Gouverneur Morris ou les ambiguïtés de l’universalisme révolutionnaire
Gouverneur Morris landed in Le Havre in late January 1789. He had just completed the challenging task of drafting the American Constitution that was to secure the future of the Young Nation and thus emerged as one of the Founding Fathers. He arrived in France with mixed views of the country and its...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Société d'Etudes Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles
2012-12-01
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| Series: | XVII-XVIII |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/1718/607 |
| Summary: | Gouverneur Morris landed in Le Havre in late January 1789. He had just completed the challenging task of drafting the American Constitution that was to secure the future of the Young Nation and thus emerged as one of the Founding Fathers. He arrived in France with mixed views of the country and its inhabitants. His Diary is replete with references to and criticisms of a people considered as unqualified for self-government. He considered himself as the genuine representative of a natural aristocracy whose views had prevailed at the Philadelphia Convention, guaranteeing the control of the lower instincts of the mob thanks to a document protecting the nation from an excess of democracy. He therefore viewed the revolution brewing in France with a monarchist’s eye. In spite of his young age, his experience helped him to become aware of the realities of the revolutionary process: he gave a faithful account of the French nation on the brink of collapse while remaining enthusiastic about the forthcoming Atlantic revolution that would soon shake the political foundations of the whole European continent; yet he harbored great doubts as to the possibility for the French to follow in the steps of the American people. |
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| ISSN: | 0291-3798 2117-590X |