The French and American Smiths
The French and American Smiths
This chapter elaborates the posthumous reputation for Adam Smith as a hammer of the French Revolution. Smith's policy advice shows him to be no friend of the American colonies. But in other respects, his moral philosophy and economic theory was to be of great help to them. The Navigation Acts had made the fortune of Glasgow after the Act of Union, and therefore in a sense had made Smith's own career. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were those who created the institutions of the United States. Jefferson's career was entwined with Madison's throughout their lives. Jefferson and Madison believed that the foundation of the state should be the ‘virtuous farmer’. Alexander Hamilton followed Sir James Steuart rather than Smith. Smith was probably an enemy of the French Revolution. Many of the generation of intellectuals who understood and admired Smith were depleted in the Revolution.
Keywords: Adam Smith, French Revolution, economic theory, moral philosophy, Navigation Acts, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Sir James Steuart
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
