOUR Federal Policy and Domestic Affairs 90 CHAPTER FIVE Federal Policy and Foreign Affairs: I 119 CHAPTER SIX Federal Policy and Foreign Affairs: II 159 CHAPTER SEVEN Party Politics and Political Theory 184 CHAPTER EIGHT The Triumph of Agrarian Republicanism 221 CHAPTER NINE Virginia and the Revolution of 1800 237 APPENDIX ONE Leadership of the House of Delegates) 17 88-1800 249 APPENDIX TWO Party Divisions in the House of Delegates 253 APPENDIX THREE Local Interest Groups in the House of Delegates) 1788-1790 268 Bibliographical Note 270 Index 275 Maps Ratification of Federal Constitution 244 Vote on Assumption 245 Virginia Voting) 1788-1793 246 Vote on jay Treaty 247 Vote on Virginia Resolutions 248 This page intentionally left blank Preface I BEGAN THIS PROJECT hoping to trace the growth of the Republican and Federalist parties in Virginia. The finished product, however, is only in part a study of the development of the party system, for party machinery and partisan rhetoric constituted but one aspect of political life in the Old Dominion during the last decade of the eighteenth century. Coexisting with the new system of party politics was the old, oligarchic system-vividly described, but romanticized by Charles Sydnor in his small classic, Gentlemen Freeholders-based on wealth, influence, and social prestige. Although the techniques of party organization and mass voter participation seem hardly compatible with the closed system usually associated with oligarchic control, the two systems rarely came into conflict. The men who ruled Virginia-the wealthy planters and lawyers who dominated the county courts, the members of the legis lature, and the handful of men who served in the national government-discovered ways to use the outward mechanisms of the new, partisan mode of politics while at the same time preserving traditional patterns of elite-dominated, deferential politics. I hope therefore to tell two stories. On one level I will trace the emergence and development of Republican and Federalist party organizations in Virginia. It is here that the reader will find the details of the Virginia Antifederalists' continuing hostility to the federal Constitution, of James Madison's switch from the Federalist to the emerging Repub lican party, of Madison's and Jefferson's attempts to coordinate Republican opposition to Federalist foreign policy, and finally, of the Republicans' successful campaign in 1800 to replace xu Preface President John Adams with a Virginian. This is an important story that deserves to be told. Yet the second story-an account of the continuing dominance of the "old style" of politics in Virginia-is essential to understanding the first. The opposition to the federal government, first from the Antifederalists and later from the Republican party, stemmed primarily from the desire of most members of Virginia's polit ical elite to preserve their political institutions, and their personal power, from the threat of a new, competing agency of government. Their system of decentralized, locally con trolled government had, they believed, worked equitably and efficiently for the colony and later for the state. Moreover, it had insured them a dominant role in the affairs of the Old Dominion. And they had proved that they were prepared to defend that government against "innovation." When Great Britain enacted a scheme of imperial reorganization that threatened to substitute royal for provincial authority in Amer ica, the members of Virginia's provincial elite quickly assumed political and military leadership in the struggle that followed. The Revolution brought an end to British interference in Virginia's internal affairs, but it did little to change the structure of provincial politics. If anything, the Revolution only strengthened the power of Virginia's provincial ruling class. The prerevolutionary elite maintained almost complete con trol over the Virginia Convention and framed a state con stitution that retained most of the features conducive to oligarchic local control. Most of the reforms brought about by the Constitution-the limitation of the governor's powers and the provisions strengthening the lower house at the expense of the upper house-resulted not from any democratic impulse, but rather were caused by the reaction against the abuses of royal government and served only to increase the power of the small group of men who constituted the provincial elite. It is not surprising that these same men viewed proposals for a new federal Constitution in 1788 with some misgiving. Al though a slim majority in Virginia voted for ratification of Preface xiii the federal Constitution in June 1788, a large number of those delegates believed that substantive amendments would be added to prevent the new government from threatening Virginia's interests. Accustomed to guiding their state's destiny free from outside interference, the Antifederalists and many lukewarm Federalists remained hostile to any measure that might imperil the autonomy of the Old Dominion. This suspicion, far from disappearing after ratification, was height ened by subsequent Federalist policies. In the decade follow ing ratification, more and more Virginians regretted that they had not heeded the advice of the Antifederalists. The political leaders of the Old Dominion were accustomed to operating within a frame of reference that was peculiarly Virginian; their response to the policies of the new government was shaped by the interests and aspirations of their own local ities and not by any broad conception of the national interest. Indeed, even purely local issues tended to be settled according to the narrow and particularistic interests of individual regions and counties. As a consequence, the numerous and often bitter divisions within the elite on issues of local concern-such as those involving state banking, internal improvements, and compensa tion of slaveowners for executed slaves-were rarely translated into partisan gain for either national party. I will discuss in detail those few local issues having a bearing on the debate on national questions, but I have left a thorough discussion of the other local issues to historians interested primarily in the economic and cultural structure of the state. This volume is principally concerned with the style of political life in Virginia and with the effect of that style on national party alignments. The mode of political conduct that I have discovered, while perhaps conducive to just and efficacious gov ernment in the more uncomplicated period of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, proved to be increasingly self indulgent and dysfunctional by 1800. I have benefited from the counsel and criticism of many of my teachers and colleagues in the course of the research, writ ing, and revising of this work. William W. Abbot acted as a XIV Preface wise and patient teacher during the first stages of the study; Daniel J. Boors tin, who directed the dissertation on which this book is based, gave me the guidance and inspiration that could be expected from a man of his genius. John Hope Franklin and Lawrence \V. Towner contributed not only their historical and editorial judgments but also a good measure of kindness and encouragement. Stephen Kurtz and Lee Benson read the manuscript at a later stage and offered helpful sug gestions for revision. My colleague Richard S. Dunn gave me some much-needed encouragement and advice during a par ticularly crucial stage of the revision of the manuscript. James C. Curtis, my good friend, uncompromising critic, and mediocre tennis partner was a constant source of ideas and suggestions at virtually every stage of my work. Finally, I benefited from the painstaking editorial criticism of Robert Ferrell, chairman of the Frederick Jackson Turner Award committee. Information in the map "Virginia Voting, 1788-1793" is taken from Norman Risjord's article "The Virginia Federalists," Journal of Southern History 33 (1967). A number of institutions have been generous in their financial support for this venture. A grant from Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., financed much of the initial research on the topic. The Newberry Library provided both the funds and the facilities for a distraction-free year of writing; more im portant, the staff of the Newberry Library provided an in tellectually stimulating atmosphere that made my year there one of the most rewarding of my life. The University of Pennsylvania awarded me a summer research fellowship which greatly facilitated many of the final revisions of the work.