Distant Revolutions Jeffersonian America Jan Ellen Lewis, Peter S. Onuf, and Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Editors Distant Revolutions 1848 and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism Timothy Mason Roberts University of Virginia Press Charlottesville and London University of Virginia Press © 2009 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper First published 2009 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Roberts, Timothy Mason, 1964– Distant revolutions : 1848 and the challenge to American exceptionalism / Timothy Mason Roberts. p. cm. — (Jeffersonian America) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8139-2799-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8139-2818-0 (e-book) 1. United States—Intellectual life—1783–1865. 2. Europe—History— 1848–1849. 3. Revolutions—Europe—History—19th century. 4. National characteristics, American. I. Title. E166.R63 2009 973.6—dc22 2008046795 For Emily Nations, as individuals, who are completely innocent in their own esteem, are insu≠erable in their human contacts. —Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Ambivalence of Americans Abroad 21 2. The Rise and Fall of the 1848 Revolutions in American Public Culture 42 3. The Presidential Campaign of 1848: Competing Rhetorics of Revolution 63 4. American Reform: Transatlantic Inspiration 81 5. The Conservative Christian Alliance 105 6. Secession or Revolution? The South and the Crisis of 1850 125 7. Louis Kossuth and the Campaign of 1852 146 8. The Antislavery Movement as a Crisis of American Exceptionalism 168 Epilogue: From 1848 to 1863 187 Chronology of Events, 1848–1854 193 Notes 197 Bibliography 219 Index 249 Acknowledgments I have accrued many debts in writing this book. Most recently I am obli- gated to Richard Holway at the University of Virginia Press, who accepted the manuscript but who challenged me to rethink and to clarify what the work says about antebellum America. Also to Dick’s credit, readers whom he contacted provided timely and useful critiques of the work. I am indebted to Andre Fleche and, in particular, to Carl Guarneri, whose thoughtful critique of the book’s organization and argument improved it dramatically. Other individuals read earlier versions or parts of the work and shared their suggestions and wisdom with me. I am grateful in this regard to Charles Capper, Neil Jumonville, Edward Kohn, Cadoc Leighton, Larry Reynolds, Andrew Robertson, Frank Towers, Major Wilson, and the late Duncan MacLeod. I also especially thank Daniel Walker Howe, who su- pervised my work as a graduate student and who has continued to o≠er critique, advice, and encouragement. Dan’s scholarship and mentoring are both exemplary. Several institutions provided fi nancial support for this project. I wish to thank the Virginia Historical Society, the University of Oxford Modern History Faculty, the London Historical Society, and Bilkent University for providing research fellowships. I also thank various libraries and archives for allowing me materials to study and space to work. These include the Divinity School Library of Duke University; the Houghton Library at Har- vard University; the Kansas State Historical Society; the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Library of Congress; the Library of Manchester Col- lege, Oxford; the Massachusetts Historical Society; the New York Public L ibrary; the Strozier Library at Florida State University; the Tennessee State Library and Archives; the South Carolina Historical Society; the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina– ix