The Doctrine of Discovery and Conquest as the American Origin Story

• In Event: American Political Thought

Abstract

American political thought typically begins with Puritan and Enlightenment thought texts, yet these texts are woefully inadequate for explaining Americanisms such as “Indian removal”, the “peculiar institution” of enslavement, the culture of individualism described by Alexis de Tocqueville, and the incessant materialism of American society. An alternative body of texts and secondary scholarship better reveals the origins of American politics. This paper argues the origin of American political thought is found in the doctrine of discovery and conquest originating in the Papel Bull, inter caetera, adapted to the English conquest of North America primarily through the work of the Anglican clergyman Richard Hakluyt. Hakluft’s A Discourse Concerning Western Planting promises the English colonization of North America would expand Protestant Christianity, improve the Crown’s finances, grow the economy, contain the expansion of Spain and other European adversaries, and absorb the exploding English population of vagrants, orphans, and criminals. After using the doctrine for the Irish Plantations, England turns to Virginia and Massachusetts Bay. While preparing the Great Migration to Massachusetts Bay, Jonathan Winthrop uses the language of the doctrine of discovery as justification for the displacement of indigenous Americans. The doctrine of discovery is used in colonial litigation over Native lands and treatment of indigenous peoples, and ultimately incorporated into U.S. Constitution law through Johnson v. McIntosh (1823) and thirty U.S. Supreme Court cases through the 1980s. This paper argues that A Discourse is as important as any texts of the Puritan and Enlightenment scholars in explaining American political thought.

Author

• Bruce E. Caswell, Rowan University - Emeritus