Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)
Painting of Mercy Otis Warren by John Singleton Copley (credit: American Battlefield Trust)
When people think of the key figures of the American Revolution, many forget the anomaly, Mercy Otis Warren. A poet, playwright, political activist, patriot, and prolific author, Mercy Otis Warren wrote about the politics of the American Revolution – rare for a woman of her time.
Warren was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts and was the third of thirteen children of James Otis and Mary Allyne. In an age where few women had access to education, Warren leveraged her male relatives to glean a comprehensive political and historical education. She followed her father’s career as an attorney and politician, learned about history and politics by sitting in on her brother’s private tutoring, and studied classical literature with her Yale-educated uncle, Reverend Jonathan Russel. In 1754, Warren married James Warren, a popular Massachusetts politician who encouraged Warren to pursue writing. Through James Warren’s connections, she met politicians such as John Adams, who also encouraged her writing.
From 1765 to 1789, Warren was near all revolutionary political events in Massachusetts and used her writings to support the Revolution. Warren began writing political dramas, criticizing British policies and officials like Governor Thomas Hutchinson. She also published political satires and pamphlets used as key propaganda for the patriotic movement in Massachusetts. Most of her publications during the Revolutionary War were anonymous to avoid British retaliation and the dismissal of her work on account of her sex. Warren was a fierce proponent of the Revolution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence during the War, but she and her husband became Anti-Federalists after the proposal of the new Constitution in 1787.
Warren’s Challenge of the Constitution
Many American politicians, like John Adams, favored a stronger federal constitution, which Warren strongly opposed. In 1788, she anonymously published the pamphlet Observations on the New Constitution in which she discussed standard Anti-Federalist concerns, such as the lack of a bill of rights and the potential for corruption that could ruin the United States if the Constitution proposed by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other delegates was passed. She encouraged other states to reject the new Constitution.
She wrote that “the glorious fabric of liberty successfully reared with so much labor an assiduity totters to the foundation, and may be blown away as the bubble of fancy by the rude breath of military combinations, and politicians of yesterday.” Warren felt that the United States was willing to accept the same tyrannical power structure they had fought so valiantly to overturn due to politicians greed and the hunger for power. She believed that the framers were not adhering to the promises of the new republic since the Constitution did not protect citizens and their rights. More importantly, she argued that the United States had the capability to achieve freedom and happiness, but politicians were limiting the country's capabilities. Instead of taking advantage of a new beginning, the United States was repeating its history.
Mercy Ottis Warren’s pamphlet gained popularity as it was reprinted in newspapers across several states. Many Anti-Federalists used it to generate opposition to the new Constitution and urge states to vote for the ratification of a Bill of Rights. Thinking that the Constitution could not be ratified without Anti-Federalist votes, James Madison created a list of rights that would make up the first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Yet Warren was still not satisfied.
In 1805, Warren published History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution—a three-volume, 1,200-page book on the American Revolution. She published it under her name, becoming the first woman in the United States to publish a nonfiction book. In it, she presents the history of the Revolution while also discussing her worry with the Constitution in that a centralized, powerful government could return to the monarchical power that she and other revolutionaries had fought against. She writes:
Thus, after the conclusion of peace and the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, the situation of America appeared similar to that of a young heir who had prematurely become possessed of a rich inheritance, while his inexperience and his new felt independence had intoxicated him so far as to render him incapable of weighing the intrinsic value of his estate, and had left him without discretion or judgment to improve it to the best advantage of his family.
Warren held so much hope for the U.S.’s new independence and felt that the country did not live up to her expectations. She argued that the U.S.’s desire to achieve equality and greatness was eclipsed by politicians’ personal hunger for power. Moreover, she argued that the Constitution was contradictory to what the revolutionists fought for—freedom and equality. Warren argued that the Federalist government restricted the rights of citizens in ways antithetical to the Revolutionary spirit.
Warren’s Vision for America
As a Jefersonian republican, Mercy Otis Warren believed in limiting the federal government by advocating for states’ rights and personal freedoms. Therefore, she believed that the federal government should be weakened to increase the power of state and local governments. She believed that this solution was the most viable and that operating under federalism could risk the United States turning into a monarchy. But she argued that liberty would be secured if the majority of power was given to the American people. Unfortunately for her, this Jeffersonian vision never occurred.
The success of Warren’s writing, however, should not be measured by the popularity of her ideas but rather by the strength of her words. As a woman, to not only publish on but criticize the United States and its male politicians was audacious and admirable. Moreover, most curricula understate her contributions to the American Revolution.
Warren’s ideas have become increasingly relevant in a political climate where more and more voices argue that the U.S.’s government is too powerful and that power should be returned to the states. These voices raise the question: should the U.S. continue to maintain a political structure originally established in 1787? Or should citizens attempt to restructure the political powers in the U.S.? The path forward may be obscure, but perhaps Mercy Otis Warren’s writings can light the way.
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