Revolutionary Republican Values
Enlightenmen, Reason, Roman Influence Cause the American Revolution
The American political process was parented by the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. Another ancestor in the family tree was the Ancient Roman Republic.
The First Senate
In the history of the world people had been ruled by either Monarchs or a powerful and, relative to the entire population, small group of men called Aristocrats. Generally any King usually rose from the dust of a power struggle among this collection of men. There had been but two celebrated respites from this political power structure in the course of the recorded history. In 510 BC, Sparta and Athens united to bring down the tyrannical kingdom of Hippias. Athens took the opportunity to introduce a democratic form of government which lasted almost 200 years. A year later, the Romans overthrew the absolute power of Tarquinius and replaced it with the Roman Senate, which as a generally true republic lasted about 450 years.
Old-Fashioned Enlightenment
This was the time period that inspired much of the political and social thought of the 17th and 18th centuries that has been called the Age of Enlightenment. In the political sphere, contemporary thought was that the constitutional monarchy of Britain was republican. Change began to occur because the political practice in each colony highlighted the beneficial advantages of their own form of republican government. Interestingly, a democracy was generally considered to be an inferior form of government because it was felt to be impractical and just a way of transferring power from one man to a tyrannical majority. For a republic to thrive, it would need to take on the characteristics of its successful leaders in antiquity. Three that influenced the political thought in America were Cincinnatus and Fabius and Cato.
Republican Virtue
The great character of these men, politically, was generally thought to be necessary to maintain a Republic. Cincinnatus was one of the first leaders of the Roman Senate. Although he was entrusted with great power, his virtue would not allow him to give up his simple farming existence to abuse this power. Fabius was a Roman consul who put the fate of the Republic above his own political and military reputation. Under attack by Hannibal he pursued a strategy that avoided a pitched battle in order to keep his army alive to defeat him in the end. Cato was the last tragic republican leader of Rome who fought for liberty, honor and republican virtue to the death. In a play that was popular in the 18th century his dying words were “What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country!”
Diverse Unification
The religious and social values of American life throughout the colonies, though diverse, were a perfect fit for this classical republican form of government. It required leaders and citizens who valued honor, liberty and freedom. A certain unselfishness that puts the life of the Republic before one’s own life was believed to be indispensable. These virtues were thought to preserve and confer political power in a republic. In their absence, the corrupted power that would fill the vacuum would result in tyranny. This would either be anarchy or a consolidated absolute monarchy. There was tremendous optimism in the colonial population that they had the strength to maintain the virtue needed to sustain a republic. It was tempered by the humble realization that no republic had ever maintained the disinterest in power necessary for its survival for any historically significant period of time.
Sources
Ancient Historians by Michal Grant, 1994, Barnes and Noble
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 by Gordon S. Wood, 1998, UNC Press
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic, by John Ferling, 2007, Oxford University Press
