The peculiarity of [the founding of the United States] is th…
The peculiarity of is that, even as the nation legitimated itself in the principle of consent… it confronted a stubbornly entrenched institution that seemed to epitomize the very denial of consent, the very antithesis of liberal government: the widespread institution of African slavery…. slaves labored on the plantations of Jefferson, Madison, and Washington, among others…. not only did this vast population personify what the lack of consent could mean, it also raised the possibility that slaves might not retain their status forever; that they might rise up…just as white Americans had done…. “How could a young nation reconcile slavery with the principle of consent and self-government?” — Francois Furstenberg, historian, In the Name of the Father; Washington’s Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation, 2006 Which of the following developments in the early 1800s was meant, in part, to increase the role of the people’s consent in government?