Overview

The period after the American Revolution was marked by a search for identity and stability in the United States. In the ten to fifteen years following the end of the war, Congress and lawmakers struggled to define the United States through its governance structures. Behind every gesture toward stability and identity were anxieties about losing what had been gained, or worse, slipping into chaos, anarchy, or despotism. The years after the Revolution brought to the fore many of the issues that were left unresolved in the War itself, and in fact made evident the differences among interests that were in many ways suppressed when united in the common cause of independence. The purpose of this activity is to engage with some of the documentary record of these critical years to discover the close relationship between the creation of a sense of identity for the new nation and the anxieties of failure that were an integral part of that identity formation. 

We will work with several American Memory collections from the post-Revolutionary Era to explore some of the issues at stake in the early years of national formation. Moving from close textual reading to concept mapping back to textual research with the collections, we will explore some of the ways that rhetoric -- in both personal and legislative writing -- can function at more than one level. 

Objectives 

At the end of this activity participants will be able to: 

• Describe some of the political, economic and cultural issues at stake in the early years of national formation;
• Demonstrate teaching strategies that move from close textual reading to concept mapping and formation back to textual research;
• Explain some of the ways that rhetoric -- in both personal and legislative writing -- can function at more than one level; 
• Identify ways to use computer searching and sorting tools and concept maps to move between specific textual passages to more abstract concepts. 

Resources 

1. Touchstone Passage: Maclay's Journal for Monday, January 31st, 1789 
2. Touchstone Passage: Letter from George Washington to Charles M Thruston, August 10, 1794.
3. American Memory Collections (all at http://memory.loc.gov)
   • George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
   • Documents from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention
   • A Century of Lawmaking for New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1883 (particularly Maclay's Journal)

Exercise 

Working with Touchstone Passages: clarifying language and concepts (30 min)

1. Read individually Touchstone Passage A or B. Circle key words and draw lines from phrases/passages to ideas about identity, stability, and anxiety. The group will have a general discussion in which we match the language of the passage to concepts of identity (e.g., the implicit connection in the Maclay passage between competence and virtue, etc.)
   
   
2. The group discusses what they think lawmakers in the early republic might have been anxious about. Facilitator helps connect these anxieties to concepts of national self-identity. The group brainstorms search terms that can be used to investigate anxiety and identity in the new republic using the collections. 

Group search activity and concept mapping (60 minutes) 

1. In pairs, search at least two of the American Memory collections above to locate passages that express anxiety about some aspect of the new republic. 

2. Search tip: Use the terms brainstormed in step I, or any of the following -- rebellion (Shays Rebellion, e.g.), insurrection, despotism, anarchy, inflation, hard money. 

   PLEASE keep some notes on which search strategies seem to work better than others. What words (or types of words) yielded results and which did not? Were there unexpected discoveries of words and language near your search terms that you would not have thought of that generated a new search? Be alert to the language around your search terms in context. 
   
   

3. Print out at least three passages that relate to threats or anxieties the republic faces. For each passage, highlight or underline language relating to anxiety, and link that language to some aspect of self-concept or identity (such as the notion of competence implicit in the Maclay passage).
   
   
4. With your partner, draw a simple 'concept map' of the issues of national identity raised by your three passages. For example, for the Maclay passage, one issue on the map might include 'Knowledge' or 'Competence' (ie, of citizens and their representatives). 

5. Be prepared to show your 'concept map' to the group, and show how your passages relate to the terms on it. 

Group discussion / debriefing (30 minutes) 

1. Groups take turns presenting their concept maps and briefly show how the documents they found exemplify the concepts. As they do so, the facilitator constructs a larger-scale concept map about 'American Identity,' consisting of the combined terms and issues found by the group. Groups then 'pin' the passages they found on the larger concept map, to see the complex of terms and issues relating to American identity that have emerged. 
   
   
2. The group then discusses: 
   • later moments in American history when these issues become dominant, as well as contemporary issues that are related; 
   • how our work has anticipated electronic tools for working dynamically with text, concept mapping, or annotation; 
   • the implications this activity has for the students we work with and our aims for them as learners and thinkers. 

Touchstone Passage A

Maclay's Journal: Monday, January 31st, 1789 (excerpt)

When or how will all these mad measures lead us? We have it ever in our ears that the present General Government (with respect to the persons who compose it) contains the collected wisdom and learning of the United States. It must be admitted that they have generally been selected on account of their reputation for knowledge, either legal, political, mercantile, historical, etc. Newspapers are printed in every corner. In every corner ambitious men abound, for ignorance or want of qualifications is no bar to this view. Thus, then, the Tylers and Jackstraws may come in play, and talents, experience, and learning be considered as disqualifications for office; and thus the Government be bandied about from one set of projectors to another, til some one man more artful than the rest, to perpetuate their power, slip the noose of despotism about our necks. 'Tis easy to say this never can happen among a virtuous people; ay, but we are not more virtuous than the nations that have gone before us.   

Source: A Century of Law-Making: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873   

Touchstone Passage B

Letter from George Washington to Charles M. Thruston: August 10, 1794 (Excerpt, regarding the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, August 10, 1794. 

Dear Sir: Your favor of the 21st. of June came duly to hand. For the communications contained in it, I thank you.... 

...[As in Kentucky,] similar attempts to discontent the public mind have been practiced with too much success in some of the Western Counties in this State .... Actual rebellion against the Laws of the United States exist at this moment notwithstanding every lenient measure which could comport with the duties of the public Officers have been exercised to reconcile them to the collection of the taxes upon spirituous liquors and Stills. What may be the consequences of such violent and outrageous proceedings is painful in a high degree even in contemplation. But if the Laws are to be so trampled upon, with impunity, and a minority (a small one too) is to dictate to the majority there is an end put, at one stroke, to republican government; and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter; for Some other man, or society may dislike another Law and oppose it with equal propriety until all Laws are prostrate, and every one (the strongest I presume) will carve for himself. Yet, there will be found persons I have no doubt, who, although they may not be hardy enough to justify such open opposition to the Laws, will, nevertheless, be opposed to coercion even if the proclamation and the other temperate measures which are in train by the Executive to avert the dire necessity of a resort to arms, should fail. How far such people may extend their influence, and what may be the consequences thereof is not easy to decide; but this we know, that it is not difficult by concealment of some facts, and the exaggeration of others, (where there is an influence) to bias a well-meaning mind, at least for a time, truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light. 

I have a great regard for Genl. Morgan, and respect his military talents, and am persuaded if a fit occasion should occur no one would exert them with more zeal in the service of his country than he would. It is my ardent wish, however, that this Country should remain in Peace as long as the Interest, honour and dignity of it will permit, and its laws, enacted by the Representatives Of the People freely chosen, shall obtain. With much esteem &c.   

Source: George Washington Papers, Series 2: Letterbooks