Joseph J. Ellis answers, “It also helped that all four of them [George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay] had served in the Continental Army or the Continental (then Confederation) Congress, which meant they had experienced the war for independence from a higher perch than most of their contemporaries. They were accustomed, as Hamilton put it, to ‘think continentally’ at a time when the allegiances and perspectives of most Americans were confined within local and state borders. Indeed, the very term ‘American Revolution’ implies a national ethos that in fact did not exist in the population at large.
Perhaps the best way to understand the term ‘American Revolution’ is to realize that it describes a two-tiered political process. The first American Revolution achieved independence. It was a mere, or perhaps not so mere, colonial rebellion. It also created a series of mini-republics in the former colonies, now states, but it did so in ways that were inherently incompatible with any national political agenda.
The second American Revolution modified the republican framework existent in the states in order to create a nation-size republic. The overly succinct way to put it is that the American Revolution did not become a full-fledged revolution until it became more expansively American. Or even more succinctly, the first phase of the American revolution was about rejection of political power; the second phase was about controlling it.” (Joseph J. Ellis, The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-9; page xvi)
I am really enjoying this read.
