Republican Generation
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The Republican Generation is the name given to that generation of Americans born from 1742 to 1766 by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations. They grew up as the precious object of adult protection during the French and Indian Wars, an era of rising crime and social disorder. They came of age highly regarded for their secular optimism and spirit of cooperation. As young adults, they achieved glory as soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, brilliance as scientists, order as civic planners, and epic success as state-crafters. Trusted by elders and aware of their own role in history, they led the campaign to ratify the United States Constitution and filled all the early cabinet posts. In midlife, they built canals and acquired territories, while their orderly Federalist and rational Republican leaders made America a "workshop of liberty". As elders, they chafed at passionate youths bent on repudiating much of what they had built.
The Republicans' typical grandparents were of the Enlightenment Generation. Their parents were of the Awakening Generation and Liberty Generation. Their children were of the Compromise Generation and Transcendental Generation and their typical grandchildren were of the Gilded Generation.
Altogether, about 2.1 million Americans were born from 1742 to 1766. 17 percent were immigrants and 17 percent were slaves at any point in their lives.
A list of sample Republicans includes the following, with birth and death dates as this generation is fully ancestral:
- 1742 Nathanael Greene (1786)
- 1742 Arthur Middleton (1787)
- 1742 William Hooper (1790)
- 1742 James Wilson (1798)
- 1743 Thomas Stone (1787)
- 1743 Thomas Jefferson (1826)
- 1744 Thomas Mifflin (1800)
- 1744 Elbridge Gerry (1814)
- 1744 Abigail Adams (1818)
- 1744 Pierce Butler (1822)
- 1745 William Paterson (1806)
- 1745 Benjamin Rush (1813)
- 1745 John Jay (1829)
- 1745 Richard Bassett (1815)
- 1746 Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1809)
- 1746 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1825)
- 1747 John Paul Jones (U.S. Navy captain, not the same as John Paul Jones the Led Zeppelin bassist) (1792) (immigrant)
- 1747 Gunning Bedford, Jr. (1812)
- 1748 William Few (1828)
- 1749 Thomas Lynch, Jr. (c. 1779)
- 1749 William Blount (1800)
- 1749 Edward Rutledge (1800)
- 1749 Cyrus Griffin (1810)
- 1749 Jared Ingersoll (1822)
- 1750 Kunta Kinte (c. 1815) (immigrant)
- 1751 James Madison (1836)
- 1752 Jacob Broom (1810)
- 1752 Gouverneur Morris (1815)
- 1752 Timothy Dwight IV (1817)
- 1753 James McHenry (1816)
- 1754 Abraham Baldwin (1807)
- 1754 Joel Barlow (1812)
- 1754 Pierre L'Enfant (1825) (immigrant)
- 1754 "Molly Pitcher" (1832)
- 1755 Nathan Hale (1776}
- 1755 Nicholas Gilman (1814)
- 1755 Rufus King (1827)
- 1755 John Marshall (1835)
- 1756 Aaron Burr (1836)
- 1757 Alexander Hamilton (1804) (immigrant)
- 1757 Charles Pinckney (1824)
- 1758 Richard Dobbs Spaight (1802)
- 1758 James Monroe (1831)
- 1758 Noah Webster (1843)
- 1760 Jonathan Dayton (1824)
- 1761 Albert Gallatin (1849) (immigrant)
- 1763 John Jacob Astor (1848) (immigrant)
- 1765 Robert Fulton (1815)
- 1765 Eli Whitney (1825)
- 1766 Sam Wilson (1854)
The Republicans had three U.S. Presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. They held a plurality in the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1813, a majority of the U.S. Senate from 1789 to 1813, and a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1791 to 1826. In addition, John Jay (1778-1779), Thomas Mifflin (1783-1784), and Cyrus Griffin (1788-1789) held the Presidency of the Continental Congress before the Constitution was ratified.
Prominent non-U.S. peers of the Republicans include:
- Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742 - 1811).
