Patrick Shaw
Trenchard and Gordon
I. John Trenchard was born in 1662 and lived until December 17, 1723. He was a member of the Whig reform party, and was a strong advocate of change in Britain, and a bitter critic of William IlI's policies. He wrote with Walter Moyle An Argument Showing...A Standing Army... Inconsistent with a Free Government in 1697. The pair also wrote A Short History of Standing Armies in England in 1698. He coopted with Thomas Gordon in a London weekly, The Independent Whig in 1720-1721. The pairs most famous work was in letters signed "Cato" between 1720 and 1723. They published these in the London Journal and later in the British Journal. In Cato's Letters, the pair attacked corruption, high-church views and the failure to punish those involved in the South Sea Company. Trenchard was also a member of Parliament from Taunton. He served from 1722 until his death in December 17. 1723.
Thomas Gordon was born in Kirkcudbright near the end of the seventeenth century. They do not know the exact year of his birth. He died in 1750. In fact several details of his life are in dispute. For example, certain scholars say that he was educated at some Scottish university, although this is not a fact of certainty. One fact that they could obtain is that he became an advocate of the Scottish bar in 1716. He came to London as a young man and taught two languages. He authored two pamphlets on the Bangorian controversy, which is how he came to know John Trenchard. Gordon soon developed a friendship with Trenchard that lasted until Trenchard's death. The two became collaborators. In 1720, the pair began work on Cato's Letters that they published in four volumes in 1724. Gordon was the commissioner of wine licenses, a post that he held until his death on July 28,1750. He wrote in his diary that the position had "much diminished his patriotism." Gordon married twice, his second wife was Trenchard's widow.
II. Cato's Letters
A. Cato's Fifteenth Letter: Of Freedom of Speech: That the fame is Inseparable from Public Liberty. "Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech: Which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it he does not hurt and control the Right of another; and this is the only Check which it ought to suffer, the only Bounds which it ought to know."
1. Trenchard and Gordon assert that freedom of thought and freedom of speech is a sacred privilege.
2. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech are essential to free government.
3. Freedoms of speech and security of property always go together.
4. Anyone desirous of overthrowing a government must begin by subduing the freedom of speech.
5. Freedom of speech is the symptom, and the Effect of good government.
6. Freedom of speech is of such infinite importance to the preservation of liberty that everyone who loves liberty ought to encourage the freedom of speech.
B. Cato's Thirty-second letter: Reflections on Libeling. "I design in this Letter to lay before the Town some Thoughts upon Libeling; a Sort of Writing that hurts particular Persons, without doing Good to the Public; and a Sort of Writing much complained of amongst us at this Time, with great Ground, but not more than is pretended."
1. A libel is no less of a libel for being true.
2. Some truths are not fit to be told and are better left kept silent, like the discovery of a fault that could do great mischief or a large one that can do no good.
3. This doctrine only holds true as to private and personal failings; and is quite otherwise when crimes of men come to affect the public.
4. We ought not to enter the private vices or weaknesses of Governors, any farther than their private vices do enter into their public administration. (Feminists would not buy that one!!)
5. In truth, libels are most often purely personal and fly at men rather than things, which is as injudicious as it is unmanly.
C. Cato's Thirty-eighth Letter: The Right and Capacity of the People to Judge of Government. "The World has, from Time to Time, been led into such a long Maze of Mistakes, by those who gained by deceiving, that whoever would instruct Mankind, must begin with removing their Errors; and if they were everywhere honestly apprized of Truth, and restored to their Senses, there would not remain one Nation of Bigots or Slaves under the Sun: A Happiness always to be wished, but never expected!"
1. Truth prevails over falsehood.
2. Wherever truth is in danger, liberty is precarious.
3. Government is the trust committed by All, or the most, to One, or a Few who are to attend upon the affairs of all, that everyone may, with more security, attend upon his own.
4. Public truths ought never to be kept secret and every man ought to know what it concerns All to know.
5. Good government produces great virtue, much happiness, and many people. Greece and Italy, while they were free and led the world are examines.
D. Cato's Fifty-ninth Letter: Libert Mankind. roved to be the unalienable Riaht of all "All Governments, under whatsoever Form they are administered, ought to be administered for the Good of Society; when they are otherwise administered, they cease to be Government, and become Usurpation."
1. Free governments are checks and restraints appointed and expressed in the Constitution itself.
2. Even in the most free Governments, they often trust single Men with discretionary Power: But they must answer to for that Discretion to those that trust them.
3. All Men are born free; Liberty is a Gift that they receive from God Himself; nor can they alienate the same by consent, though possibly they may forfeit it by Crimes.
E. Letters 100 and 101 while interesting are discourses on libels and fortime constraints and due to their similarity to the issues brought forth in the Thirty-second letter and section B here, the focus has been on the other four letters.
III Contribution to free speech theory.
Wow, I think this stuff should be mandatory reading to everyone when they study the Constitution of the United States in History class. It sheds light on the fact that Jefferson, Madison, and the other founders ideas were not completely new. In fact, I think I have shown that they drew many ideas from Trenchard and Gordon's Cato's Letters. In that vein, I would suggest that their contribution to free speech theory be both substantial and their ideas were original. I had never heard of either of these authors, and I really enjoyed studying them. :)) (See, I still have a happy face this late at night!)
IV. Bibliography.
A. Trenchard, John and Gordon, Thomas. Cato's Letters. Volumes l-IV. Da Capo Press New York, 1975.
B. Gordon, Thomas. Epitaph for John Trenchard. Independent Whig, 1732. Biographia Britannica 1766.
C. Hromiko, Barbara. An examination of Cato's Letters. Found on the Internet.
D. Lair, Dawn. An examination of Cato's Letters. Found on the Internet.
E. Morrissey, Jim. An examination of Cato's Letters. Found on the Internet.
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