Gordon Wood - Empire of Liberty (2)

Gordon S. Wood – Empire of Liberty

In the early days of the Republic, nowhere in the world was business and working for profit more celebrated, which made slavery all the more anomalous. Slavery was condemned, but it not only survived, it flourished. P. 2-3

By 1815 the U.S. was the most evangelical nation in the world. P. 3

By all accounts the new country was an experiment in republicanism. P. 5

Early on the people had a sense of exceptionalism. P. 7

The purpose of the Constitution was to temper the democratic excesses of the state legislatures. P. 16 (Wood seems to give scant notice to Shay’s Rebellion)

The interests of the local was destroying the interests of the people as a whole. P. 17

Once passed in 1791 the Bill of Rights was forgotten about and lay dormant until the 20th Century. P. 72 (amazing)

There were expectations amongst some that the country could have become an elective monarch like Poland. P. 74

It never ceases to amaze me to read about how George Washington invented the office of President. P. 76

According to Adams, GW was the best actor of the presidency we’ve ever had. P. 78
I’ve yet to get a real feel for the supposed tendencies toward monarchism in the 1790’s. P. 85

Hamilton sought to copy 18th century England. P. 93

Some Federalists hoped the states would revert to administrative units of the federal government. P. 97

Hamilton’s program laid the groundwork for the supremacy of the national over the state governments. P. 103

The Federalists were elitists, but this was, in my opinion, necessary in the 90’s to cement the country together. Hamilton felt rightly that the success of the new government depending on attracting the support of the people of means. The rest of the people would follow. Hierarchies were inevitable. P. 105-06

Federalism failed because of the capitalistic and democratic society that emerged after the Federalists established the stability of the new national government. P. 110

American independence was a disaster for Indians. P. 125

Indians had to submit to removal, destruction, or conform to the white man’s ways. P. 128

Hamilton argued for the first national bank based on the famous “necessary and proper” clause in Article 1 Section 8. P. 144-45

Hamilton had a different vision of the country than Jefferson and Madison. I say both were right and both were wrong in different ways. P. 147

Mostly Jefferson was wrong especially in his version of the country as a continuing confederation of independent states. P. 148

That Madison switched from being a nationalist to a states-righter is one of American history’s most debased topics. P. 148

The Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans were like today’s Democrats and Republicans: each believes that the other party is out to destroy the country. P. 161

Some historians believe that the Republican party’s main purpose was to protect slavery in the South. P. 166

Were the Federalists really “monarchical?” P. 172

It’s hard to figure John Adams. I like him even though some historians like to laugh at him. Chapter 6

The so-called crisis of 1798-99 with Citizen Genet and the XYZ Affair is a period of American history and the risk of war with France is a part of American history that I will never totally understand. Chapter 7

Wood seems to think there really was a Jeffersonian Revolution starting with his election in 1800. I suppose he is right, but I think less and less of Jefferson the more I read about him. Chapter 8

The expansion of the country west during Jefferson’s reign does not greatly interest me. Chapter 10

Strict constructionists always find a way to do what they want to do. Hence, they invoked the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution to justify the Louisiana Purchase. P. 371

Lewis and Clark started from St. Louis. P. 378

The Marbury decision was the case where the Marshall Court declared a law unconstitutional. The next time this happened wasn’t until the 1857 Dred Scott decision. P. 442

Jefferson’s record on slavery is horrific. Although he always condemned slavery, he was one of the biggest slaveholders in Virginia. He sold hundreds of slaves. He thought that by the age of 10 a boy should be treated like a man. There was no such thing as a kind slaveholder. P. 514-15

The Revolutionary leaders mistakenly thought that slavery was on its way to extinction. In their eyes there was evidence, obviously wrong, that slavery was dying out. P. 518-19

No matter what is said, everybody at the time knew in their hearts that slavery was wrong. P. 520

Stopping the slave trade did not end slavery. P. 523

In 1799 Washington had 317 slaves. P. 524

The Founders had a naïve faith in the future. The best thing was not to rock the slavery boat. P. 525

From the beginning the nation moved in two different directions with slavery slowly disappearing in the North but persisting and eventually growing in the South. P. 526

Jefferson’s Republicans were the South’s party and the Federalists were the North’s party. There is no way you can tell me that the Jefferson’s party wasn’t at least partly formed to defend slavery. So-called states rights and race go hand in hand and always have. P. 527

The frustrations between the sections began during the Revolution and only got worse as time went on. P. 531

In 1787-1788 Federalists accepted the three-fifths compromise as necessary to keep the South in the Union. Eventually they realized their mistake: that Jefferson owed his election to the three-fifths provision, that his Republican party was Southern based and rested on slavery, and thru the three-fifths provision the South would dominate the federal government. P. 532

Wood devotes three chapter to life during the Republican Era. Chapters 15, 16, & 17

I will never fully understand the War of 1812. Wood devotes a chapter to it. Let it be. Chapter 18

One of Wood’s chief points is that the Founders were elitists who had exalted notions of the disinterested motivations of political leaders---the way it should be---but that they set in motion notions of egalitarianism that made the nation unrecognizable to them by the early years of the 19th century. Chapter 19