200 Years of Liberal Democracy in America, Part 1

from communication center university of texas austin this university forum old the forum is a public interdisciplinary meeting place for the wide ranging world of ideas opinion and analysis this week future prize winning historian william gates but takes a look at two hundred years of liberal democracy in america this is the first in a series of bicentennial lectures intended by stanley are ross chairman of ut austin's bicentennial committee to be the university's printable commemoration of our nation's two hundredth birthday university forum as pleased to join in this observance and you'll hear the rest of his lectures in future weeks on this program now here's professor way livingston coordinator of the lecture series to introduce this week speaker dr jensen was born in nineteen thirty in washington dc you would graduate and over my school in houston in nineteen forty eight and that probably went off to yale university where he spent the next sixteen years by

my count of course doesn't register and then there has a graduate student and finally for eight years as a member of the yale faculty in history and american studies since nineteen sixty four years and a member of the faculty of the university of texas at austin where he enjoys orleans performs in three different roles first as professor of history second as styles professor of american studies and third as director of the university's program in american studies he's been a full ride from use vinegar the ninth zone is a fellow of the royal geographical society is a prolific and prodigious or third well has to his credit now some five books and by the last count some thirty four scholarly articles his pioneering lawyer are entitled exploration an empire in nineteen sixty seven won both the pulitzer prize and the francis parker the war

william denson is a teacher and lecture all high note calling for omar have great respect and great affection is dame tonight as you have been told is two hundred years of liberal democracy in america and it is done when i present to you like ryan proposal unit in nineteen forty with the united states face with a demoralization of an ongoing great depression right and the rising threat a world totalitarianism as the final solution to global problems professor ralph henry gabriel real university only published his life and the course of american democratic for at the present it in historical terms and american counter ideology to the demoralization of depression and threats of totalitarianism he saw in the american democratic experience the forging of a set of ideals and principles that had been and would be inspiring and

yet tough and resilient enough to resist the awesome pressures dialing lee easy solutions of the twentieth century for him the essence of american democracy rested on three axioms always a natural law that transcended temporary expediency belief an innate dignity of the individual and belief in the mission of american spread its enlightened principles where mankind was being oppressed or was entirely in a story in his book made clear that these principles had been the ride from hard experience they did not spring full blown from the head of zeus show for the other guy they evolved grew with time and prove their value in many a perilous test so is the us also appropriate i think that this bicentennial series should begin with history and concrete experience before turning to that concrete experience however that they are the tribe i think

important to turn to the problem of definition to me definitions and porno workers several times throughout this lecture said concept of liberal democracy being alive and dynamic continue to grow and evolve in our history i wear preliminary definition are let me make use of that an oft quoted chesnutt or actors pronouncement are crops and absolute power corrupts absolutely sam's clear to me that the concept or ideology of liberal democracy has always been long before activists time directed toward the prevention of such absolute power in such absolute corruption there's a philosophy rooted in the de centralization of power democratic decision making process resting necessarily upon the broadest possible based and individual participation it is the belief that individuals and society should control their own destiny great empty spaces and abundant resources of america as frederick jackson

turner and david pirate point out a uniquely possible to test his philosophy in america the before to be tried out americans had a struggle for a revolution which we now celebrate and was to me is critical to any chronicle of liberal democracies adventures over two hundred years control where the individuals who make up society control when individuals or their own destinies i think his definition of democracy seemed clear enough but what does liberal democracy for longtime liberal seem to derive from liberty which internet in the context of minorities and other forms of absolute government the people should be freed from governmental absolutism left alone to pursue happiness in any way they'd show for much of the eighteenth and nearly all of the nineteenth century it meant laissez faire says the mainstay of a class called a little political economist adam smith on war more recently he's taken on other meanings canals and openness and is up on a desire for change

as opposed to the foot dragging of conservatism routine information sampson put it most succinctly when he said to be or it belongs to the living and also connotes a rowdy open handedness a free spending everything for everybody mentality the idea that one where another in the show i would be seduced forced to inherit the year what in his best terms it connotes generosity advert you so eloquently symbolize one statue of liberty perhaps most importantly has come to stand for the protection of the people remains concentrated power where it looms as a threat to liberty these economy in business and in the regular world politics it is because the americans believe that they had perfected a philosophy and a technique for defending the people against concentrated power of the united states was and is a liberal democratic nation that they have been so eager to take up the cause of a professor

