Dissertation is available for download here.
Dissertation presentation is here.
APPENDIX: Claims and Hypotheses
The principal claim of this dissertation is that republicanism continued to influence American politics at the federal level after Ratification.
Chapter Three, Founding and Antebellum Eras
CLAIM 1: the American people and their representatives practiced their republican values openly before and long after Ratification, and
CLAIM 2: Their exhibitions of Instruction based on core republican values were widespread and prevalent across the nation.
If both claims are true, I think that it is reasonable to conclude that republicanism was a freestanding political value system, at the very least, from inception through the antebellum era.
Chapter Four, 1775-1789
HYPOTHESIS 1: The people and their representatives (Delegates) practiced Instruction as an expression of their ”republican” values to cause significant action in changing national policy.
HYPOTHESIS 2: There is no difference between the exertion of political change that Instruction had in American politics before and after the Battle of Yorktown.
Chapter Five, 1798-1799
My primary hypothesize is that Americans sent petitions directly to their Representatives in order to cause action at the federal level regarding the need to repeal the Alien and Sedition laws of 1798 and 1799 a dozen years after Ratification. And, the members of the House who received the petitions defended them and performed their role as agent of the people in a way that exhibited the role of Instruction as a ritualized practice of self-government.
Republican Hypotheses
HYPOTHESIS 1: House records should demonstrate that a lot of petitions by ordinary people were signed and delivered which condemned the Alien and Sedition laws.
HYPOTHESIS 2: There was a defense of the petitioners and the petitions by the Representatives in order to protect self-government.
Authoritarian Hypotheses
HYPOTHESIS 3: In the House debate, if some members exhibited authoritarianism, there would have been expressed as an argument against the people’s right to exercise an ability to legitimately oppose and repeal a federal law because the petitions were argued to be an affront to a body of Representatives who hold an inherent power to care for the people (e.g., paternalism).
HYPOTHESIS 4: The petitions were argued to be illegitimate on various grounds, such as being passed by the people based on misinformation or disinformation.
Chapter Six, 1789-1819
My primary hypothesize is that ROI from state legislatures were substantively important to American politics as a practice of self-government.
HYPOTHESIS 1: Instructions increased quantitatively over three decades after Ratification. I provide a table to support this hypothesis or not.
HYPOTHESIS 2: Instructions were increasingly sent to committee and passed over three decades after Ratification. I provide pie charts to support the hypothesis or not.
HYPOTHESIS 3: The presenter of the instruction changed over time from the president to senators on average. This happens because senators found messages from state legislatures to be more important over time. I provide a line graph to support the hypothesis or not.
HYPOTHESIS 4: The nature of the communication by resolutions changed over time from a description of what states were doing in territories and in need of lighthouses to much more serious actions being required of Senators in that they were instructed to amend the Constitution. I provide a line graph to support the hypothesis or not.
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Political Pipeline 