Two of the values that have characterized American society for centuries are individualism and equality.
The ideals of a people, their aspirations and convictions, their hopes and ambitions, their dreams and determinations, are assets in
their civilization as real and important as wealth or industrial skill. American nation was formed under pioneer ideals. During three centuries after Captain John Smith struck the first blow at the American forest on the eastern edge of the continent, the pioneers were abandoning settled society for the wilderness, seeking, for generation after generation, new frontiers.
Besides the ideals of conquest and of discovery, the pioneer had the ideal of personal development, free from social and governmental constraint. The pioneer's prizes were for the keenest and the strongest; for them were the best bottom lands, the finest timber tracts, the best salt-springs, the richest ore beds; and not only these natural gifts, but also the opportunities afforded in the midst of a forming society. Here were mill sites, town sites, transportation lines, banking centers, openings in the law, in politics — all the varied chances for advancement afforded in a rapidly developing society where everything was open to him who knew how to seize the opportunity.
The question of what individualism actually means is best answered in Alexis de Tocquevelle's great book, "Democracy in America". He wrote: "Individualism is a mature and calm feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellows and to draw apart with his family and his friends, so that after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he willingly leaves society at large to itself". [Tocquevelle 19] Thus many of the pioneers, following the idea of the right of the individual to rise, subordinated the rights of the nation and posterity to the desire that the country should be "developed" and that the individual should advance with as little interference as possible. These doctrines of individualism have left deep traces upon American conceptions.
But quite as deeply fixed in the pioneer's mind as the ideal of individualism was the ideal of democracy and equality inherent in it. He had a passionate hatred for aristocracy, monopoly and special privilege: he believed in simplicity, economy and in the rule of the people. It is true that he honored the successful man, and that he strove in all ways to advance himself. But the West was so free and so vast that the barriers to individual achievement were so remote, that the pioneer was hardly conscious that any danger to equality could come from his competition for natural resources. Among the pioneers one man was as good as his neighbor. He had the same chance; conditions were simple and free. Economic equality fostered political equality. An optimistic and buoyant belief in the worth of the plain people, a devout faith in man prevailed in the West. Democracy became almost the religion of the pioneer He held with passionate devotion the idea that he was building under freedom a new society, based on self-government, and for the welfare of the average man.
The major role in shaping the ideas of individual freedom and equality was played by the fundamental documents drawn by the "founding fathers" of the nation. In January 1776, Thomas Paine, a political theorist and writer who had come to America from England in 1774, published a 50-page pamphlet "Common Sense". Within three months 100,000 copies of the pamphlet were sold. Paine attacked the idea of hereditary monarchy, declaring that one honest man was worth more to society than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived. He presented the alternatives — continued submission to a tyrannical king and an outworn government or liberty and happiness as a self-sufficient independent republic. Circulated throughout the colonies "Common Sense" helped to crystallize the desire for separation. There still remained the task, however, of gaining each colony's approval of a formal declaration. On May 10, 1776 — one year to the day since the Second Continental Congress had first met — a resolution was adopted calling for separation. Now only a formal declaration was needed.
On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution declaring "That these United Colonies are, and of right to be, free and independent states..". and immediately a committee of five, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was appointed to prepare a formal declaration. Largely Jefferson's work, the Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom that would become a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The Declaration draws upon French and English Enlightenment political philosophy, but the influence in particular stands out: John Locke's Second Treatise on Government. J. Locke took conceptions of the traditional rights of Englishmen and universalized them into the natural rights of all humankind. The Declaration's familiar opening passage echoes J. Locke's social-contract theory of government: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator by certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (Declaration, 1994:35]. In the Declaration, Jefferson linked J. Locke's principles directly to the situation in the colonies. To fight for American independence was to fight for a government based on popular consent. Only a government based on popular consent could secure natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, to fight for American independence was to fight on behalf of one's own natural rights.
A new British government decided to pursue peace negotiations in Paris in early 1782, with the American side represented by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay. On April 15, 1783, Congress approved the final treaty, and Great Britain and its former colonies signed it on September 3. Known as the Treaty of Paris, the peace settlement acknowledged the Independence, freedom and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies, now states, to which Great Britain granted the territory west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada and south to Florida, which was returned to Spain.
Загрузка...