gabriel called the mission of america tom payne at the outset of the revolution provided the rallying cry freedom has been hunted around the globe asia and africa have long expelled europe regards her like a stranger in england have given her warning to the card or receive a fugitive and prepare in time an asylum from anti does vividly back into history and the story of how the american liberal democratic experiment began in revolution and the struggle for independence he's beginning to form a parable perhaps or at least the basic text on which our subsequent experience with attitude toward libel mr christie inevitably rest reciting this parable like to begin with the obvious and independents are not the same thing vaccines to an obscure during our national

birthday celebration and much more stresses been put upon revolution admittedly a fashionable were these days and upon independent this is true for a number of reasons for revolution as dramatic a story is epic stirs the blood is dynamic independence is a condition we revolution connotes images invasions of struggle and heroism here for two years and ragged soldiers are the times that try men's souls st george washington and marie or louis rio independence for the successful revolutionaries almost an anti climax is abstract and implied terminations station spaces like the happy ending of a fairytale or a motion picture whereas revolution will be a permanent dynamic condition an ongoing focus for the hopes and dreams of the people revolution is above all meth the most powerful modern myth of our times and certainly the most powerful math

along with that of the frontier described by frederick jackson turner in american civilization says the dea uses them to be fully aware of the humanistic and spiritual quality revolution as miss and the growth of american civilization a traditional revolution makes and has made the interstate seen everlastingly the country of the future where time the campaign somewhat more optimistically announce the birthday of a new world down to the present the traditional revolution also explains the north americans raichlen i'll always in our history it seems new has been there we want to be progressive modernist up today rolando were pathetically responsive to the latest european coast will fetch from for analogy and walter scott an owl's and bouse architecture and existentialism for recent decades we've seen the rage for the new virtually destroy our as one school replaced another until almost annually and to have gone from the minimal the invisible

a similar rhythm prevailed in the nineteenth century american preoccupation with the new and technology preoccupation that build a mighty industrial nation forever altered the ecology of both land and people want the same time generating a human mobility has kept the nation and a fur sam bouts with built in obsolescence railroad bridges superhighways automobiles motorcycles the culture and easy rider or something to do with a north american myth of continuing evolution with rage to the new united states about a whole continent has been for two hundred years celebrating the endless birthday party with the revolution has supplied the dynamic is instill the spirit and the revelers yet most of our current stars do not see the american revolution as being very revolutionary at all it is most frequently contrast with the french revolution in the soviet roach sam wanting in revolutionary quality the french revolution carried four and a rising tide of romantic folk

spirit seems was a fraud or to overturn the established orders in favor of the masses it is a true social class crochet creased ideology a revolution or at least the stirring rhetoric a revolution seemed addressed to the masses and promise to not abolish peasantry least ameliorate his condition since the united states has had no explicitly acknowledged as a class this revolutionary leaders last produced no such rare like jefferson and franklin believed america to be a classless society all leaders like adams and hamilton they believed otherwise you're not admit it american revolutionary leaders throw off the impediments of the british empire so as to allow the new man the american workers turn to realize the opportunities of nature's abundance offered to him you know

isis as did tokyo in the age of jackson this meant that american revolutionary leaders aside from campaign is no rhetoric or ideology of cataclysmic class revolution likewise in this respect they do not compare her apocalyptic visions with the leaders of the soviet approach there was no powerful helium dialectic to help them spouse clash and contradiction or chilled say there was no marxist view reality or a myth of the working class or even in a country where everyone was of the working class and walid himself a better for and there was no rules are its repression no doubt know downtrodden peasantry except the negro slave no secret police elsevier our current standards the american revolution seems pre revolution no presence to liberate know masses to distant chain and no classes to

