AP Government and Politics

The Roots of American Democracy

What ideas gave birth to the world's first modern democratic nation?

3.1 Introduction

On July 4, 1976, Americans celebrated their nation’s 200th birthday. Two centuries earlier, the United States of America had come into being with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, no one had been more pleased than John Adams, who had worked tirelessly for independence. The anniversary of that first Independence Day would, he hoped, “be commemorated as the day of deliverance.” He added,

 It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford marked the bicentennial with a speech in Philadelphia, where the Declaration was signed. “The American adventure is a continuing process,” he said. “As one milestone is passed, another is sighted... As we begin our third century, there is still so much to be done.” Across the nation that evening, magnificent fireworks displays lit the skies, just as Adams had hoped.

Eleven years later, on September 17, 1987, Americans celebrated another bicentennial-this time to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution. In Philadelphia, where the Constitution had been written during a long hot summer, a quarter of a million people turned out for a grand celebration.

At 4:00 P.M., the hour in which the Constitution was signed in 1787, former U.S. chief justice Warren Burger rang a replica of the Liberty Bell. At that moment, other bells rang out in communities across the nation and at U.S. embassies and military bases around the world.

These two bicentennial events reminded Americans that they live in a country that is held together not by blood or history, but by ideas. Those ideas, first put forth in the Declaration and then given shape in the Constitution, were not new. Some had roots extending into ancient times. But never before had anyone tried to build a nation on something so powerful, yet intangible, as ideas.

3.2 Ideas That Shaped Colonial Views on Government

The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are among the most important political documents ever written. Their authors – men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison-were among the most creative political thinkers of their time. But these men did not operate in an ideological vacuum. They were influenced by political ideas and ethical teachings that had roots in ancient times. These ideas and beliefs helped shape political views in the colonies and eventually gave rise to the American system of government.

The Religious and Classical Roots of Colonial Ideas About Government

Colonial thinkers were strongly influenced by the ethical ideas shared by the Judeo-Christian religious traditions. Their notion of justice, for example, was rooted in the principles of ancient Judaism, which stressed that people should seek to create a just society based on respect for the law.

They were also influenced by the concept of natural law. This was the belief that there exists, beyond the framework of human laws, a universal set of moral principles that can be applied to any culture or system of justice. According to the Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas, people could discover these natural laws using both reason and their inborn sense of right and wrong. A human law that violated natural law, many colonists believed, was unjust and should be changed.

The creators of the Declaration of Independence used natural law to explain why the 13 colonies needed to rebel against the British. The Declaration states that “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” empowered the colonies to seek a “separate and equal station” from an oppressive government.

Colonial leaders also looked to the past for ideas about how to govern a society. From the Greek city-state of Athens came the tradition of direct democracy, or decision making by all citizens. Direct democracy took root in New England’s town meetings, where citizens gathered to discuss and solve their local problems.

From the Roman Republic came the idea of republicanism, or representative government, which refers to decision making by officials elected from the citizenry. Many colonists also admired the Roman idea of civic virtue. They understood this to mean a willingness to serve one’s country.

The English Roots of American Government

The traditions and principles of English government also had a great influence on political views in the colonies. Although the colonists eventually rebelled against British rule, they had great respect for English common law and Britain’s constitutional system. This system was based on a set of laws, customs, and practices that limited the powers of government and guaranteed the people certain basic rights. In fact, one reason the colonists rebelled was to secure the “rights of Englishmen” that they believed had been denied to them.

This tradition of English rights was based on three key documents: the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the English Bill of Rights. The first – the Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” – was signed by King John in 1215. A charter is a written grant of authority. The Magna Carta was forced on the king by English nobles, who were angered by the heavy taxes and arbitrary rules imposed by their monarch.

The Magna Carta defined the rights and duties of English nobles and set limits on the monarch’s power. For example, the charter stated that the monarch could not make special demands for money from his nobles without their consent. In time, this provision was used to support the argument that no tax should be levied by a monarch without Parliament’s consent.

