The Federalists of the 1780s had a glimpse of what America was to become — a scrambling business society dominated by the pecuniary interests of ordinary people — and they did not like what they saw. This premonition of America’s future lay behind their sense of crisis and their horrified hyperbolic rhetoric. The wholesale pursuits of private interest and private luxury were, they thought, undermining America’s capacity for republican government. They designed the Constitution in order to save American republicanism from the deadly effects of the private pursuits of happiness.
| Place | City | |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan Hale Homestead | Coventry | Built in 1776 and restored. |
| Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park | Groton | The site of the Battle of Groton Heights (1781). |
| Yale University Art Gallery | New Haven | Home to one of the finest collections of early American art anywhere, it was founded in 1832 when John Trumbull gave more than one hundred of his portraits and historical paintings to Yale. Renovation and expansion completed in 2012. |
| Nathan Hale Schoolhouse | New London | The schoolhouse where Nathan Hale taught. |
| Shaw Mansion | New London | Built by Nathaniel Shaw; used by both Washington and Lafayette during the war. |
| General William Hart House | Old Saybrook | Built in 1767 and restored to its original condition, it is Old Saybrook Historical Society’s museum and headquarters. |
| Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum | Wethersfield | Three separate homes comprising a single museum, including the homes of Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress, and Joseph Webb; Washington and Rochambeau met there to lay out strategy. |
The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States (2011)