The Rediscovery of America: Transatlantic Crosscurrents in an Age of Revolution

268 Pages·1998·26.715 MB·English

by  Stuart Andrews (auth.)

THE REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA

The Rediscovery
of America
Transatlantic Crosscurrents
in an Age of Revolution
Stuart Andrews
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACNDLLANPRESSLTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-26936-5 ISBN 978-1-349-26934-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26934-1
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-21405-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Andrews, Stuart.
The rediscovery of America : transatlantic crosscurrents in an age
of revolution I Stuart Andrews.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-21405-0 (cloth)
1. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-178~Participation,
Foreign. 2. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-Causes.
3. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-178~Influence.
4. United States-Intellectual life-18th century. 5. Rhetoric
-Political aspects-United States-History-18th century. 6. United
States-Relations-Europe. 7. Europe-Relations-United States.
I. Title.
E269.F67A53 1998
973.3'1--dc21 97-52924
CIP
© Stuart Andrews 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
To the staff of Bristol Reference Library
The Rediscovery of America
'This continent, which had been unknown for possibly the whole of antiquity
and many centuries in modem times; the first wild destiny of that continent
and its second destiny after the arrival of Christopher Columbus; the suprem
acy of the European monarchies shaken in this new world; a republic of
unfamiliar type foreshadowing a change in the human mind; the part which
my country had played in these events; these seas and shores owing their
independence in part to the French flag and blood; a great man issuing from
the midst of discord and wilderness; Washington living in a flourishing city on
the spot where William Penn bought a plot of forest land; the United States
passing on to France the revolution which France had supported with her
arms .. .'
Chateaubriand
Contents
Preface ix
List of Rlustrations xi
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction
1. Discovery and Rediscovery: Planters, Puritans and
Philosophes 3
Founding Fathers in Europe
2. Porcelain and Revolutionary Principles: Franklin and
the French 19
3. American Encyclopediste: Jefferson at Home and
}lbroad 31
4. Reluctant Philosophe: John }ldams and Republican
Government 43
Transatlantic Citizens
5. Bridging the }ltlantic: Paine's Three Revolutions 59
6. Burke's Grasshoppers: Dr Price as ~postle of Liberty' 72
7. Flammable Gas: Priestley as Propagandist 83
8. Land-agent of Liberty: South Carolina's Thomas Cooper 94
Frenchmen in America
9. Slaves, Quakers and 'Free Americans': Brissot's
America and the French Revolution 109
10. Hero of 1\vo Worlds: Lafayette, Freemasons and
Liberty 121
11. Nlies in }lrms: Segur, Lauzun and Chastellux 133
Images and Visions
12. }lrmchair Philosophy: Raynal's Bestseller 147
vii
viii Contents
13. American Fanner: Hector St John de Crevecoeur 159
14. Women and Emigrants: Mary Wollstonecraft and
Gilbert Imlay 170
15. Poets' Utopia: Coleridge, Southey and the
Susquehanna 182
16. North American Naturalists: Bartram and Audubon 194
Notes 206
Bibliography 229
Index 238
Preface
Two images. First the Matthew, which carried John Cabot to mainland
America 500 years ago. As I write, a replica of Cabot's ship sails out of
Bristol to re-enact that historic voyage. Second the key of the Bastille,
which hangs in George Washington's home at Mount Vernon to
symbolize the political impact of the New World on Europe during
the American and French Revolutions.
The Rediscovery ofA merica features some twenty representatives of
England, France and America, whose careers in some sense spanned
the Atlantic in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Among
these transatlantic figures are men of action with a role in one or
other (or both) of the revolutions. There are also propagandists,
political exiles, and speculators in real estate; two are naturalists and
yet others are poets or novelists who dream of crossing the Atlantic,
but never do so. Each revolutionary figure is presented through his or
her writings and correspondence, much of which is not easily acces
sible but is offered here in digestible form - sometimes after transla
tion from the French.
The introduction offers a brief survey of the interaction between
Europe and America from the time of Columbus himself to the Columb
iads of late eighteenth-century poets. The other chapters focus on
individuals, but collectively illustrate the three-fold impact of Revolu
tionary America: as an embodiment of Enlightenment ideals, as an
asylum for the 'friends of liberty' and as a stimulus to the Romantic
imagination. No attempt is made to establish causal connections
between the American and French Revolutions. The study concerns
the subjective responses of individuals and the recurrence of transat
lantic imagery in revolutionary rhetoric. It thus presents a series of case
studies which illuminate the still reverberating debate on the Palmer
Godechot thesis of the 1960s. The contested concept of an 'Atlantic
Revolution' is here partly corroborated in the language and experience
of representatives of the Revolutionary generation.
More generally the book is an approach to intellectual history
which recognizes that, although political philosophers do not them
selves cause revolutions, their ideas supply politicians with slogans to
justify and rationalize actions dictated by Realpolitik. Abstract political
ideas can colour the surface, even when not shaping the substance of
political debate.
ix