In addition, the Magna Carta established the principle of the rule of law. One article of the charter says that the king cannot sell, deny, or delay justice. Another states that “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned... except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” The Magna Carta made it clear that all people, including the monarch, were subject to the rule of law.

Over the next few centuries, English monarchs often ignored or defied the principles set down in the Magna Carta. Royal taxation and abuse of power sparked ongoing struggles with Parliament. In 1628, Parliament tried to limit the power of King Charles I by passing a law called the Petition of Right. This second key document prohibited arbitrary arrests and the quartering of troops in private homes without the owners’ consent. The Petition of Right underscored the principle of limited government by affirming that the king’s power was not absolute.

The third key document, the English Bill of Rights, was passed by Parliament in 1689. At the time, Britain was just emerging from years of political turmoil and civil war. Parliament offered the throne to a new king and queen, William and Mary of Orange, but insisted that they accept the Bill of Rights as a condition of their rule.

The English Bill of Rights reaffirmed the principle of individual rights established in the Magna Carta and the Petition of Right. New individual rights guaranteed to British subjects included the right to petition the king, the right to bear arms, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishments. Other provisions included the right to trial by jury and to hold elections without royal interference. The English Bill of Rights also finally established the power of Parliament over the monarchy. The king could not levy taxes or maintain an army during peacetime, for example, without Parliament’s consent.

The Contributions of English Enlightenment Thinkers

Colonial leaders were also strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement of the 1600s and 1700s. Enlightenment thinkers stressed the value of science and reason, not only for studying the natural world, but also for improving human society and government.

Two key figures of the early Enlightenment were the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Both men helped develop the social-contract theory, which stated that people in society agreed to give up some of their freedom to governments in exchange for security and order.

Hobbes first introduced the idea that government was the result of a social contract between people and their rulers. In his book Leviathan, published in 1651, Hobbes theorized that people had once lived in a state of nature. This state was an imaginary time before any governments had been formed. People living in this mythical time were free to do as they pleased, without laws or other restraints. Because some people used their freedom to prey on others, however, the result was a war of “every man against every man.” For most people, Hobbes wrote, life in this time was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

To escape from this misery, Hobbes argued, people entered into a social contract. This contract obliged the people to give up some of their freedom by agreeing to obey an absolute ruler. In exchange for this pledge of obedience, the ruler agreed to bring peace and order to society. Hobbes was obviously not promoting democracy in his writing, but his social-contract theory did lay the groundwork for the idea that government was formed by the consent of the people.

Locke took the idea of a social contract between the people and their rulers a step further. In his Second Treatise on Government, published in 1689, Locke argued that in the state of nature, all people were equal and enjoyed certain natural rights, or rights that all people have by virtue of being human. These rights include the right to life itself, to liberty, and to the ownership of property produced or gained through one’s own labors.

Locke agreed with Hobbes that it was in people’s self-interest to enter into a social contract that exchanged some of their freedom for the protection of government. He went on to argue that this social contract was provisional. if a ruler failed to protect the people’s life, liberty, and property, then the people had a right to overthrow that ruler and establish a new government.

The idea that the purpose of government was to protect the rights of the people exerted a powerful influence on colonial thinkers. Eventually this idea would be used to help justify the American Revolution.

Influences of French Enlightenment Thinkers

Two French thinkers also made major contributions to political thought during the Enlightenment. One was Charles-Louis de Secondat, more commonly known as Baron de Montesquieu. The other was Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Montesquieu is most famous for his book The Spirit of Laws, published in 1748. In this book, Montesquieu argued that governments should be organized in a way that prevents anyone person or group from dominating or oppressing others. This argument led him to propose a three-branch system of government – executive, legislative, and judicial– with separate functions for each branch. In this system, each branch would act to limit the power of the other branches. This principle of separation of powers was so admired by Americans that they applied it to their colonial governments.

Rousseau was a Swiss-born philosopher who spent much of his life in France. In his book The Social Contract, Rousseau extended the social contract still further. He added the idea that for a government formed by a social contract to have legitimacy, it must be based on popular sovereignty, or the general will of the people. He wrote,

The heart of the idea of the social contract may be stated simply: Each of us places his person and authority under the supreme direction of the general will, and the group receives each individual as an indivisible part of the whole.

– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762

Rousseau further argued that if a government acted contrary to the general will, it had broken the social contract and should be dissolved. Many colonial leaders agreed with Rousseau that government should be based on the will of the people. Thomas Paine, whose book Common Sense helped push the colonies toward independence, was particularly influenced by Rousseau’s writings.

3.3 From Ideas to Independence: The American Revolution

The colonists gathered ideas about government from many sources and traditions. But these ideas did not all come from the study of ancient history or European philosophy. They were also shaped by the colonists’ everyday experiences of life in colonial America.

Colonial Experience with Self-Government

Most of the 13 colonies were established under royal charters issued by the king. These charters gave ultimate power to the king and his appointed officials. But because the colonies were so far from Britain, the charters left a significant amount of local control in the hands of the colonists themselves.

In several colonies, the settlers modified their royal charters or added other agreements. One example of an early agreement was the Mayflower Compact. This historic document was named after the Mayflower, the small ship that brought English colonists to Massachusetts in 1620.

Before the settlers landed, they drew up a compact, or agreement, for the governing of the new colony. In this compact, they agreed to live in a “Civil Body Politic.” They also agreed to obey “just and equal Laws” enacted by representatives of their choosing “for the general good of the Colony.” This was the first written framework for self-government in the American colonies.

New England colonists soon developed their own form of local government, a version of direct democracy known as the town meeting. At these meetings, residents could discuss issues and make decisions that affected their community.

Later, in 1641, colonists in Massachusetts created New England’s first code of laws, called the Massachusetts Body of Liberties. Following in the tradition of English government, this code guaranteed certain basic rights to the colonists.

By the early 1700s, most colonies had developed a governing structure of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The executive was a governor, usually appointed by the king. Royal governors had substantial power, although that power could be partly limited by colonial legislatures.

The legislatures typically consisted of two houses. The upper house was a council appointed by the governor. The lower house was an elected assembly with members chosen by voters in the colony.

The first elected assembly in the colonies was Virginia’s House of Burgesses, established in 1619. Later, the other colonies formed elected assemblies. Like Parliament, these assemblies held the “power of the purse” – the power to approve new taxes or spending-which meant they could exercise some control over the governor.

The colonial assemblies were hardly models of democracy, because in most cases only white, male landowners were allowed to vote. Nevertheless, the assemblies reflected a belief in self-government. They also affirmed the principle that the colonists could not be taxed except by their elected representatives. Over time, the assemblies would play an increasingly important role in colonial government.

From “Benign Neglect” to Armed Rebellion

By the mid-1700s, the colonies were accustomed to managing their own affairs. Although Britain provided defense and a market for products grown or produced in the colonies, it rarely interfered with the day-to-day business of government.

In the 1760s, however, Britain reversed this policy of “benign neglect” by enforcing taxes and restrictions on the colonies. This change came about after the French and Indian War, a war fought against France and its Indian allies on North American soil.

Britain won the French and Indian War in 1763. As a result, it gained control of Canada and the Ohio Valley, areas formerly claimed by France. To defend that territory, Britain had to station more troops in the colonies. The British government argued that the colonies should pay some of the cost of this added defense. To achieve that end, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act in 1765, which said Americans must buy stamps to place on their deeds, mortgages, liquor licenses, playing cards, almanacs, and newspapers.

The colonists were outraged. In their eyes, the stamps were a form of taxation. As British citizens, only their elected representatives could tax them.

The first representative assembly in colonial America, Virginia’s House of Burgesses, was founded in Jamestown in 1619 but later moved to the new capital of Williamsburg. Today, a restored version of the Capitol, where the assembly met, is one of the prime attractions of Colonial Williamsburg.

Therefore, because the colonies had no representation in Parliament, the taxes were illegal.

Raising the cry of “no taxation without representation,” the colonists united in protest against the Stamp Act. In response, the British government repealed the hated act. But it continued trying to control the colonies through taxes and other measures. Protests continued and violence flared. On March 5, 1770, British troops shot and killed five agitators in Boston, an incident known as the Boston Massacre.

