History of the United States I / Unit 7 USH1 0903 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Virtue, and Property as Its Proxy
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The idea
Republican theory held that if the people are virtuous the republic survives, and if they become corrupt it falls.
In practice
Leaders measuring virtue by property ownership, holding that property holders had the greatest stake in society.
Where people slip
That reasoning limited political rights to property holders, carrying colonial deference forward into the republic.
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