overthrow know unsettle mass audience appeal ideology ten however historians with a perverse matted beard and looked at the consequences of the two modern revolutions in france and russia miley displayed on because revolutions they have not accomplished so much after all set unless the main scally battleground as it concerns the american revolution to day seems inevitably to a reference to the two real revolutions in france and russia one of the stars is believe that the american revolution was fought less over home rule then who should rule it how research diligently for evidence indicating that a class struggle was somehow involved in our revolution new historians have found startling evidence of such things as sailors riots against their masters them certain evidence of the colony wide class struggle students of the great awakening often see that stranger that lesson really just turn and socio economic

terms you a commercial away from charleston to boston where the troupe has a massive spin against the thai we get leaks and their poker puppets charles chauncey bailey sarewitz it was these awakening has a masters inspired by jonathan edwards millennial redick writer rick perry knows i'm not to mention god's divine a supernatural i led the vanguard revolution a recent course is by newspaper article even as george washington numbered among this awakening as vanguard answered though that is to contemplate still other interrogators point with pride to the period after the democratizing provisions of the northwest ordinance of the new state constitutions which carried republicanism to the extreme and thrown the cop a county legislator shays another incipient rebellion his constitutional convention devise a relative increase in the franchise for men not to women and

it's clear that the revolution was after all last motivating and clasp ago another school points tellingly to the fact that the federalists in order to promote the constitution understand car had to adopt a leveling rhetoric from republicans wine that no federal us believe a word of it when the abiding problems with his interpretation is of course the question as to whether or not republican yeoman in town a country considered themselves masses and classes either the revolutionary or even later the jacksonian period this question should i feel bad for an emerging generation have quite atrocious so integrity is a revolution remain old fashioned they still search for an ideological tradition among american leaders only provided the cement revolutionary solidarity but also bears comparison with a better known rhetoric and ideology of france and russia the most notable work of these young

person burned evans prize winning ideological origins of the american revolution sees a columnist he persuaded to revile appeals to classical models of republican republicans or chew values the english legal tradition the works of british and continental philosophers and most viscerally english when tradition of coffee house radicalism best exemplified and keep those letters attention anymore as the top american colonies had a high degree of literacy because the printing pamphlets in penny papers was becoming a rage in america nutella surprisingly fast and what was in the seventeen seventies or c ward a nation says it believes the says must be considered something more than an old fashioned elitist interpretation the ideological interpretation seems

forced to concede the revolution itself wasn't a dental after the fact so that the real change had taken place some years before in the minds and hearts of people but then why the necessity for independence crabs this can explain hensel explaining it can possibly suggest another characterization of the american revolution the one concept that seems to have taken hold and prevent revolutionary north america is the belief in the natural right to liberty first the pilgrims an appearance came second religious liberty in their own peculiar fashion says south of the chesapeake and the one thing the proprietors of the virginia company learned was the folly of attempting to attract plantation workers without giving him some chance to own their own way and that's control their own destinies and the vastness

as the male colleagues developed pennsylvania prosperous clan of tolerance really just economic and sometimes death which attracted thousands of settlers now only made philadelphia most prosperous city in the colonies animals tower also been at the back country to rich and fruitful settlement dr dre jerseys were so name only as the newly arrived at pretty much what they please since the lordly owners were in absentia taking a water somewhere in britain and they are growing at the hudson river train system fail in manhattan become a polyglot city of all sorts of people were legions of occupations but it was so recognized by british authorities when i covered from the dutch they are most indigenous institutions just that and elaine femur british north american imperialism seems to have been the population of the colonies with whatever people seemed available and willing santa and for most striking fact about this is the throw such a very longtime minor exceptions the interests of britain

and its north american colleagues seem to coincide their struggles seem to take place within the colonies themselves are actually due to growing pains continually jostle threatened four times replaced the status positions of colonial leadership groups struggle the current orthodoxy to retain absolute control over its visible signs in the face of whirling rotors is one such example senator war waged by the waking hours is the so called armenians was another set you struggle to afford out on the plains of intellectual so lonely intensity that's general will spite which general michael on the plains of abraham the rights back by the piece of paris a seventeen sixty three which ended the seven years' war how are in north america itself a new status revolution had taken place always profound see ousting the french in the backwoods heartland of america religion

