Political Economy, Public Liberty, and the Formation of the Constitution

Do URING the presidential campaign of i8oo, the Philadelphia merchant Charles Pettit wrote a pamphlet entitled An Impartial Review of the Rise and Progress of the Controversy between the Parties Known by the Names of the Federalists, and Republicans. His thesis was that the current political arguments repeated those of the past and that the basic issues dividing Americans had always been the same, namely, a difference of opinion as to the legitimate limits of governmental power. He traced this issue from the resistance to Britain through the Revolution, the adoption of the Constitution, and the party battles of the I79os. The principles, he said, were rooted in the British past-in struggles between Country and Court parties, between low and high church, between Whigs and Tories. No need to explain these terms, he said: They have borne so conspicuous a part in history, especially in that of England, that you cannot mistake their Common meaning.' The meaning may have been evident to Pettit's readers, but until very recently its implications would have escaped American historians, except in the realm of political ideas. There the continuities between British and American experience have always been recognized, and the current restatement of the whig interpretation of the American Revolution continues to expand and deepen that relationship. Political ideas alone, however, do not define such major events in early American history as the adoption of the Constitution and the rise of national political parties. The formation of the national government was a complex act, involving a broad constituency, and it was significant on a number of levels. Its distinctive character, in fact, was to a large extent shaped by a heavy infusion of economic factors. An analogous political-economic process affected British development, and in this context nation building in both countries followed similar lines. Recent studies have exposed some of the cardinal

Constitution · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Public Administration

• Le papier monnaie de petites dénominations émis par les provinces argentines entre 1890 et 2003

  Open Access•Bruno Théret•Dialogues d histoire ancienne•2020

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