1776 Republicanism: Put your civic duties before your personal desires

The American ideology called "republicanism" was inspired by the Whig party in Great Britain which openly criticized the corruption within the British government.[115] Americans were increasingly embracing republican values, seeing Britain as corrupt and hostile to American interests.[116] The colonists associated political corruption with luxury and inherited aristocracy, which they condemned.[117]

The Founding Fathers were strong advocates of republican values, particularly Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton,[118] which required men to put civic duty ahead of their personal desires. Men had a civic duty to be prepared and willing to fight for the rights and liberties of their countrymen. John Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren in 1776, agreeing with some classical Greek and Roman thinkers: "Public Virtue cannot exist without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics."