5 5 ‘A Commonwealth’s Man’, New Hampshire Gazette, 24 August 1776; Southerners similarly disliked symbols of tyranny; see ‘Strictures in a Pamphlet Called “A Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans”’, South Carolina Gazette, 26 December 1774.
6 6 For similar manifestations of classical imagination during the English Puritan Revolution see Kelsey 1997.
7 7 Account of the Commencement in the College of Philadelphia, May 17, 1775 (Philadelphia: s.n., 1775), 3. Time’s alleged repetitive qualities were not necessarily benign, however: if the Continental Congress’s rule was compared to that of the benevolent Augustus, Americans should expect the historical narrative to repeat and witness the malicious ‘twelve Caesars [to] succeed it.’ ‘John Adams to a friend in London’, 10 February 1775, in Smith, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, I: 309.
8 8 As noted earlier, Samuel Adams also envisioned America as a classical, if Christian, polity, as a ‘Christian Sparta’ (Adams to John Scollay, 30 December 1780, in Cushing 1968, vol. 4: 238).
9 9 Since Shields’ illuminating study focuses on the myth of Aeneas in America, he treats the Epilogue on those terms; Litto ignores all but six lines of the text (Litto 1966: 447).
10 10 The Epilogue was not the only case in which Americans produced glossaries matching classical figures with contemporaries. See McLachlan 1976: 96–98; for another instance, see Alexander Hamilton, ‘Letter to Gouverneur Morris’, 22 June 1792, in Syrett and Cooke 1961, vol. 9: 546.
11 11 See ‘The Adulateur and The Defeat’, in Franklin 1980: 195–206.
12 12 For a survey of the classical figures to which Washington was likened by his contemporaries see also Cunliffe 1958; Wills 1984; Schwartz 1987.
FURTHER READING
Meyer 1984 is considered the bedrock of modern scholarship on the classics in early America. Richard 1994 provides a thorough survey and analysis of the different ways in which the classical canon shaped the thought and action of the founding generation. Richard 2009 transferred his earlier work’s insights to the nineteenth century, specifically to the replacement of Rome as the leading model by Athens in the democratising Jacksonian America. Shalev 2009 has focused on the unique historical consciousness that enabled revolutionary Americans to think of themselves as modern-day Romans. Winterer 2009 and 2010 trailblazed new territory in the scholarship of the various ways in which classics participated in the political discourse of the time.
REFERENCES
1 Adams, W.P. 2001. The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era. Expanded ed. Lanham.
2 Bailyn, B. 1965. Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750–1776. Cambridge.
3 Brookhiser, R. 1996. Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. New York.
4 Cohen, C.L. 1981. ‘The “Liberty or Death” Speech: A Note on Religion and Revolutionary Rhetoric.’ The William and Mary Quarterly 38.4: 702–717.
5 Commager, H.S. 1971. ‘The American Enlightenment and the Ancient World: A Study in Paradox.’ Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 83: 10.
6 Cooper, S. 1780. A Sermon Preached before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq; Governour, the Honourable the Senate, and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, October 25, 1780. Being the Day of the Commencement of the Constitution, and Inauguration of the New Government. Boston.
7 Cremin, L.A. 1970. American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783. New York.
8 Cunliffe, M. 1958. George Washington: Man and Monument. Boston.
9 Cushing, H.A. ed. 1968. The Writings of Samuel Adams. 4 vols. New York.
10 Ellis, J.J. 2000. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York.
11 Fink, Z.S. 1962. The Classical Republicans: An Essay in the Recovery of a Pattern of Thought in Seventeenth Century England. Evanston.
12 Franklin, B. ed. 1980. The Plays and Poems of Mercy Otis Warren. Delmar, NY.
13 Freneau, P.M. 1772. A Poem, on the Rising Glory of America. Philadelphia, PA.
14 Furtwangler, A. 1987. ‘Cato in Valley Forge.’ In American Silhouettes: Rhetorical Identities of the Founders. New Haven, 64–84.
15 Gummere, R.M. 1963. The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition. Cambridge, MA.
16 Gustafson, S.M. 2000. Eloquence Is Power: Oratory & Performance in Early America. Chapel Hill.
17 Henry, W.W. 1891. Patrick Henry; Life, Correspondence and Speeches. New York.
18 Jones, H.M. 1964. O Strange New World: American Culture: The Formative Years. New York.
19 Kaminski, J. P., and McCaughan, J.A. eds. 1989. A Great and Good Man: George Washington in the Eyes of His Contemporaries. Madison, WI.
20 Kammen, M.G. 1978. A Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination. New York.
21 Kelsey, S. 1997. Inventing a Republic: The Political Culture of the English Commonwealth, 1649–1653. Manchester.
22 Leuchtenburg, W.E. 2000. American Places: Encounters with History. New York.
23 Litto, F.M. 1966. ‘Addison’s Cato in the Colonies.’ The William and Mary Quarterly 23.3: 431–449.
24 McCants, D.A. 1990. Patrick Henry, the Orator. New York.
25 McLachlan, J. 1976. ‘Classical Names, American Identities: Some Notes on College Students and the Classical Traditions in the 1770s.’ In Eadie, J.W., ed. Classical Traditions in Early America. Ann Arbor, 81–98.
26 Meyer, R. 1984. Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States. Detroit, MI.
27 Morris, R.B. 1969. Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation. New York.
28 Nelson, E. 2014. The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding. Cambridge, MA.
29 Pocock, J.G.A. 1975 (2003). The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton, NJ.
30 Quincy, J. 1774. Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port-Bill with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies. Boston.
31 Reinhold, M. 1984. Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States. Detroit.
32 Richard, C.J. 1994. The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA.
33 Richard, C.J. 2009. The Golden Age of the Classics in America: Greece, Rome, and the Antebellum United States. Cambridge, MA.
34 Schlesinger, A.M. 1986. The Cycles of American History. Boston.
35 Schwartz, B. 1986. ‘The Character of Washington: A Study in Republican Culture.’ American Quarterly 38.2: 202–222.
36 Schwartz, B. 1987. George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol. New York.
37 Sellers, M.N.S. 1994. American Republicanism: Roman Ideology in the United States Constitution. New York.
38 Sewall,