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Within three years of the inauguration of the Constitution, its
greatest champions found themselves irreparably divided over what
that Constitution meant and how to shape the Union it had been
created to perfect. Within a decade, the division at the heights of
national politics had spread into a full-scale party war, the
first, the most ferocious, and perhaps the most instructive in all
of American history. Never since have clashing ideologies been
quite so central to a party struggle and never has such a giant set
of democratic statesmen argued so profoundly over concepts that are
at the root of the American political tradition. Conceived in
Liberty probes the fundamentals of the great dispute among John
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and
their followers over the sort of country the United States should
be. In clear and concise prose, Lance Banning clarifies the
foundations of the first great party struggle-and thus of
nineteenth-century America.
Ever since Douglass Adair convincingly demonstrated that a love of
fame was central to the American founding, political scientists and
historians have started to view the founders and their acts in a
new light. In The Noblest Minds, ten distinguished scholars examine
this passion for fame and honor and demonstrate for the first time
its significance in the development of American democracy. The
first two-thirds of the book is devoted to essays on individual
founders, as the contributors consider the role of fame in the
lives and political characters of Washington, Franklin, Madison,
Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Marshall. The remaining chapters
analyze the founders' theoretical accomplishment in reviving
political science, and explore the problem of honor in the modern
world. Political scientists and American historians alike will find
this book to be valuable and illuminating. What made the founding
generation of American statesmen so outstanding? To answer this
question, The Noblest Minds brings together a distinguished group
of historians and political scientists to evaluate a neglected but
compelling theory advanced nearly four decades ago by Douglass
Adair. Adair argued that it was the 'love of fame' that moved many
of the leading lights of the founding generation. Adair's thesis is
the starting point for a series of searching essays on the role of
fame in the lives of Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison,
Marshall, and Washington. These profiles also provide wide-ranging
historical and philosophical reflections on the question of fame.
What emerges from these essays is a more complex picture of the
founding generation than that presented by Adair. While
acknowledging the role of the love of fame, The Noblest Minds
argues for the influence of other concerns such as honor, virtue,
and the cause of liberty. This more complex picture of the founding
generation provides a unique and rewarding vantage point from which
to consider the question of 'character' in politics, which looms so
large in contemporary political debate. It illuminates the
differences between true fame and mere celebrity in such a way as
to point to considerations that transcend both. Political
scientists and American historians alike will find this book to be
valuable and illuminating.
Within three years of the inauguration of the Constitution, its
greatest champions found themselves irreparably divided over what
that Constitution meant and how to shape the Union it had been
created to perfect. Within a decade, the division at the heights of
national politics had spread into a full-scale party war, the
first, the most ferocious, and perhaps the most instructive in all
of American history. Never since have clashing ideologies been
quite so central to a party struggle and never has such a giant set
of democratic statesmen argued so profoundly over concepts that are
at the root of the American political tradition. Conceived in
Liberty probes the fundamentals of the great dispute among John
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and
their followers over the sort of country the United States should
be. In clear and concise prose, Lance Banning clarifies the
foundations of the first great party struggle-and thus of
nineteenth-century America.
"Liberty and Order" is an ambitious anthology of primary source
writings: letters, circulars, debate transcriptions, House
proceedings, and newspaper articles that document the years during
which America's founding generation divided over the sort of
country the United States was to become.The founders' arguments
over the proper construction of the new Constitution, the political
economy, the appropriate level of popular participation in a
republican polity, foreign policy, and much else, not only
contributed crucially to the shaping of the nineteenth-century
United States, but also have remained of enduring interest to all
historians of republican liberty.This anthology makes it possible
to understand the grounds and development of the great collision,
which pitted John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others who called
themselves Federalists or, sometimes, the friends of order, against
the opposition party led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and
their followers, in what emerged as the Jeffersonian Republican
Party.Editor Lance Banning provides the reader with original-source
explanations of early anti-Federalist feeling and Federalist
concerns, beginning with the seventh letter from the "Federal
Farmer," in which the deepest fears of many opponents of the
Constitution were expressed. He then selects from the House
proceedings concerning the Bill of Rights and makes his way toward
the public debates concerning the massive revolutionary debt
acquired by the United States. The reader is able to examine the
American reaction to the French Revolution and to the War of 1812,
and to explore the founders' disagreements over both domestic and
foreign policy. The collection ends on a somewhat melancholy note
with the correspondence of Jefferson and Adams, who were, to some
extent, reconciled to each other at the end of their political
careers. Brief, elucidatory headnotes place both the novice and the
expert in the midst of the times.With this significant new
collection, the reader receives a deeper understanding of the
complex issues, struggles, and personalities that made up the first
great party battle and that continue to shape our representative
government today.Lance Banning (1942-2006) was Professor of History
at the University of Kentucky, where he had taught since 1973, and
was the 2000/2001 Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts
and Sciences. He was also coeditor of the University Press of
Kansas series "American Political Thought" and the author of many
articles, essays, and books on the American founding and first
party struggle, including three award-winning books: "Jefferson and
Madison: Three Conversations from the Founding," "The Jeffersonian
Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology," and "The Sacred Fire of
Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic,"
the latter two of which were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
No library holdings of political party development or the early
political history of the nation will be complete without The
Jeffersonian Persuasion. ― Choice This revisionary study
offers a convincing new interpretation of Jeffersonian Republican
thought in the 1790s. Based on extensive research in the newspapers
and political pamphlets of the decade as well as the public and
private writings of party leaders, it traces the development of
party ideology and examines the relationship of ideology to party
growth and actions.
