Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute

MURRAY N. ROTHBARD VS. THE PHILOSPHERS: UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS
84 ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLYANI
the first “Liberty Library.” Here are found the various
important “circles” of friends that helped to foster and carry
on the liberal gospel in an era of ignorant stand-pattery.
In the early eighteenth century, the leader of the liberal
group was one Robert Molesworth, resurrected from almost
complete obscurity. 27 Molesworth’s own ideas weren’t particularly
good, but he performed the important function of heading
and nourishing a circle of friends and acquaintances who
carried on the great tradition, albeit watered down a bit, of
Locke and Sidney. Other interesting figures are James Foster,
the Scot Dr. John Campbell, James Burgh, John Jackson,
and John Lee. 28 Another grand “leader of the circle was the
In 1960, Pierre Goodrich founded the Liberty Fund, a private
organization for the dissemination of classical-liberal ideas.
27Robert Molesworth (1656–1725) supported William of
Orange on the occasion of the Glorious Revolution and, in 1695,
became a member of the Irish Privy Council. He was made a viscount
in 1716. He wrote An Account of Denmark as It Was in the Year
1692 (1693).
28James Foster (1697–1748), a keen collaborator on the liberal
paper The Old Whig, was a Dissenting chaplain in the house of
Robert Houlton. In 1724 he moved to London where he became a
famous nonconformist preacher of liberal ideas. His thought was
characterized by an emphasis on the dignity and freedom of the individual,
and on freedom of thought. His speeches were published in
Discourses (1749–1752) and in Sermons (1736).
John Campbell (1653–1728) was a Scot who immigrated to
Boston, where he published the Boston Newsletter, helping to disseminate
English liberal ideas in the colonies.
Between 1774 and 1775, James Burgh (1714–1775) published
Political Disquisitions, one of the political tracts that significantly
influenced radical thought in the 1780s. See Burgh, Political Disquisitions;
or, An Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses,
3 vols. (London: E. and C. Dilly, 1774–75). Looking at the first part
of the eighteenth century, Burgh regretted the degeneration of the
country and with the “spirit of a true independent whig,” he hoped
for the restoration of the constitution to control the authoritarian
tendencies of the government (General Preface, p. xvi). He wrote,
All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates
from the people. Power in the people is like