"HAS YOUR COURAGE RUSTED?": NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE CONTESTED RHETORICAL NORMS OF REPUBLICANISM IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1798-1801 Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • By considering the XYZ Affair and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the presidential campaign of 1800, and the post-election public address of 1801, this essay examines how the contested rhetorical norms of post-Revolutionary republicanism were influenced by threatssome real, others manufacturedto national security. Interweaving the challenges of rising international capitalism, the communicative opportunities created by mass-produced media, and the fallout from local political feuds, this essay offers an interdisciplinary analysis of a foundational moment in American history, when our forebears negotiated the relationships among free speech, national security, party allegiance, and commerce while trying to define republicanism as both a daily practice and a guiding political philosophy.

published proceedings

  • RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

author list (cited authors)

  • Hartnett, S. J., & Mercieca, J. R.

citation count

  • 4

complete list of authors

  • Hartnett, Stephen John||Mercieca, Jennifer Rose

publication date

  • March 2006