Learning Locke: An Introduction to Cato’s Letters (2016)

ArticleVBlog ^ | May 7th 2016 | Rodney Dodsworth

[Jacquerie]

Thomas Jefferson famously adapted key passages of John Locke’s Second Treatise in his draft Declaration of Independence. An 18th century gentleman could hardly regard himself as learned without the ability to quote a few Lockean passages from memory.

Yet, what of the average colonial? Books were expensive imports. How were the yeomanry educated well enough in Lockean concepts to readily understand and accept this radical document, the Declaration of Independence?

Through newspapers.

Like modern Americans, our colonial forebears were also political junkies. Freewheeling editorials, letters to the editor that criticized parliamentary and colonial governments were standing features of public life.

On November 5th 1720, the opposition newspaper London Journal began a series of entertaining, sarcastic, biting and accurate letters that hammered the corruption of the English government surrounding the collapse of the South Sea Company. Without getting into detail here that can be Wikied by anyone, suffice to say the damage done by the South Sea Company bubble and collapse was equivalent to the 2006 US Housing Crash. Like the US Housing Crash, the South Sea debacle enriched politicians, members of parliament, the royal court and their cronies at public expense.

The authors of Cato’s Letters, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, exposed high political crimes and embarrassed numerous leading men. Men of the era were schooled in Roman history, and reference to Cato the Younger (95-46 BC), the implacable foe of Julius Caesar and champion of republicanism, appealed to their sense of honor and virtue. Of the 138 published letters, only twelve were devoted to the South Sea crisis; the remainder examined other areas of public morality: the ideas of liberty and the nature of tyranny. Considered all together, Trenchard and Gordon brought the philosophy of John Locke to the masses in a thoroughly engaging manner.

Cato’s Letters were published as a collection in 1724. Five more editions appeared through 1755. Copies soon appeared in colonial book seller’s catalogues and thereafter in American newspapers well into the Revolution.

The late historian Clinton Rossiter wrote that no one can spend any time in colonial newspapers without realizing the presence of Cato’s Letters and how Cato, rather than Locke’s Two Treatises, was the quotable, most popular source of political ideas in the colonial period. As noted by Ronald Hamowy, “From its first publication through the revolutionary era that ended the century, its impact on both side of the Atlantic was enormous. Its arguments against oppressive government and in support of the splendors of freedom were quoted constantly and its authors were regarded as the country’s most eloquent opponents of despotism.”

Cato wrote that the foundation of tyranny in all countries is essentially the same; there is too much force in the hands of one man, or a few unaccountable magistrates, and power without balance. Can it be a crime to write against great evil? Ask the conservative groups stymied by Lois Lerner’s IRS. The sum of the question is whether mankind have a right to be happy and oppose their own destruction. What man has the right to make another miserable?

Since mankind and America circa 2016 have a right to be happy and oppose their own destruction, it follows that we must take means appropriate to this noble end. Nothing is more appropriate than the peaceful means outlined in Article V to limit the power and jurisdiction of Washington DC, to restore free government.

[Jacquerie]

A reminder of first principles in our lawless age.

[Jacquerie]

Article V ping!

[NonValueAdded]

Through the pulpit too.

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

All men have the right to pursue happiness, and the duty to oppose their destruction. This is sum total of what makes a patriot.

[Jacquerie]

After some study of John Locke, I read Cato’s Letters. They are hilarious! Similar to the 1980s humor of P.J. O’Rourke.

[zeugma]

Free downloads of some of Locke's works:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2447

[unread]

"unaccountable magistrates." Yeah, we got a few of those on our hands for sure..

[NonValueAdded]

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list.

Colonial ping

Please FreepMail me if you want to be added to or removed from this low volume ping list. Ping requests gladly accepted.

Recessional of the Sons of the American Revolution:

“Until we meet again, let us remember our obligations to our
forefathers who gave us our Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
an independent Supreme Court and a nation of free men.”

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a republic or a monarchy, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."
Were we ever as close to losing it as we are now?

[sauropod]

We are on the knife’s edge.

[Melian]

The founding fathers knew all too well how corrupt leadership could be. If we fight to adhere to their great document, we will save the republic!

[Nateman]

After the final defeat of the forces of the dissenting Senate , Caesar's Triumph parade had a float depicting his victory over Cato. People cried seeing it . Caesar realized he had made a mistake to have included it.

It was the legendary valor and integrity of Cato that inspired Washington to become his equal if not greater.

[Jacquerie]

Cato, a Tragedy, was a play written by Joseph Addison in 1712.

Set in the Roman Republic during the reign of Julius Caesar, the play centers on the final days of the Stoic Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, a man of virtue who fiercely opposed Caesar.

It was admired by the revolutionary generation and regularly viewed by George Washington.

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] The late historian Clinton Rossiter wrote that no one can spend any time in colonial newspapers without realizing the presence of Cato’s Letters and how Cato, rather than Locke’s Two Treatises, was the quotable, most popular source of political ideas in the colonial period. As noted by Ronald Hamowy, “From its first publication through the revolutionary era that ended the century, its impact on both side of the Atlantic was enormous. Its arguments against oppressive government and in support of the splendors of freedom were quoted constantly and its authors were regarded as the country’s most eloquent opponents of despotism.” [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimates

[Nailbiter]

flr