The Contested Roots of American Liberty
Regional Meeting of The Philadelphia Society
The
Contested Roots of American Liberty
October 13-14,
2006
Sheraton Station Square Hotel
Why are we meeting in Pittsburgh?
Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh were named after the British Prime
Minister, William Pitt, the great Commoner, and later, the Earl of Chatham.
He was instrumental in the successful outcome of the French and Indian
Wars when he became Prime Minister in effect in 1756.
The wars had begun earlier by the activity of a young George Washington
in western Pennsylvania more than 250 years ago.
The historical events and their importance for the American
Revolution have been widely recognized in the PBS television series, The War
That Made America, based on the scholarly work of Fred Anderson.
The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh held an important exhibit Clash
of Empires: The British, French & Indian War, 1754-1763, May 1, 2005
through April 23, 2006; it has subsequently been moved to the Canadian War
Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, May 31, 2006 to November 12, 2006.
We will deepen Andersonís focus with an exploration of
the intellectual and spiritual background to these movements leading to the
American Revolution. The religious
and political ideas of the Great Awakening, the classical republican tradition,
and the concerns about religious liberty already shaped what John Adams called,
ìthe minds and hearts of the people.î
Clinton Rossiter described the impact of William Pitt:
"Pitt, ‘glorious and immortal,’ the ‘guardian of America,’ was the idol of
the colonies. His eloquent
arguments against taxation without representation were repaid in full measure by
a grateful people. Ships, towns,
and babies bore the proud name of Pitt; preachers, orators, and poets celebrated
his Roman virtues. In the words of
a correspondent in the Portsmouth Mercury in 1766:
I thank thee, Pitt, for all thy glorious Strife
Against
the Foes of LIBERTY and Life.
In the same year a Son of Liberty in Bristol County,
Massachusets, paid him the ultimate tribute of identification with English
liberty:
Our Toast in general is,óMagna Charta,óthe British
Constitution,óPITT and Liberty
forever!
ÖMen like Pitt and BarrÈ looked upon the colonists’
cause as their cause, and their speeches in the Whig tradition were reprinted,
studied, and quoted wherever men debated their liberties in the years after the
Stamp Act."
(Clinton Rossiter, The Political Thought of the American Revolution,
1953, p. 72.)
Rossiter also makes an observation that draws attention to
our theme of "contested roots." "It
should nevertheless be plain that one friendly observation of Pitt or Burke was
worth more to American pamphleteers than a hundred pages of Price or the entire
works of Wilkes. Not until the
argument shifted substantially away from English rights and over to natural
justice did Price and Priestley influence American minds." (p. 73)
Even as late as 1774, William Pitt was still revered by
such men as Josiah Quincy, Sr. In
his visit to London, he mingled with Mrs. Macaulay, Dr. Burgh, Dr. Priestley,
and Dr. Price who were all interested in him and vice-versa.
But the probable highlight of his trip was listening to Lord
Camden and the Earl of Chatham in the House of Lords.
He took down Camden’s words, "Acts of Parliament have
been resisted in all ages. Kings,
Lords and Commons may become tyrants as well as others.
Tyranny in one or more is the same."
But he was really dazzled by Chathamó"he seemed like
an old Roman Senator." He
liked the hope expressed by Chatham that the "Whigs of both countries will
join and make common cause." (Colbourn, p. 81)
Add this to Quincy’s admonition to dedicate yourself
Brutus-like to the service of your countryóAmerica had her fair share of
"Bruti and Cassiióher Hampdens and Sydneysópatriots and heroes, who
form a band of brothers." (Colbourn, p. 79)
Blair Worden brilliantly summarized the English republican
tradition from its earliest days to the time of Pitt. About Pitt, he said,
"In the 1750s, in the person of the elder Pitt, republicans found, as it
seemed, a man after their own hearts: Pitt the patriot, Pitt the incorruptible,
Pitt who called himself ‘the Oldest Whig in England’ and who read and
recommended Ludlow and Algernon Sidney, Pitt whom Thomas Hollis claimed as ‘a
friend to liberty’–but whose career was to illustrate the incompatibility of
political advancement with Roman aloofness. Horace Walpole, learning of
Pitt’s acceptance of a pension, acknowledged himself to have been ‘a dupe to
virtue and patriotism. I adored Mr. Pitt, as if I was just come from
school and reading Livy’s tale of Brutus…Alack! Alack!’"
Blair Worden, "The Revolution of 1688-9 and the English republican
tradition," in The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution
and its world impact, ed. Jonathan I. Israel (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991), p. 268.
The relationship between English rights and natural justice
was tossed around by many who saw no contradiction between the two.
For example, in 1766, William Patten gave a sermon in Plymouth County
rehearsing Charles I and James II in which he exhorted his listeners to
"’stand fast in the liberty’ wherewith, both the God of nature, and the
british constitution have made us free." (Colbourn, The Lamp of
Experience, p. 66)
What did Americans owe to English law, English rights, and
chartered liberties? What did they
owe to natural law, natural rights, and natural liberty?
What did they owe to religious traditions and what did they
owe to secular traditions?
To discuss these important issues and conflicts, we have
assembled some of the preeminent thinkers from both Britain and the United
States. Please take a look at our
program to see the details.
Let me elaborate on the different traditions.
Francis Hutcheson, the teacher of Adam Smith, acknowledged the importance
of the natural law tradition when he stated: "Scarce any question of the
law of nature and nations is not to be found in Grotius, Puffendorf, especially
with Barbeyrac’s copious notes, Harrington, Lock [sic], or Bynkershoek."
(A Short Introduction, Vol. IV of Hutcheson’s collected works).
Hutcheson was also an intimate friend of Robert Molesworth, the most
influential liberal whig of his day. He
was also exposed to the teachings of Algernon Sidney in addition to the more
traditional natural law thinkers mentioned in his quote.
Spelling out the differences between these disparate thinkers and
traditions is the task for many weighty dissertations, but one suspects that
their teachings on legitimate resistance to tyranny are similar if not
identical.
The year 1776 is famous for many famous publications: Adam
Smith’s Wealth of Nations, the Declaration of Independence, Gibbon’s Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire. One not often noticed was the
republication of Andrew Marvell’s works in three volumes. The book
contained a print by James Barry, "The Resurrection of Freedom."
In this print Marvell is accompanied by John Milton, John Locke, and Algernon
Sidney who are lamenting at the bier of English liberties while in the
background lies America where liberty is to be resurrected.
All of these themes can be found in the famous mezzotint of
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, by Charles Willson Peale. The musical video and
print exhibition planned for Saturday night will make explicit the connections
between William Pitt, Thomas Hollis, Jonathan Mayhew, and the republican
traditions of the 17th century.
Our new Distinguished Member, Stephen Tonsor, essentially
captured the theme for this meeting in some profound observations about the
architecture and history of Pittsburgh in an earlier meeting of our Society:
"Remember that Americans thought in the American Revolution that they were
reclaiming, reinstituting their rights and liberties as Englishmen.
But what they did was create a New Order of the Ages." For the
full Pittsburgh context of his remarks, click on tourism.