THE AGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION THE AGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION A Political History of Europe and America, 1760– 1800 R. R. PALMER With a new foreword by David Armitage Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2014 by Princeton University Press Foreword copyright © 2014 by David Armitage Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Cover art: Top: Detail of Liberty’s Pulpit by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 19th century. Courtesy of SuperStock/Getty Images. Bottom: Detail of United States Constitution. Courtesy of Thinkstock. Design by Michael Boland for thebolanddesignco.com. All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number 2014933004 ISBN 978-0-691-16128-0 First Princeton Classics edition, with a foreword by David Armitage, 2014 This book includes the complete text of the work originally published in two volumes as The Age of the Democratic Revolution: The Challenge (copyright © 1959 by Princeton University Press) and The Age of the Democratic Revolution: The Struggle (copyright © 1964 by Princeton University Press). British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Adobe Caslon Pro and Avenir LT STD Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The French Revolution had no territory of its own; indeed, its effect was to efface, in a way, all older frontiers. It brought men together, or divided them, in spite of laws, traditions, character and language, turning enemies some- times into compatriots, and kinsmen into strangers; or rather, it formed, above all particular nationalities, an intellectual common country of which men of all nations might become citizens. . . . When we look away from those accidental features which modified its appearance at different times and in various countries, and consider the Revolution only in itself, we see clearly that its effect was simply to abolish those political institutions which had prevailed for centuries among most European peoples . . . that it entirely destroyed, or is still destroying (for it still goes on) everything which in the old society arose from feudal and aristocratic institutions. —ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE CONTENTS List of Maps xiii Foreword xv David Armitage Part 1: The Challenge Preface to Part 1 3 I. The Age of the Democratic Revolution 5 The Revolution of Western Civilization 7 A “Democratic” Revolution: “Democrat” and “Aristocrat” in European Languages 13 A Preview of What Follows 18 II. Aristocracy about 1760: The Constituted Bodies 22 The Diets of Eastern Europe 25 Councils and Estates of the Middle Zone 27 The Provincial Estates and Parlements of France 33 Parliaments and Assemblies in the British Isles and America 35 III. Aristocracy about 1760: Theory and Practice 42 Montesquieu, Real de Curban, Blackstone, Warburton 43 Uses and Abuses of Social Rank 52 Problems of Administration, Recruitment, Taxation, and Class Consciousness 58 IV. Clashes with Monarchy 64 The Quasi- Revolution in France, 1763– 1774 65 The Monarchist Coup d’Etat of 1772 in Sweden 75 The Hapsburg Empire 78 V. A Clash with Democracy: Geneva and Jean- Jacques Rousseau 83 Rousseau, Voltaire, and Geneva to 1762 84 viii Contents The Social Contract, 1762 89 The Genevese Revolution of 1768 96 VI. The British Parliament between King and People 106 The British Constitution 107 The First American Crisis: The Stamp Act 114 Tribulations of Parliament, 1766– 1774 123 The Second American Crisis: The Coercive Acts and the Continental Congress 130 VII. The American Revolution: The Forces in Conflict 138 The Revolution: Was There Any? 139 Anglo- America before the Revolution 142 The Revolution: Democracy and Aristocracy 148 The Revolution: Britain and Europe 155 VIII. The American Revolution: The People as Constituent Power 159 The Distinctiveness of American Political Ideas 160 Constitution- Making in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts 163 A Word on the Constitution of the United States 171 Ambivalence of the American Revolution 174 IX. Europe and the American Revolution 177 The Sense of a New Era 178 Channels of Communication 180 The Depths of Feeling 190 The American Constitutions: An International Argument 198 X. Two Parliaments Escape Reform 214 The Arming of Ireland: “Grattan’s Parliament” 216 The “Association” Movement in England 221 The Reform Bills and Their Failure 228 The Conservatism of Edmund Burke 232 The “Appellation of Citizen” vs. the Test Act 238 XI. Democrats and Aristocrats—Dutch, Belgian, and Swiss 242 The Dutch Patriot Movement 243 The Belgian Revolution 256 A View of Switzerland 269 Reflections on the Foregoing 274 XII. The Limitations of Enlightened Despotism 280 Joseph II: The Attempted Revolution from Above 281 Leopold II: The Aristocratic Counterattack 289 Three Charters of the North 299 Contents ix XIII. The Lessons of Poland 307 The Gentry Republic 308 The Polish Revolution: The Constitution of 1791 316 A Game of Ideological Football 321 XIV. The French Revolution: The Aristocratic Resurgence 326 The Problem of the French Revolution 328 Ministers and Parlements, 1774– 1788 333 The Aristocratic Revolt 341 XV. The French Revolution: The Explosion of 1789 347 The Formation of a Revolutionary Psychology 348 The Overturn: May to August 1789 355 The Constitution: Mounier and Sieyès 362 Part 2: The Struggle Preface to Part 2 375 XVI. The Issues and the Adversaries 377 Bastille Day, 1792 379 Ideological War 383 The Adversaries 387 Shades of Doctrine 396 XVII. The Revolutionizing of the Revolution 400 The “Second” French Revolution 401 Popular Revolutionism 407 International Revolutionism 412 XVIII. Liberation and Annexation: 1792– 1793 424 The Storm in the Low Countries 425 The Submersion of Poland 437 XIX. The Survival of the Revolution in France 447 Gouvernement Révolutionnaire 450 Reaction against Popular and International Revolutionism 458 The Moral Republic 466 The Meaning of Thermidor 471 XX. Victories of the Counter- Revolution in Eastern Europe 473 The Problem of Eastern Europe 474 The Impact of the Western Revolution in Russia 477 The Abortive Polish Revolution of 1794 482 Agitations in the Hapsburg Empire 490 The Jacobin Conspiracies at Vienna and in Hungary, 1794 496 An Addendum on Southeast Europe 502