Page 168 - American Stories, A History of the United States

republican.” He may have exaggerated the social impact of this reform, but its symbol-
ism counted as much as real social practice. Republican legislators wanted to cleanse 6.1
traces of the former feudal order from the statute books.
Republican ferment also encouraged states to lower property requirements for vot-
ing. After the break with Britain, this seemed logical. As one group of farmers declared, 6.2
no man can be “free & independent” unless he possesses “a voice . . . in the choice of
the most important Officers in the Legislature.” Pennsylvania and Georgia allowed
all white male taxpayers to vote. Other states were less democratic, but except for 6.3
Massachusetts, they reduced property qualifications.
The most important changes in voting patterns were the result of western
migration. As Americans moved to the frontier, they received full political rep- 6.4
resentation in their state legislatures. Because new districts tended to be poorer
than established coastal settlements, their representatives seemed less cultured, less
well trained than those eastern voters elected. Moreover, western delegates resented
traveling so far to attend legislative meetings. They lobbied to transfer state capi-
tals to more convenient locations. During this period, Georgia moved the seat of
its government from Savannah to Augusta, South Carolina from Charles Town to
Columbia, North Carolina from New Bern to Raleigh, Virginia from Williamsburg
to Richmond, New York from New York City to Albany, and New Hampshire from
Portsmouth to Concord.
After gaining independence, Americans also reexamined the relation between
church and state. Republican spokesmen such as Thomas Jefferson insisted that rulers
had no right to interfere with the free expression of religious beliefs. As governor of
Virginia, he advocated disestablishing the Anglican Church, which had received tax
monies and other benefits during the colonial period. Jefferson and his allies regarded
such privilege not only as a denial of religious freedom—rival denominations did not
receive tax money—but also as a vestige of aristocratic society.
In 1786, Virginia cut the last ties between church and state. Other southern states
also disestablished the Anglican Church, but in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Quick Check
New Hampshire, Congregational churches continued to enjoy special status. More- During the 1780s, why were
over, while Americans championed toleration, they seldom favored philosophies that Americans so sensitive to the
radically challenged Christian values. dangers of “aristocratic display”?

African Americans in the New Republic
Revolutionary fervor forced Americans to confront the most appalling contradiction to
republican principles—slavery. The Quaker John Woolman (1720–1772) probably did
more than any other white person of the era to remind people of the evils of this insti-
tution. A trip he took through the southern colonies as a young man impressed upon
Woolman “the dark gloominess” of slavery. In a sermon, the outspoken humanitarian
declared “that Men having Power too often misapplied it; that though we made Slaves
of the Negroes, and the Turks made Slaves of the Christians, I believed that Liberty was
the natural Right of all Men equally.”
During the revolutionary period, abolitionist sentiment spread. Both in private and
public, people began to criticize slavery in other than religious language. No doubt, the
double standard of their own political rhetoric embarrassed many white Americans.
They demanded liberation from parliamentary enslavement but held hundreds of
thousands of blacks in bondage.
By keeping the issue of slavery before the public through writing and petition-
ing, African Americans undermined arguments in favor of human bondage. They
demanded freedom, reminding white lawmakers that African American men and
women had the same natural right to liberty as did other Americans. In 1779, for
example, African Americans in Connecticut asked the state assembly “whether it is
consistent with the present Claims, of the United States, to hold so many Thousands,
of the Race of Adam, our Common Father, in perpetual Slavery.” In New Hampshire,

135