James Madison was the finest democratic theorist that the United
States has ever produced. His was the pivotal philosophical role in
framing the Constitution and establishing the principles on which a
wholly new form of government was to be based. Yet this widely
informed and profoundly original thinker has been considered by
most scholars to be an intellectual pragmatist who reacted variably
and inconsistently to the changing circumstances of the Revolution
and the Confederation. Lance Banning's powerful and persuasive
reexamination of Madison's thought at the critical early and
central stages of his career now changes that presumption, and
provides a new base from which thinking about Madison and the
Founding must start. The Sacred Fire of Liberty follows Madison
from his appearance on the national stage (in Congress in 1780)
through the end of 1792. By the end of this period, he had achieved
his mature understanding of the Constitution, and his collision
with many of the other Federalists of 1788 had made him a leader of
the opposition to the administration of George Washington. Banning
convinces the reader, through his meticulous research and deeply
contextualized presentation of the shifting issues of the period,
that Madison indeed held to consistent principles: he was at once a
more committed democrat and a less eager nationalist than usually
has been thought. The thinking that had underpinned his actions at
the great convention, his numbers of The Federalist, and the
supposed reversal of positions represented by his joining with
Thomas Jefferson to form the first Republican party had firmed by
1792 into the understandings that would guide the rest of his
career.
Lance Banning was one of the most distinguished historians of
his generation. His first book, The Jeffersonian Persuasion:
Evolution of a Party Ideology, was a groundbreaking study of the
ideas and principles that influenced political conflict in the
early American Republic. His revisionist masterpiece, The Sacred
Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal
Republic, received the Merle Curti Award in Intellectual History
from the Organization of American Historians and was a finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize.
Banning was assembling this collection of his best and most
representative writings on the Founding era when his untimely death
stalled the project just short of its completion. Now, thanks to
the efforts of editor Todd Estes, this illuminating resource is
finally available. Founding Visions showcases the work of a
historian who shaped the intellectual debates of his time.
Featuring a foreword by Gordon S. Wood, the volume presents
Banning's most seminal and insightful essays to a new generation of
students, scholars, and general readers.
"Liberty and Order" is an ambitious anthology of primary source
writings: letters, circulars, debate transcriptions, House
proceedings, and newspaper articles that document the years during
which America's founding generation divided over the sort of
country the United States was to become.The founders' arguments
over the proper construction of the new Constitution, the political
economy, the appropriate level of popular participation in a
republican polity, foreign policy, and much else, not only
contributed crucially to the shaping of the nineteenth-century
United States, but also have remained of enduring interest to all
historians of republican liberty.This anthology makes it possible
to understand the grounds and development of the great collision,
which pitted John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others who called
themselves Federalists or, sometimes, the friends of order, against
the opposition party led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and
their followers, in what emerged as the Jeffersonian Republican
Party.Editor Lance Banning provides the reader with original-source
explanations of early anti-Federalist feeling and Federalist
concerns, beginning with the seventh letter from the "Federal
Farmer," in which the deepest fears of many opponents of the
Constitution were expressed. He then selects from the House
proceedings concerning the Bill of Rights and makes his way toward
the public debates concerning the massive revolutionary debt
acquired by the United States. The reader is able to examine the
American reaction to the French Revolution and to the War of 1812,
and to explore the founders' disagreements over both domestic and
foreign policy. The collection ends on a somewhat melancholy note
with the correspondence of Jefferson and Adams, who were, to some
extent, reconciled to each other at the end of their political
careers. Brief, elucidatory headnotes place both the novice and the
expert in the midst of the times.With this significant new
collection, the reader receives a deeper understanding of the
complex issues, struggles, and personalities that made up the first
great party battle and that continue to shape our representative
government today.Lance Banning (1942-2006) was Professor of History
at the University of Kentucky, where he had taught since 1973, and
was the 2000/2001 Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts
and Sciences. He was also coeditor of the University Press of
Kansas series "American Political Thought" and the author of many
articles, essays, and books on the American founding and first
party struggle, including three award-winning books: "Jefferson and
Madison: Three Conversations from the Founding," "The Jeffersonian
Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology," and "The Sacred Fire of
Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic,"
the latter two of which were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
James Madison was the finest democratic theorist that the United
States has ever produced. His was the pivotal philosophical role in
framing the Constitution and establishing the principles on which a
wholly new form of government was to be based. Yet this widely
informed and profoundly original thinker has been considered by
most scholars to be an intellectual pragmatist who reacted variably
and inconsistently to the changing circumstances of the Revolution
and the Confederation. Lance Banning's powerful and persuasive
reexamination of Madison's thought at the critical early and
central stages of his career now changes that presumption, and
provides a new base from which thinking about Madison and the
Founding must start. The Sacred Fire of Liberty follows Madison
from his appearance on the national stage (in Congress in 1780)
through the end of 1792. By the end of this period, he had achieved
his mature understanding of the Constitution, and his collision
with many of the other Federalists of 1788 had made him a leader of
the opposition to the administration of George Washington. Banning
convinces the reader, through his meticulous research and deeply
contextualized presentation of the shifting issues of the period,
that Madison indeed held to consistent principles: he was at once a
more committed democrat and a less eager nationalist than usually
has been thought. The thinking that had underpinned his actions at
the great convention, his numbers of The Federalist, and the
supposed reversal of positions represented by his joining with
Thomas Jefferson to form the first Republican party had firmed by
1792 into the understandings that would guide the rest of his
career.
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