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

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS BY MURRAY N. ROTHBARD 87
We see the interesting and important roles played in maintaining
and fostering the liberal tradition by the dissenters, by
Yorkshiremen, by the Anglo-Irish seeking relaxation of English
bonds, by Cambridge University and by the dissenting
Academies of the West Country. We see the importance, in
the early period, of Trenchard and Gordon, authors of the
Cato letters. 33 And we find such intriguing characters as
the first half of the nineteenth century. Cartwright’s influence was
evident in the six points of the Chartists, a sociopolitical movement
that developed in England between 1838 and 1850 that aimed to
improve the terrible conditions of the working class and to introduce,
at the political level, such fundamental rights as universal suffrage.
John Jebb (1736–1786) was a Unitarian who studied at Trinity
College. He taught mathematics, but various colleges prohibited their
students from attending his lectures because of his nonconformist
religious ideas. He was in favor of independence for the American
colonies and he condemned English policy towards America.
Capel Lofft (1751–1824) joined the radical movement for parliamentary
reform in the second half of the eighteenth century. He
was the author of An Argument on the Nature of Party and Faction:
In Which Is Considered the Duty of a Good and Peaceable Citizen
at the Present Crisis (1780).
33 John Trenchard (1662–1723), a political writer and polemicist,
was known for, among other things, his writings against a standing
army. He was elected to Parliament and in 1719 he began to
work with Thomas Gordon, with whom he published Cato’s Letters
in the London Journal from 1719 to 1723. This was a series of articles
criticizing government activities in general. Among his works,
see A Short History of Standing Armies in England (1698).
Thomas Gordon (c. 1692–1750) was a lawyer in Scotland who
later moved to London, where he began his work as a political writer
and polemicist. Among Gordon’s works, see The Conspirators, The
Case of Catiline (1721); A Learned Dissertation Upon Old Women
(1720); Three Political Letters to a Noble Lord, Concerning Liberty
and Constitution (1721).
Trenchard and Gordon helped to disseminate the thought of Locke,
applying his ideas to the concrete problems of the government of the
day. Their most important writings, in this regard, were Cato’s Letters,
which came out in various editions in the American colonies where they
were widely distributed. It seems that they were very important in forging
the theoretical basis for the American Revolution. Gordon and
Trenchard gave a particularly radical turn to Locke’s thought. While