George Washington and Self-Government

George Washington and Self-Government
General George Washington (1732–1799) stands in the prow of a rowing boat crossing the Delaware to seek safety in Pennsylvania after defeat by the British. Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze/Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia, public domain
William B. Allen
Updated:
Commentary

As George Washington’s first presidential administration, the first term of government under the United States Constitution, neared its end in 1793, the president found himself confronting a form of populism antithetical to stable politics in a republic. The situation emerged from the turbulent development of highly polarized partisan politics, along with efforts by France’s revolutionary government to interfere in American elections and in the expression of public opinion. In this context, there was an explosion in the formation of “democratic societies”—“so-called” democratic societies, Washington termed them—that sought to capitalize on the idea of popular sovereignty as an instrument to influence and shape government policy.

William B. Allen
William B. Allen
Author
W.B. Allen is emeritus dean and professor at Michigan State University. His books include "Rethinking Uncle Tom: The Political Thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe" and "George Washington: America’s First Progressive."
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