Empire of Liberty

This installment of the Oxford American History of the United States, by Pulitzer-Prize winning professor Gordon S. Wood, covers the early days of the country, from the ratification of the Constitution to the War of 1812. It's an often neglected but very important period of American history, as the nation was unformed at the time, and not quite sure what it was to become. It also wasn't a feel-good time, as there were bitter disputes, most notably between Federalists and Republicans, and the constant threat of war, either with England, France, Spain or all three.

What's striking upon the reading of the book is how nothing really changes. Though the founders were keen on not having political parties (they didn't want a standing army, either, and now both are inherent to the U.S. character), the differences between the Federalists, who consisted of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, and the Republicans, notably Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were sharp. Wood writes, "Except for the era of the Civil War, the last several years of the eighteenth century were the most politically contentious in United States history...As the Federalist and the Republican parties furiously attacked each other as enemies of the Constitution, party loyalties became more intense and began to override personal ties, as every aspect of American life became politicized. People who had known one another their whole lives now crossed streets to avoid confrontations. Personal differences spilled over into violence, and fighting erupted in the state legislatures and even in the federal Congress." Sound familiar?

It was the Republicans who would win out, and Wood titles many of his chapters accordingly, such as "Republican Reforms," "Republican Society," "Republican Religion," etc. Wood explains the demise of the Federalists: "The Federalist world could not endure. The Federalists of the 1790s stood in the way of popular democracy as it was emerging in the United States, and thus they became heretics opposed to the developing democratic faith." When once the term "democrat" was an insult, it later became a badge of honor, as simpler men who were not aristocrats were elected to office. Federalists could not never accept that Republicans believed all men were created equal.

All men except slaves, of course. As with all American history, the treatment of African Americans is a large stain. What I learned in this book is that slavery was on the brink of extinction at about 1800, but the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1805 inadvertently revived it, as all of a sudden cotton became a key crop in the South. The issue would not be resolved for another sixty years.

The book is comprehensive, and there are some parts that made me a little glassy eyed, but most of it was vivid and accessible. There are numerous moments of droll humor, such as how the founders dealt with creating traditions. I liked John Adams' confusion about the roll of Vice President: "He knew he was vice-president of the United States..but he was also president of the Senate. He was two officers at once, which perhaps, he said, was the reason the huge chair in which he sat was made wide enough to hold two persons." As to how to address the president, "Washington himself was said to have initially favored 'His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties."

Empire of Liberty is heavy on political history, with Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison the key players. Other characters make their mark, like Aaron Burr, John Marshall (the most important Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), and lesser known names like Fisher Ames. There are also chapters on religion which are relevant to today. Wood points out that the more remote places, such as the South, developed religions with more bizarre rituals, and that this was most decidedly not intended to be a Christian nation: "Most leading Founders were not deeply or passionately religious, and few of them led much of a spiritual life. As enlightened gentlemen addressing each other in learned societies, many of the leading gentry abhorred 'that gloomy superstition disseminated by ignorant illiberal preachers' and looked forward to the day when 'the phantom of darkness will be dispelled by the rays of science, and the bright charms of rising civilization.' Most of them, at best, only passively believed in organized Christianity and, at worst, privately scorned and mocked it...Jefferson's hatred for the clergy and organized religion knew no bounds. He believed that members of the 'priestcraft' were always in alliance with despots against liberty."

The book ends with a nifty chapter-length summation of the War of 1812. Wood boldly states, post-Vietnam and mid-Iraq, that it was the most unpopular war in American history. Indeed, many New Englanders openly aided the British, and considered seceding. The rising and falling stock of how the U.S. felt about England and France during the period was dizzying--the French were openly loved at the time of the French revolution, yet despised at around the time of the XYZ affair. Again, things never change.

Throughout the book it is never not fascinating how precarious this great experiment in democracy was. The union almost broke apart several times, and many of the great men of the time had very different ideas about what the United States would be. Many of those questions would not be answered for generations, and in certain aspects have still remain unanswered.