The Honest Enthusiasm of Religious Opinion: Christian Republicanism and America's Quasi-War with France

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Sawyer, Elizabeth
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History

Abstract

America was embroiled in an unlikely quasi-war in the summer of 1798. French and American naval forces clashed in the Caribbean waters off the coast of the United States, all as a result of a break down in diplomacy between the French Directory and John Adams' Federalist administration. Despite this rapid decline in Franco-American political relations, most of the American public remained supportive of the French cause. The goal of this thesis is to determine how this antithetical relationship between political happening and public will resulted in military engagement. I argue that the Federalists used religious suasion in the form of Christian Republicanism and civic piety to persuade the American people that military defense and engagement was the best course of action.

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