In 1773, Parliament tried again to force the colonies to accept its authority, this time by placing a tax on imported tea. Late that year, three ships arrived in Boston Harbor with the first load of taxed tea. Colonists dressed as Indians emptied 342 chests of tea into the harbor in defiance of British authority.

In a belated effort to crack down on such protests, Parliament imposed sanctions known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts. These harsh penalties further inflamed colonial resistance to British rule. Hoping to defuse the escalating conflict, colonial leaders gathered in Philadelphia in 1774. This assembly, called the First Continental Congress, called for peaceful opposition to British policies.

By this time, however, colonial patriots were already forming militias, or groups of armed citizens, to defend their rights. On April 19, 1775, militia troops from Massachusetts clashed with British soldiers in battles at Lexington and Concord. These skirmishes marked the beginning of the American Revolution.

The Decision to Declare Independence

Shortly after fighting broke out in Massachusetts, the Continental Congress met again. The delegates quickly voted to form a Continental Army made up of volunteers from all the colonies. They chose George Washington, a leading officer in the Virginia militia, to be the new army’s commanding officer.

Still, the Congress hesitated to call for a final break with Britain. Many delegates hoped instead that a peaceful resolution could be found. John Adams of Massachusetts, however, was not among them. Over the next year, Adams worked tirelessly to convince his fellow delegates that independence should be their goal.

Finally, in June 1776, the Congress formed a committee to draft a declaration of independence. This committee consisted of five men: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York. The task of crafting the first draft went to Jefferson. A gifted writer steeped in Enlightenment ideas, Jefferson wrote,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

– Declaration of Independence, 1776

In these two sentences, Jefferson set forth a vision of a new kind of nation. Unlike old nations based on blood ties or conquest, this new nation was born of two key ideas. The first is that governments are formed to protect people’s unalienable rights. In a slight twist on Locke, Jefferson defined those basic individual rights as the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The second key idea is that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.

The Declaration goes on to say that if a government fails to protect people’s rights, the people should abolish it and form a new one. To bolster the case for doing just that, the Declaration details “a long train of abuses” that violated the colonists’ rights. The document concludes with the bold declaration that

These United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;... they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and... all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

– Declaration of Independence, 1776

On July 4, 1776, the members of Congress formally approved the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was later written on parchment for delegates to sign. By signing the Declaration, the delegates were making a formal declaration of war against what was then the most powerful nation on Earth.

Creating a New Government During Wartime

The fighting with Great Britain dragged on for five more years, finally ending in 1781 with the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia. During this time, the Continental Congress served as the new nation’s government. It raised troops and supplies for the war effort, borrowed large sums of money, and negotiated treaties with foreign countries. Most of this was done without the backing of a constitution, but not for lack of trying on the part of Congress.

After declaring independence, Congress appointed a committee to prepare a plan of government known as the Articles of Confederation. This plan was approved by Congress in 1777 and sent to the states for ratification, or formal approval. The states did not get around to approving the Articles until 1781, just months before the fighting ended.

With or without a constitution, Congress had a hard time managing the war effort. It depended on the states for funding and was often short of money. As a result, it had difficulty supplying the troops with arms and provisions. Many soldiers had to fight without adequate weapons, uniforms, or food to sustain them.

By the war’s end, many Americans were skeptical of Congress’s ability to govern the new nation. Some believed that the country needed a strong ruler to ensure stability. The obvious choice was George Washington, commander of the army and hero of the revolution.

In 1782, an army officer who longed for such a strong ruler wrote a letter to Washington. In it, he expressed his hope, shared by many of his fellow officers, that the independent American states would be joined into “a kingdom with Washington as the head.” The general was appalled. He had fought for too long to sever ties with a monarchy to aspire to becoming a new king. He responded to his admirer,

Be assured Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War, has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army... banish these thoughts from your mind.

– George Washington, 1782

Although Washington rejected the idea of an American monarchy, this incident hinted at some of the difficulties facing the new American government.


Next Reading: 3-2 (Putting Ideas to Work: Framing New Constitutions)