The Great Awakening, The Enlightenment, and James Madison

 

Two great movements of the 18th century sought to give men freedom.  Each promised to free the minds of men and in turn give them liberty from oppression.  In some instances, one movement would hold primacy over the other or completely exclude the other.  When balance was not maintained, the rights of individuals and groups were suppressed.  Extreme measures were taken against those that stood against the dominant position.  In one point of time, both the Enlightenment and the Reformation combined to create a new world of freedom for men.

Born out of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment placed value upon logic and reason.  While early thinkers such as Pascal saw reason as a portion of General Revelation, later generations began to move away from the faith alone perspectives of the Medieval Roman Catholic Church.  Religion, commonly referred to as superstition by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Jefferson, was replaced with a view of existence which was discerned or determined by reason.  Views of what humans are, how they should live together in society, and how they should be governed were written down for debate.

From the Reformation came the first great revival movement of the North American continent, the Great Awakening.  This religious upswell in the American Colonies, due to the teachings of ministers like George Whitefield, sparked further debate among the colonists concerning the nature of man’s relationship to God.  Moving the basis of redemption from birthright to right of conscience, the Great Awakening would reinvigorate the discussion concerning freedom of religion in the colonies.  While many of the northern colonies were founded by groups fleeing religious persecution in England, some, such as Massachusetts and Connecticut, maintained their respective denomination as the only legally practiced denomination.  Authorities levied criminal penalties for those who practiced dissenting denominations.  The Crown Colonies, Virgina and the Carolinas, similarly supported the official denomination of the Empire, Anglicanism, with similar penalties for preaching from other sects.  The Great Awakening returned to the Scripture to show that each person, regardless of their social consequence or physical heritage, was responsible for their own spiritual journey.  Freedom was meant to be expressed in all aspects of life.

Thought and debate refine concepts, yet true benefit is carried out through application.  From the writings of John Locke, David Hume, and Rousseau, the Enlightenment concepts of government were passed to the minds of the men who framed the Constitution.  These men who built the Constitution had stood against a king, started a revolution that had first begun in the hearts and later the minds of Americans fueled by the Great Awakening.  When the war ended and self-rule was obtained, this group met to determine the framework for this new government. 

James Madison presented the base framework upon which the remaining Constitution would be built.  Madison envisioned a Lockean republic for the new nation.  No republic had been successfully utilized for a nation as large as the United States.  The Enlightenment argued that factions would create despots or chaos.  Yet, Madison discovered and communicated a reason for the large republic to survive.  While the overall design came from the Enlightenment, the key to stability came from the Great Awakening.  The freedom to exercise the rights of conscience would promote the formation of factions, which in turn would prevent the creation of tyranny or the decline into anarchy.  From his college mentor, John Witherspoon, Madison had learned not only about the Great Awakening but also about the Scottish Enlightenment.  Madison would draw on both as the basis of his defense of the Constitution in The Federalist. 

The premise of this investigation is that the Constitution of the United States, when viewed as the intersection of the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment, is an apologetic from history.  The success of the United States Constitution has not been replicated.  The Enlightenment alone was the basis of the French Revolution.  The Reformation alone was the basis of the governments in the Swiss Confederation, the German States, and Great Britain.  Both polarized conditions resulted in violence and turmoil for groups and individuals who held differing opinions, religions, or thoughts from the government.  However, together they resulted in a new 

Madison’s observations of how the Baptists in Virginia were treated had prompted him to consider religious tolerance prior to attending college.  To what extent this was further cultivated by Witherspoon’s teaching will be explored.  One key flaw in the Constitution for many, including John Leland and Thomas Jefferson, was the failure to protect individual rights.  Madison felt that the document did not need it, what was the basis of his stance?

Following the successful ratification of the Constitution, Madison was almost maneuvered out of a role in the new government by Patrick Henry.  Historians contribute Henry’s actions to his Anti-Federalist views but also in part to Madison’s defeat of Henry’s religious taxation initiative.  Correspondence will be reviewed to corroborate the direness of the situation that Madison faced.  Facing mounting odds in the election, Madison allegedly met with the Baptist leaders within his constituents where an exchange of support for the promise of a bill of rights was formulated.  Evidence supports the Baptist vote swaying the election in Madison’s favor.  Madison did propose the amendments as the first order of business for the First Congress, but how much of the legend can be supported? 

Finally, the basis for religious violence against individuals within European countries with established religions is documented.  However, the tie between the violence of French Revolution and the lack of moral absolutes from Christianity needs to be further explored.  The difference between the Scottish/English Enlightenment and the French Enlightenment was demonstrated in William Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution.  The cause of this difference must be explored further to determine the how impactful it was on the American situation.