Planning an Essay

1) the key problems in 1780s politics. The big problem is the apparent 'counter-revolutionary' nature of Federalist politics. Is it an outcome of power-struggle between pre-existing groups? If not, then what? What brings together the undoubtedly diverse set of groups that support the Federalist constitutional project in the late 1780s? What best characterises Federalist politics as a unit or type? An equally big problem, this time from a historiographical angle: why are historians still able to disagree so radically and strongly about the motives and intentions of the Federalists?

2) how can we solve these problems? Existing analyses are evidently flawed. What do they fail to take into account? They have looked at material factors and ideological, either in their relation to the material or in splendid isolation. Human motives are inadequately theorised: this is a general problem but particularly applicable here. Note how biographies of founders so often fail to fit them easily into general narratives. We need a psychological approach that shows how founders attitudes to power changed in tandem with historical/political context: this is coming of age.

3) language, metaphor, psychology: theory. We must connect the inner to the outer world before we can attempt to analyse the former through the latter. Metaphor provides this link because it is a cognitive reality that structures both thought/psychology and language/culture. Americans commonly used language of child-adult relationships to refer to politics. But this does not imply that the metaphor does not influence their thought when they are using different language. It acts unconsciously to shape conceptions of freedom, responsibility, justice, and government.

4) conflict, change, rhetoric: practice. We can attempt to analyse the kinds of political conflicts that occurred, and the rhetoric in which they were fought, in terms of this structuring metaphor (and see if it works). On the other hand we can look for clues in sources that are not explicitly political, but approach from the other side, i.e. that deal with child-rearing and the responsibilities of adulthood. Both these types of evidence will help to understand precisely how the metaphor of coming of age works politically in the 1780s.

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