- Jean-Paul Marat (1743 - 1793).
- Antoine Lavoisier (1743 - 1794).
- Marquis de Condorcet (1743 - 1794).
- Julien Louis Geoffroy (1743 - 1814).
- Frederick William II of Prussia (1744 - 1797).
- Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen consort of the United Kingdom (1744 - 1818).
- Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin (1745 - 1792).
- Jean-Antoine Roucher (1745 - 1794).
- Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville (1746 - 1795).
- Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans (1747 - 1793).
- Jean-François Rewbell (1747 - 1807).
- François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (1747 - 1827).
- William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (1748 - 1811).
- Claude Louis Berthollet (1748 - 1822).
- Jacques Louis David (1748 - 1825).
- Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748 - 1836).
- Honoré Mirabeau (1749 - 1791).
- Charles James Fox (1749 - 1806).
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832
- Robert Lindet (1749 - 1825).
- Lorenzo da Ponte (1749 - 1838).
- Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois (1750 - 1796).
- Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825).
- Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto (1751 - 1814).
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 - 1816).
- Pierre Louis de Lacretelle (1751 - 1824).
- John Graves Simcoe (1752 - 1806).
- John Nash (1752 - 1835).
- Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud (1753 - 1793).
- Antoine de Rivarol (1753 - 1801).
- Louis XVI of France (1754 - 1793).
- Madame Roland (1754 - 1793).
- Isaac René Guy le Chapelier (1754 - 1794).
- Jacques Pierre Brissot (1754 - 1795).
- Stanislas Fréron (1754 - 1802).
- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754 - 1838).
- Marie Antoinette, Queen consort of France (1755 - 1793).
- Louis XVIII of France (1755 - 1824).
- Thomas Grenville (1755 - 1846).
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791).
- Jean-Baptiste Carrier (1756 - 1794).
- Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve (1756 - 1794).
- Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (1756 - 1819).
- François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas (1756 - 1828).
- Maria Anne Fitzherbert (1756 - 1837).
- Jacques René Hébert (1757 - 1794).
- Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757 - 1806).
- Pierre Jean George Cabanis (1757 - 1808).
- Marquis de la Fayette (1757 - 1834).
- Charles X of France (1757 - 1836).
- Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1757 - 1844).
- Maximilien Robespierre (1758 - 1794).
- Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758 - 1805)
- Samuel Whitbread (1758 - 1815).
- Georges Danton (1759 - 1794).
- Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles (1759 - 1794).
- William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom(1759 - 1806.
- William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1759 - 1834).
- François Nicolas Leonard Buzot (1760 - 1794).
- Camille Desmoulins (1760 - 1794).
- Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849)
- François-Noël Babeuf (1760 - 1797).
- Jean François Lesueur (1760/1763 - 1837).
- Luigi Cherubini (1760 - 1842).
- Dorothy Jordan (1761 - 1816).
- Philippe Buonarroti (1761 - 1837).
- André Chénier (1762 - 1794).
- George IV of the United Kingdom (1762 - 1830).
- Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (1763 - 1794).
- Etienne Méhul (1763 - 1817).
- Joseph Fouché (1763 - 1820).
- Prince Frederick, Duke of York (1763 - 1827).
- Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom(1764 - 1845).
- William IV of the United Kingdom (1765 - 1837).
- Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle (1766 - 1855).
Sample cultural endowments of the Republicans include the following:
- United States Declaration of Independence
- United States Constitution
- Plan for the Virginia state capitol, Thomas Jefferson
- The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
- American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster
- Modern Chivalry, Hugh Henry Brackenridge
- The Columbiad, Joel Barlow
- Plans for Washington, D.C., Pierre L'Enfant
- The Battle of Bunker Hill, painting, John Trumbull
- The Conquest of Canaan, Timothy Dwight
| Preceded by: Liberty Generation 1724 - 1741 | American Generations 1724 - 1741 | Succeeded by: Compromise Generation 1767 - 1791 |