Did Democracy Cause the Recession That Led to the Constitution?

Revising questions that Charles Beard raised in 1913, Woody Holton offers a new economic interpretation of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. He connects debate about the Constitution with disputes about the political causes of the recession of the 1780s. One line of thought blamed the recession...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Vol. 92; no. 2; pp. 442 - 469
Main Author Holton, Woody
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Organization of American Historians 01.09.2005
Subjects
American history
Constitutions
Creditors
Debtors
Democracy
Economic depression
Economic policy
Economic recessions
Economics
Federal taxes
Holton, Woody
Legislatures
Paper money
Politics
Recessions
Taxes
Taxpaying
United States history
United States > US
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Summary:Revising questions that Charles Beard raised in 1913, Woody Holton offers a new economic interpretation of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. He connects debate about the Constitution with disputes about the political causes of the recession of the 1780s. One line of thought blamed the recession on an excess of democracy, manifested in state legislatures' willingness to forgive debts and taxes. Such policies discouraged investment, proponents of limiting popular rule argued. Critics of this explanation excoriated the high state taxes intended to pay interest to owners of government bonds for discouraging economic effort by artisans and farmers. Holton uses this nearly forgotten labor-based analysis to challenge assumptions that the tumult of the 1780s shows the dangers of democracy. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Bibliography:He wishes to thank Joyce Appleby, Roger H. Brown, Alex Bushel, Max M. Edling, Deborah S. Govoruhk, Robert A. Gross, Travis Hardy, Adrienne Hucka-bee, Allan Kulikoff, Lauren Mandel, Richard K. Matthews, Michael A. McDonnell, and William R. VanderKloot, as well as the American Antiquarian Society (especially Marie Lamoureux and Philip J. Lampi), participants in the “Class and Class Struggle in North America and the Atlantic World, 1500–1820” conference (Big Sky, Montana, September 21, 2003), the Connecticut Historical Society (especially Barbara Austen), the Fall Line Early American Society, the John Carter Brown Library (especially Richard J. Ring), the Journal of American History editors and referees, the Massachusetts Archives (especially Jennifer Fauxsmith), the Massachusetts Historical Society (especially Peter Drummey, Margaret A. Hogan, Megan Rose Milford, and Conrad E. Wright), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, the New Hampshire Division of Archives & Records (especially state archivist Frank C. Mevers), the New Hampshire Historical Society (especially David Smolen and Donna-Belle Garvin), the Newberry Library, participants in an Organization of American Historians session (Memphis, April 4, 2003), the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, the South Carolina Departent of Archives and History (especially Steven D. Tuttle), and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
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ISSN:0021-8723
1945-2314
DOI:10.2307/3659274