Scott Parkin
Hist 6393
25 January 2000
Drew McCoy. The Elusive Republic: Political Economy In Jeffersonian America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980. Pp.268 + Index
Drew McCoy's The Elusive Republic: Political Economy In Jeffersonian America
attempts to explain the paradox of the Jefferson era's "political economy. He does this by detailing a foundation of various 18th century philosophies that affected the first generation of American leaders. Defined as "the operation of government upon its domestic resources independent of its external or foreign administration" (6), Jefferson's political economy reinforced the republican idea of an interdependence between polity, economy and society. The idealists of the American Revolution wanted to create a society free of Europe's commercial corruption and social decay. Both America's rapidly expanding commercial/manufacturing sector and the agricultural sector's surplus undermined this ideal, requiring new foreign trade for sale of their products and inducing the development of industrial society.
McCoy’s thesis focuses on the conflict between Jefferson’s republican virtues and economic reality of the marketplace. This ideological conflict arose around America’s evolution from an agricultural society to an industrialized commercial society. Utilizing an ancient Greek metaphor, McCoy likens the new nation to a biological organism where the agrarian republic represents youth and decadent commercialization represents "old age". The Revolutionary generation detested the mercantilism of the Old World because it tended to gravitate towards social ills such as poverty, inequality, dependence, violence and vice. Instead they sought a middle ground between agrarian life and large commercial manufacturing, which McCoy never makes totally clear.
McCoy does clearly outlines the role of the government in a Jeffersonian republic. The government needed to promote social and economic progress, support a moral, land-owning independent citizenry and prevent corruption, social decay and unconstrained materialism. Left unchecked, these areas quickly lead to an eventual advancement into an industrial society, eliminate that landed citizenry and doom the republic. The Jeffersonians wanted to forestall that process by acquiring western lands for further agricultural development. Maintaining incentives for hard work further complicated Jefferson’s republic as commercial success meant greater material rewards than agricultural success. Thus, they gave foreign trade an important role in the political economy.
McCoy focuses on James Madison and Alexander Hamilton opposing economic plans during the 1790’s to illustrate the debate between the agrarian and commercial viewpoints. In order to stabilize a nation wrecked by British blockades and socio-political unrest during the 1780’s, the Founding Fathers created a centralized government to protect the nations social, political and economic interests. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton put forth an economic plan further linking the government and private citizens by creating a prosperous commercial sector. Hamilton wanted to induce change in American society towards a more commercialized and manufacturing-based economy and society. Madison presented a plan as well. He conflicts with Hamilton as his plan also entails creating a strong central government, but using it for continued expansion of land to extend the life of the agricultural society. Obviously, Hamilton’s plan is the better known attempt to affect American society and McCoy to his credit demonstrates the fine points of Madison’s lesser known plan.
McCoy also presents Thomas Jefferson’s presidency as more consistent than eventually thought by scholars (187). Attempting to reverse corrupt Federalist policy, Jefferson sought to secure the political economy by eliminating specific dangers and maintaining certain conditions less inimical to republicanism. His first goal would be the acquisition of new lands to remove "Malthusian doubts Jefferson might have had about the long-range viability of republicanism in America" (195). McCoy illustrates how the issues of Louisiana Purchase, Mississippi navigation rights and concerns about Florida not only forestalled mercantilism and urban overpopulation into the republic, but also attempted to integrate the United States into foreign markets. Jefferson’s heir, Madison, enters the War of 1812 for the same reasons.
Following the War, the Republicans focused more on debate over the development domestic manufactures and a domestic market. The Jeffersonians realized the need for a large-scale manufacturing sector to compete with foreign economies. They shunned the idea of capitulating to Hamilton’s vision, instead claiming their recent experiences adapted them to the realities of the world. Eventually, Jefferson and Madison both realized that their republican political economy remained too elusive.
Drew McCoy's The Elusive Republic: Political Economy In Jeffersonian America clearly describes the elements it attempts to explain. Scholars of early American history will find McCoy’s essay useful in many ways. He discusses the pre-Revolutionary thought of Ben Franklin (and doesn’t see him as an imperialist), goes into the whole Republican/Federalist argument of the 1790’s and discusses the Jefferson and Madison administrations quite extensively. His arguments are consistent, well written and understandable. He utilizes sources from various 18th and 19th century thinkers and writers to support his arguments. He accomplishes his goal of explaining the paradoxes of the republican political economy.
In light of last week’s discussion and the continuing on-line discussions about the motives of early foreign policy thinkers, I’d say McCoy’s book views foreign policy and expansion as a necessity to maintain their ideal way of life. One theme that materializes, at least to me, is the intertwining nature of foreign policy and domestic policy. In today’s world you don’t see the motivating factors behind foreign policy initiatives, but during the early days it is more obvious. The Jeffersonian Republicans feared living in a European style society with poverty, landless masses of laborers, unorganized violence, social inequality and probably war. They saw the only way to hinder that future society was physical expansion west and economic expansion into foreign markets. It surfaced as a moral argument to them because it meant the end of virtuous society without it. I see William Appleman Williams’s argument in this book as the Revolutionary generation searches for a practical means to maintain American republican culture.