Nationalism

Nationalism and Manhood in the Revolutionary Era

Concepts of manhood have been fundamental to American nationalism since the time of the nation's birth. Scholars have described the activities of the Sons of Liberty and the Minute Men (groups that helped to organize resistance against the British) as assertions of a nationalism grounded in notions of republicanism and masculinity, as a revolt against the parental authority of the “mother country,” and as an antipatriarchal revolt against the authority of King and Parliament. For patriots, the manliness of their actions involved their heroic defiance of corrupt authority, the defense of liberty (portrayed as feminine), and the establishment of a nation based on republican virtue and male citizenship.

Masculine images and metaphors likewise pervaded debates on the nature of the national government at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, convened to modify the faltering Articles of Confederation. Both Federalist supporters and Anti-Federalist critics of a new and enlarged national government presented their positions as essential to the preservation of American manhood. They agreed that the government should be based on republican virtue (that citizens should cherish their independence while surrendering to legitimate national rule) but disagreed on what sort of national government was most consistent with republican manhood. Anti-Federalists, convinced that the centralized form of government proposed by the Federalists threatened virtue and independence, advocated a more decentralized system that would give freer reign to its male citizens. Federalists James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, favored a strong and vigorous national government and condemned the decentralized Articles government as weak. The Federalists argued that the Constitution would preserve manly virtue and independence, while also promoting national power, growth, and vitality. Fearing civic disorder, the Federalists also proposed the paternal and patriarchal authority of a strong presidency to bolster national stability by embodying national identity and unity.

The framers of the Constitution unanimously agreed that this masculine figure should be the heroic Revolutionary War general George Washington. As president, Washington sought to symbolize national unity and manly dignity by avoiding public statements on divisive national issues, and to symbolize civic order and the strength of the national government by personally leading a group of militia to quell the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion (an armed protest by settlers in western Pennsylvania against a government excise tax on corn whiskey). After his death in 1799, Washington became, in the American imagination, an embodiment of virtue and the patriarchal “father of his country.” His birthday remained a major national holiday well into the nineteenth century, and the designers of the Washington Monument, begun in 1848, consciously sought a design that would represent both Washington's heroism and national strength. The monument, the man, and the presidency have remained powerful homogenizing and unifying national symbols.

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