Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States)

801 Pages·2009·3.87 MB·English

by  Gordon S. Wood

Empire of Liberty
The Oxford History of the United States
David M. Kennedy, General Editor
robert middlekauff
THE GLORIOUS CAUSE
The American Revolution, 1763–1789
gordon s. wood
EMPIRE OF LIBERTY
A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815
daniel walker howe
WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT
The Transformation of America, 1815–1848
james m. mcpherson
BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
The Civil War Era
david m. kennedy
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945
james t. patterson
GRAND EXPECTATIONS
The United States, 1945–1974
james t. patterson
RESTLESS GIANT
The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore
george c. herring
FROM COLONY TO SUPERPOWER
U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776
EMPIRE OF
LIBERTY
A History of the Early
1789 1815
Republic, –
GORDON S. WOOD
1
2009
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wood, Gordon S.
Empire of liberty : a history of the early Republic,
1789–1815 / Gordon S. Wood.
p. cm. — (Oxford history of the United States)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978-0-19-503914-6
1. United States—Civilization—1783–1865.
2. United States—Politics and government—1789–1815. I. Title.
E310.W872009 973.4—dc22 2009010762
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To My Family
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Acknowledgments
A project that has gone on as long as this one acquires a large number of
debts, so many that it is dangerous to list any for fear of leaving someone
out. For institutional support I am indebted to the Woodrow Wilson Center
and the Huntington Library, both of which offered time off from teaching
to work on the book. In addition, my home institution, Brown University,
gave me several leaves that allowed me opportunities to do research and
writing.
My students, both graduate and undergraduate, have been a continual
source of stimulation, mainly by compelling me to clarify my ideas and
arguments.
A number of colleagues have read portions of the manuscript—
Michael Les Benedict, Steven Calabresi, Robert Gross, Bruce Mann, R.
Kent Newmyer, and Steve Presser—and I am deeply indebted for their
aid and corrections. Several friends suffered through the entire long
manuscript—Richard Buel Jr., Patrick T. Conley, and Joanne Free-
man—and I am eternally grateful for their taking on the task and for
their helpful comments. Pat Conley in particular brought to bear on the
manuscript not only his rich historical knowledge but as well a keen edi-
torial eye for typos and other such errors. The editor of the Oxford His-
tory of the United States series, David Kennedy, offered very sensible
advice, and I thank him for overseeing the whole project. The Oxford
editor, Susan Ferber, has a good eye and ear for writing and made many
valuable suggestions. My thanks also to the incomparable copy editor,
India Cooper. Of course, in the end I am responsible for any errors that
remain.
viii acknowledgments
Since this book sums up a great deal of what I have learned about the
early Republic over my entire career, I am deeply indebted to the many
people who have helped me in one way or another over the past half cen-
tury. But I owe the greatest debt to my wife, Louise, who has been editor
and soulmate through the whole period.
Contents
List of Maps, xi
Editor’s Introduction, xiii
Abbreviations Used in Citations, xvii
Introduction: Rip Van Winkle’s America, 1
1. Experiment in Republicanism, 5
2. A Monarchical Republic, 53
3. The Federalist Program, 95
4. The Emergence of the Jeffersonian Republican Party, 140
5. The French Revolution in America, 174
6. John Adams and the Few and the Many, 209
7. The Crisis of 1798–1799,239
8. The Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800,276
9. Republican Society, 315
10. The Jeffersonian West, 357
11. Law and an Independent Judiciary, 400
12. Chief Justice John Marshall and the Origins of Judicial Review, 433
13. Republican Reforms, 469
14. Between Slavery and Freedom, 508
15. The Rising Glory of America, 543
16. Republican Religion, 576