America: Jacobite Republic
The Revolution of 1688 caused deep and wide discontent among Catholics, High Churchmen (who subsequently produced first Methodism and then Anglo-Catholicism), Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers (William Penn was repeatedly arrested for Jacobitism) and others. Even after 1807, there remained in such circles a profound sense that the state created in 1688, that state’s empire, and that empire’s capitalist ideology were basically, profoundly and fundamentally less than fully legitimate.
That tradition long outlived the death of the Stuart cause as such with that of Cardinal York in 1807. At its heart has always been, and remains, belief in the closest possible economic, social, cultural and political ties among the historic Kingdom of England (including the Principality of Wales), the historic Kingdom of Scotland and the historic Kingdom of Ireland.
It went on to produce, among much else, the (Tory-led) campaign against the slave trade, the demands for (largely Tory-delivered) extensions of the franchise and other political reforms, the Labour Movement’s amelioration of economic and social injustices precisely in order to prevent a Marxist revolution, and the opposition to the Boer and First World Wars.
And it included the New England and other Congregationalists, Maryland and other Catholics, and Pennsylvanian and other Quakers who contributed significantly to the intellectual environment that eventually became the American Republic, where the Episcopal Church derives its name, episcopal succession and several other features from the staunchly Jacobite Episcopal Church in Scotland.
Furthermore, Jacobite émigrés founded the Russian Navy of Peter the Great, maintained a network of merchants in the ports circling the Continent, had banking dynasties with branches in several great European cities, introduced much new science and technology to their host-countries, dominated the Swedish East India and Madagascar Companies, and did very much more besides. Not least, they opposed slavery in the American Colonies, and abolitionist opponents of secession in the South were later called “Tories”.
What does it mean for America, that her roots are Catholic, High Church, Baptist, Congregationalist and Quaker? That they are in a tradition most fervently committed to the unity of the English (including, as it was seen, the Welsh), the Scots and the Irish? That they connect her to British anti-slavery, parliamentary reform, social reform, and peace activism? And that they give her ties to all those historically touched by such diverse influences as the Russian Navy, merchants circling the Continent, bankers in the great European cities, and Swedish attempts to colonise the East Indies and Madagascar?
David, I’m not entirely convinced of this notion of American’s being a “Jacobite Republic”, but Mr. Larison has written some on whom he dubs the “Jeffersonian Jacobites”, a piece I think well worth the read.
http://larison.org/2006/07/19/onwards-jeffersonian-jacobites/
Whatever High-Church roots she has, the United States, I think Dan McCarthy is correcting in pointing out, has become a very Low-Church nation.
All the more reason for her to get back to her roots.
In pre-Tractarian times, the English Baptist and Reformed traditions did not necessarily have Low views of the Church, the two Sacraments as they saw them, or the ordained ministry. Very far from it, in fact. And Methodism, founded out of High Churchmanship, began with very High views of these things.
David’s post has resolved for me a problem that’s been very much on my mind recently — how the “far left” (in liturgical terms) Quakers can complement the (liturgically conservative) high church types whose weakness in American politics I’ve lamented. I hadn’t thought of the Jacobite connection.
Daniel, you make a good point about David’s post, but I’m still a little ill at ease. The Jacobite connection exists, but, as much as I should like to second David’s “All the more reason to get her back to her roots”, I strongly, and sadly, doubt that open eyes and minds to this history. At any rate, the American Right, broadly speaking, is going to have to undergo so harrowing internal shifts — including, one hopes, some break-ups — before we can hope to reestablish any sort of broader High-Church coalition, as it were.
[...] Right preaches high treason against the Crown. As one of only four people who care about the rival Jacobite line of British royalty, I commend [...]