Chapter 8: Applying What You Have Learned: Question 4

Part III: Applying What You Have Learned (Chapter 8)

4. Why did Americans choose not only to break from Britain, but to adopt a republican form of government in 1776? What republican ideas did the share, and what did they disagree about?

Republicanism was not an entirely new concept in the colonies. In New England, for example, the town meetings and elections they had were similar to republicanism in the sense that the people voted for the members they wanted to be in the committees of correspondence. For this reason, when Thomas Paine suggested that America adopts the idea of a republic where the people where the power, the people of course were thrilled with the thought. They had seen what a monarchy could lead to and did not want to be trapped in the oppression of a corrupt king. Paine’s additional idea of having political ideas be represented in biblical examples was also appealing to the colonists since many were religious. These wonderful suggestions canceled out many people’s dream of simply gaining independence but instead the colonists’ began to demand Paine’s thought of a republic instead.

Britain’s republican ideas and Paine’s republican ideas differed yet were similar in various ways. Paine’s main claim of difference between the two was that America would have a republic that would have the power in the people. This contrasted from Britain’s type of republicanism because in Britain the power laid within a monarch. He stated that having the power in a monarch could easily make him corrupt and the needs of the people would not be fulfilled. Instead, as a result of having the power in the people, everyone could virtually have a say in all political choices. Also, rather than having a kings, nobilities, and commoners, Paine’s idea of republic would contain governors, senators, and judges, all of which would be voted by the people themselves. The central similarity between the two types of republics would basically be that they both have some sort of...