for say it lost its monopoly on the definition of a good life in america a great awakening had subsided for time a sudden storm loan out to sea with an egg on the minister's authority and our continental ej instead new mineral riches made richer and more profits lawyers made rich on merchants profits and squabbles the most important of all the new intellectual class who gained sway on the minds of americans in the media newspapers almanac circulated letters politically oriented sermons manifesto was and pathways such thing is the samuel adams benjamin franklin james otis patrick henry john dickinson thomas jefferson campaign immediately spring and more one place in the ministry struggles or freedom of conscience and the merits of the merits of private revelation these new man american feel sauce directed their energies to defining in arguing using every basic strand of

traditional western thought the nature of human liberty in this world run than that but now i have a reason as contenders and leaders of all why did they feel compelled to precipitate a crisis within what seemed to be harmonious british empire governed by their own admission from the most enlightened constitution and set of laws that western than ever rarely purely economic voters were not the most important navigation x exception of controls over sugar and molasses were largely beneficial to the columnist as already consumers lawson schoen please actor so loosely enforced is to make smuggling take on the character of a legitimate business enterprise gazing do wish nothing but goodwill for scholars you made an american benjamin west the scorching were proud of the new one american empire and laurie should probably be enough salman as an emir in his followers have shown was hardly united by rather a collection of local

representatives bound up with a limited set of constituents parochial concerns me more sport of jockeying for status and glory within the confines of the houses themselves such a piece of witty one upmanship his horse won't close judgment of charles townsend well you know almost every county if he had that common truth and sincerity and honesty from a modesty unsteadiness common courage common sense and pro may seem to the time more important than a wise and far sighted policy a north american colony in short despite the great names of parliament handed down was by british historian spite of striking personalities of local fox burke sir the british parliament we seemed to have differed little limits instincts over jr house of burgess is or massachusetts assemble it was excessively local in character santana and worldwide intellectual currents were sweeping through western civilization and

britain itself acquired a global empire salmon seemed almost testy at the inconveniences of interrupting exporting attending to the responsibilities of its new hampshire the best way out was to delegate authority and by seventeen sixty three is the latest foreign policy written the largest most cumbersome bureaucracy of its time a major travel spoils mentioned in the ice as esmond write this gadget the following all had some control over the tower secretary state for the southern department the board of trade and plantations merchants the treasury surveyor order general of the colonies commissioner customs a secretary at war the admiralty the admiralty courts the survey generally king's woods the postmaster general in addition to london right observes wrote the admiralty alone and fifteen branches getting all parts of the town whitehall to teach

that ward satellite all but the navy officers and ceiling and the billing office in the smithfield a new ordinance in the tower and quote in light of that attack the ships were docked along the thames and the royal observatory which furnished a sailing chart was administered by the admiralty located foggy bottom originated long ago in eighteenth century london on this experience in the seven years were fast into permanent hostile bureaucracy on a mare to a man the british commanders who participated in that campaign weldon and hearst ok so when johnson and others had nothing but contempt for the continentals flows colonies had for supplies and then only with the greatest reluctance the successful campaigns in the vast were forced to lakes nearby common british redcoats lobster backs alone and reflected in her a warrant from the wild mohawk valley

to the un scalable lives accordingly general thomas gave was appointed commander in chief for north america to watch over the immense hinterland and to guard against the unruly americans seventeen sixty three a new strategy was launched a ditch enthusiastic larry carr carried out until seventeen seventy four when tulane was relieved american settlers were to be kept out of the interior that country pennsylvania in ohio in turkey know or sold to a british regulars to avoid becoming in ashton another vast land war in the wilderness soups were to be stationed around the fringes of the frontier to keep the settlers out and to protect the indian so they might continue to french first rich benefactors because a strategic location using the the hudson river valley was selected as the main headquarters of the british army great numbers of troops were before they're sent out of reinforcements different universe wallace britain sent its own agents among the indian seeking trading pacification shows toward

avoid another war i mean sending sixty three or proclamations many americans to cross over and settled beyond the alleghenies this offended thousands of would be american settlers and also groups of land speculators and the seaport towns who hope to profit by doing and greatly extended territories won by the resort