American Republicanism : Roman Ideology in the United States Constitution

This book examines what 'republicanism' meant to the Americans who drafted and ratified the United States Constitution, guaranteeing a 'republican form of government' to every state in the Union. M.N.S.Sellers compares the writings and speeches of the founders with the authors they read and imitated to identify the central tenets of American republicanism, and to demonstrate that American republican though directly reflected classical models, rather than a mediating tradition of English or continental political theory. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-7 Republican Pseudonyms....Pages 8-10 The Iconography of the American Revolution....Pages 11-19 North American Classicism....Pages 20-23 Public Debate at the Time of the Constitutional Convention....Pages 24-26 Republican Images....Pages 27-29 Front Matter....Pages 31-31 The Influence of John Adams....Pages 33-40 The Pennsylvania Republicans....Pages 41-45 Polybius and the Roman Constitution....Pages 46-49 The English and American Constitutions....Pages 50-56 The United States Constitution....Pages 57-62 The Roman Example....Pages 63-65 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Livy’s Empire of Laws....Pages 69-76 Plutarch’s Lives....Pages 77-82 Tacitus and Liberty....Pages 83-86 Sallust and Corruption....Pages 87-89 Republican Narratives....Pages 90-98 Front Matter....Pages 99-101 Thomas Gordon’s Republicanism....Pages 103-103 ‘Cato’ and Virtue....Pages 105-110 Front Matter....Pages 111-117 Algernon Sidney and the People....Pages 103-103 James Harrington and the Senate....Pages 118-125 John Locke and the United States Constitution....Pages 126-132 English Commonwealths....Pages 133-141 Front Matter....Pages 142-145 The Antifederalists....Pages 147-147 Montesquieu’s Republics....Pages 149-162 James Wilson’s Republicanism....Pages 163-171 The State Ratifying Conventions....Pages 172-178 Publius as a Republican....Pages 179-198 American Republicans....Pages 199-210 Front Matter....Pages 211-214 American Republicanism....Pages 215-215 Back Matter....Pages 217-246 ....Pages 247-349 This book examines what 'republicanism' meant to the Americans who drafted and ratified the United States Constitution, guaranteeing a 'republican form of government' to every state in the Union. M.N.S. Sellers compares the writings and speeches of the founders with the authors they read and imitated to identify the central tenets of American republicanism, and to demonstrate that American republican though directly reflected classical models, rather than a mediating tradition of English or continental political theory