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Private Interest in a Public Era

其他書名	Virtue, Enterprise and the Turnpike Boom in Early Republic Vermont
出版	University of Vermont, 2011
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=bxw-twAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Moreover, turnpike construction was not a unanimously popular enterprise. Petitions sent to the Vermont General Assembly in the early nineteenth century include long lists of signatures, memorializing people both in favor ofand opposed to turnpike construction in their particular towns. This study examines the roots of the turnpike movement in Vermont and the rise of private enterprise that they represented. By examining who was in favor and who was opposed to turnpikes, it analyzes what motivated people to their individual opinions. In post-Revolutionary America, virtue -selfless action for the good of the republic -was the watchword of the era. However, the youthful nation and newly opened and expansive economy tempted people into private enterprise to further their personal interests. As the economy grew, private interest became increasingly acceptable as a means of acting for the public good. This study analyzes how turnpike petitions and the corporations they referenced reflect this changing ideology of the Early Republic, as turnpikes inhabited a unique space at once both publicly virtuous and privately profit-oriented. These corporations indicate the changing attitudes and new ways of interacting with fellow citizens present in the first years of the American republic.