Radical Whig Ideology
The radical Whig movement began with the writings of two individuals. John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon were outspoken members of the Whig Party and were responsible for many written attacks on the king and the English government.
Trenchard was a member of the Whig reform party and was a major advocate for change in Britain. With Walter Moyle, he wrote an article stating that a standing army was inconsistent with a free government. Later when he met Gordon, the two began to work together on a series of letters known collectively as "Cato" which attacked everything from religious corruption to government favors.
Thomas Gordon, also an advocate for change, authored pamphlets on controversies throughout England. It was through these writings that Gordon became acquainted with Trenchard.
The Cato letters were responsible for inspiring the founding fathers of the United States in the writing of the Constitution. Indeed the demands and philosophies found within the letters were used to justify elements of the Revolutionary war against Britain by the American colonists.
Among the items discussed in the letters were concepts surrounding everything from freedom of speech to checks and balances within the government. The Cato letters identified free speech as being essential to free government. They identified governments as requiring checks within their constitutions. And they stated that "all men are born free," and that "Liberty is a gift that they receive from God Himself." Each of the preceding can be found in the U.S. Constitution today.
These men, members of the Whig party, were responsible for a radical shift in thinking which would ultimately bring about the birth of a new nation. Indeed, their writings are as profound and important today as they were in the seventeen hundreds. Our very constitution is based on them.
Bibliography
John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. "Free Speech Philosophers. http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/freespeech/trenchard.html
The manner in which she coped with the travails of traveling overseas in a time far before airplanes underscores the strength of character of this remarkable woman. The trip also marked the first time she had been away from her children for any length of time, solidifying her independence and contributing to her overall psychological development. Furthermore, Akers notes how Abigail was able to analyze, criticize, and incorporate ideas,
Ellis holds that America, at its outset, was plagued by an identity crisis: Americans who asserted an essentially 'Republican' identity and revolted against Britain for certain reasons were at ends with Americans who asserted an essentially 'Federal' identity and revolted against Britain for other reasons. In textbooks these are associated with the persons of Jefferson and Hamilton, two of the first cabinet members. They are also associated with Sam Adams,
Ross (1988) notes the development of Romanticism in the late eighteenth century and indicates that it was essentially a masculine phenomenon: Romantic poetizing is not just what women cannot do because they are not expected to; it is also what some men do in order to reconfirm their capacity to influence the world in ways socio-historically determined as masculine. The categories of gender, both in their lives and in their
Mill and U.S. Constitution None of the issues being raised today by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are new, but rather they date back to the very beginning of the United States. At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, human rights and civil liberties were far more constrained than they are in the 21st Century. Only white men with property had voting rights for example, while most states
Old South and Secession What Led Southerners to Choose Disunion? The South had several grievances against the North and the federal government. First they resented and feared the intent of some Northerners to limit the spread of slavery or to abolish it. Slavery was becoming more and more an issue of contention as time passed. Second, Southerners hated the high tariffs imposed by the Northern dominated Congress. Since the South had
So far, I have tried to made a short historical review of the first years of the existence of the Republican party, identifying a few ideological main trends that defined the activity and the platform of the party. Namely, I have talked about the anti-slavery position (proved, among others, by the importance given to the Northern branches), somehow moderate in order to keep the votes of the nativist Americans, who
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now