republicanism

(noun)

An ideal of government that prioritizes political participation, commitment to the common good, and individual virtue. 

Related Terms

  • Philadelphia Convention
  • Pitt the Elder
  • marketplace of ideas
  • American Enlightenment
  • French and Indian War
  • Classical liberalism
  • Republican Motherhood
  • civic virtue
  • Magna Carta
  • Iroquois Nation

(noun)

An ideology in which citizens exercise their popular sovereignty as the basis of governance within a state.

Related Terms

  • Philadelphia Convention
  • Pitt the Elder
  • marketplace of ideas
  • American Enlightenment
  • French and Indian War
  • Classical liberalism
  • Republican Motherhood
  • civic virtue
  • Magna Carta
  • Iroquois Nation

(noun)

An ideal of government that prioritizes political participation, commitment to the common good, and individual virtue. Based on both ancient Greek and Renaissance European thought, republicanism has been a central part of American political culture and was a major influence on the Founding Fathers.

Related Terms

  • Philadelphia Convention
  • Pitt the Elder
  • marketplace of ideas
  • American Enlightenment
  • French and Indian War
  • Classical liberalism
  • Republican Motherhood
  • civic virtue
  • Magna Carta
  • Iroquois Nation

Examples of republicanism in the following topics:

  • The Rise of the Republican Party

    • The Republican Party was formed out of a loose coalition of Northern ex-Whigs who resented Southern political power.
    • Republicans were opposed to the perceived "anti-modernity" of the Southern slave culture and rallied behind the slogan of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”, which they argued was representative of classical American republicanism.
    • This ideology cast the Republicans as the true heirs of the Jeffersonians.
    • However, it is important to note that mainstream Republicans were not inherently anti-slavery or abolitionist.
    • Explain why the Republican Party emerged after the collapse of the Whig Party.
  • The Clinton Administration Moves Right

    • Prior to this, Republicans had not held the majority of governorships since 1972.
    • Republican George Allen won the Virginia governorship.
    • Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison took a senate seat from the Democrats in Texas.
    • The 1994 elections also ushered in a great number of Republican freshmen.
    • In the Senate, 11 of 54 (20%) Republicans were freshmen.
  • The Republican Alternative

    • The Democratic-Republican Party, was an American political party founded around 1791 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
    • The Republican Party, usually called the Democratic-Republican Party, was an American political party founded about 1791 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
    • In 1801, the Democrat-Republicans came to power with Jefferson's election to president.
    • Despite the fact that Britain was America's leading trading partner, Republicans feared that trade alliances with Britain would undermine the American republican project.
    • Federalists spread rumors that the Republicans were radicals who would ruin the country, while the Republicans accused Federalists of destroying republican values by favoring aristocratic, anti-republican principles.
  • Reform and the Election of 1872

    • Grant had supported a patronage system that allowed Republicans to infiltrate and control state governments.
    • The Liberal Republicans thought that the Grant Administration, and the president personally, were fully corrupt.
    • With these goals achieved, the tenets of republicanism demanded that federal military troops be removed from the South, where they were propping up allegedly corrupt Republican regimes.
    • The Liberal Republicans successfully ran B.G.
    • Grant also favored amnesty to former Confederate soldiers like the Liberal Republicans.
  • The "Reign of Witches"

    • The "Reign of Witches" was a descriptive catchphrase used by Democratic-Republicans to criticize the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts.
    • "The Reign of Witches" is a termed used by Democrat-Republicans to describe the Federalist party and John Adams after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
    • Hence, Jefferson, Madison, and other Democratic-Republicans combatted the Alien and Sedtion acts by mobilizing widespread party support during the1800 election campagin and defending those persecuted under the legislation.
    • They were signed into law by President John Adams and were intended as a direct political attack on the Democrat-Republicans.
    • The Federalist-dominated Congress believed that Democrat-Republicans, fueled by the French and French-sympathizing immigrants, posed a subversive threat to the United States.
  • The Republican Victory

    • The election of 1800 marked a peaceful transition of power from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans.
    • Federalists spread rumors that the Republicans were radicals who would ruin the country (based on the Republican support for the French Revolution).
    • Meanwhile, the Republicans accused Federalists of destroying republican values by favoring aristocratic, anti-republican principles.
    • While Democratic-Republicans were firmly aligned behind Jefferson and Burr, the Federalists began to fracture.
    • However the Republicans neglected to have one of their electors abstain from voting for Burr, which created a tie.
  • American Republicanism

    • American republicanism is a political ideology that sees government as the pursuit of common good by a virtuous, participating citizenry.
    • Republicanism required the service of those who were willing to give up their own interests for a common good.
    • English country party drew heavily on the classical republican language of ancient Rome: celebrating the ideals of duty and virtuous male citizenship as the basis of effective republicanism.
    • The "Founding Fathers" were strong advocates of republican values who were involved in the shaping of the American political system.
    • For example, during Washington's two terms as president, Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans clashed over numerous domestic matters and, in this conflict, drew on conflicting visions of classical republicanism to advocate for two distinct socio-economic visions of American society.
  • Republican Motherhood

    • It centered on the belief that the patriots' daughters should be raised to uphold the ideals of republicanism in order to pass on republican values to the next generation.
    • "Republican Motherhood" describes a kind of civic duty.
    • Many Christian ministers actively promoted the ideals of Republican Motherhood.
    • The period of Republican Motherhood is hard to categorize in the history of feminism.
    • Republican Motherhood required a woman to make an important contribution to the republic by training her children (particularly her daughters) to uphold republican values and pass them on to the next generation.
  • Reform and Scandal: The Campaign of 1884

    • The so-called Mugwumps, reformist Republicans, left the Republican party in anger at Blaine's nomination in the 1884 presidential election.
    • The Republican Party nominated James G.
    • Many influential Republicans were outraged.
    • These Republicans, called mugwumps, withdrew from the convention and declared that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if he were an honest man.
    • New England and the Northeastern United States had been a stronghold of the Republican Party since the Civil War era, but the Mugwumps considered Blaine to be an untrustworthy and fraudulent candidate.
  • The Radical Record

    • The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from about 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877.
    • They called themselves "Radicals" and were opposed during the War by the Moderate Republicans (led by Abraham Lincoln), by the conservative Republicans, and the largely pro-slavery and later anti-Reconstruction Democratic Party.
    • By 1866 the Radical Republicans supported federal civil rights for Freedmen, which Johnson opposed.
    • Radical Republicans in Congress disagreed.
    • However, the Republicans in Congress overrode his veto.
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