The Twilight of Federalism
I. The Passing of the Tie-Wig School
I. Old Boston: Conservatism of temper--a reaction from the revolutionary enthusiasm of ’76. Emphasized by refusal to entertain French romantic theories. The renaissance delayed a generation. The home of the stake-in-society principle; opposition to democracy 275
II. Fisher Ames and the Tie-Wig School: The spokesman of Boston Federalism. A conservative, given to pessimism. His political philosophy an adaptation of English Whiggery to the Calvinistic conception of stewardship; based on an absolute morality. Prosperity and the Saints--the end of government to protect property; hence it must be strong and coercive. Fear of faction. A repository of aristocratic prejudice 279
III. Robert Treat Paine, Jr.--Wit: The last of the eighteenth-century Wits. His verse. A Tory--attitude towards the French Revolution. His prose. Contempt for Jacobin doctrine 288
II. Winds of Political Doctrine
I. Changing economics after 1812--rise of industrialism. A new spirit of nationalism. Danger of agrarianism, particularism. Rise of the Whig party--middle-class capitalistic. Menace of the new southern school of states rights. Need of a new nationalistic theory of the Constitution 296
II. Work begun by Joseph Story: A Massachusetts Republican. Characteristics of New England Republicanism. His shift to Whiggery. His _Commentaries on the Constitution_: derived from the common law and _The Federalist_. His view of the compact--interpretation of “We the people” 299
III. Daniel Webster--Realist and Constitutionalist: Contrasted with Emerson--English in temperament. Two periods of intellectual development: an eighteenth-century realist before 1825; a legalist afterwards. A disciple of Harrington. Two early speeches: _The Basis of the Senate, The First Settlement of New England_--an elaboration of the economic basis of politics. His economic theory--_laissez faire_. Shift to protectionism due to changing economics of his constituents. His reply to Hayne. His constitutional theory in _The Constitution not a Compact_--his debt to Story. His position on slavery--_The Seventh of March Speech_. Effect on his reputation. Comment of liberals. The Dartmouth College case. His failure 304