“This book contains all the malice, and revenge, and treason, that mankind can be guilty of: It fixes the sole power in the parliament and the people … The king, it says, is responsible to them, the king is but their trustee; that he had betrayed his trust, he had misgoverned, and now he is to give it up, that they may be all kings themselves. Gentlemen, I must tell you, I think I ought more than ordinarily to press this upon you, because I know, the misfortune of the late unhappy rebellion, and the bringing the late blessed king to the scaffold, was first begun by such kind of principles …”
– Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, in the trial of Algernon Sidney (1683) – explaining the reasons for his decision to have Sidney executed for high treason at that time
Algernon Sidney
Algernon Sidney was executed by the English government in 1683 for writing a book
Algernon Sidney was executed by the English government in 1683 for writing a book. Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys convicted him of high treason for writing these “Discourses Concerning Government.” (See the quotation at the beginning of this blog post, to hear Justice Jeffreys’ account of why he did so.) But others would later sing the praises of this book. One writer would call it “the textbook of the American Revolution.” Some referred to Algernon Sidney as “Sidney the Martyr,” because he paid for that book with his life. And, most prominently, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were both fans of this book. Thomas Jefferson said that it was “probably the best elementary book of the principles of government, as founded in natural right, which has ever been published in any language.” (See the citation for this praise later on in this post.) I have not yet read this book, but I might like to do so at some point, after hearing the praise from these two men. In this post, I will examine Sidney’s influence upon John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I will also try to show Sidney’s influence upon the Declaration of Independence.
Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys, who had Algernon Sidney executed for treason
This book was a response to Robert Filmer’s “Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings”
Algernon Sidney wrote in the seventeenth century, in the same era as John Locke. Algernon Sidney and John Locke both had a number of things in common, since Thomas Jefferson would later praise both men together (as I will show later on in this post). But Sidney and Locke were also both detractors of an earlier writer named Robert Filmer. Earlier in the seventeenth century, Sir Robert Filmer had written “Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings.” This book had defended a theory of the “divine right of kings,” with arguments that found a wide audience at this time. Thus, both Sidney and Locke saw fit to respond to these problematic (and popular) arguments. John Locke is famous for his “Two Treatises of Government,” published in 1689. The full title of Locke’s treatises was “Two Treatises of Government: In the former, the false principles, and foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and his followers, are detected and overthrown. The latter is an essay concerning the true original, extent, and end of civil government.” The “Second Treatise” is the most famous of these two treatises, but the “First Treatise” is also quite important. And, as Locke’s title indicates, the “First Treatise” was a response to “Sir Robert Filmer, and his followers.” That is, it was a response to Sir Robert Filmer’s “Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings.”
Algernon Sidney
The book defended a right of revolution, saying that valid government requires consent
The other major response, as I’ve said earlier, was Algernon Sidney’s “Discourses Concerning Government.” In this work, Sidney argued that individuals have the right to choose their own form of government. Sidney further argued that if government became corrupt, the people had the right to alter or abolish it, and form a different government in its place. Sidney also said that if civil government is to be valid, it has to be founded upon general and voluntary consent. Its purpose must be to offer justice and protection to its people. These ideas would later find their way into the United States Declaration of Independence. When people pause to trace the origins of these ideas, the influence of both Locke and Sidney can definitely be found here. Sidney’s book was much longer than the combined length of both of Locke’s “Treatises.” Thus, Sidney was able to develop these arguments in somewhat more detail than was John Locke. But Locke’s and Sidney’s conclusions are much the same, and similar arguments are also found in Locke’s “Second Treatise.”
1698 edition of the “Discourses Concerning Government” (London)
Thomas Jefferson called this book “a rich treasure of republican principles” …
Now let us examine the most relevant quotations from the Founding Fathers. In 1804, Thomas Jefferson praised Algernon Sidney in a letter. In this letter, Jefferson said: “You ask my opinion on the subject of publishing the works of Algernon Sidney. The world has so long and so generally sounded the praises of his Discourses on Government, that it seems superfluous, and even presumptuous, for an individual to add his feeble breath to the gale. They are in truth a rich treasure of republican principles, supported by copious & cogent arguments, and adorned with the finest flowers of science. It is probably the best elementary book of the principles of government, as founded in natural right, which has ever been published in any language: and it is much to be desired in such a government as ours that it should be put into the hands of our youth as soon as their minds are sufficiently matured for that branch of study. In publishing it, I think his life, trial & letters should be thrown into one volume & the Discourses into another. The latter is the most important, & many purses can reach one volume which could not conveniently extend to the other. Should you proceed to the publication, be so good as to consider me as a subscriber: and accept my salutations & assurances of great esteem & respect.” (Source: Letter to Mason Locke Weems, 13 December 1804)
Algernon Sidney
… and “the best elementary book of the principles of government” ever published in any language
Thus, Thomas Jefferson considered this book to be “a rich treasure of republican principles” (as cited above).
Algernon Sidney
Jefferson also classed this work among “the elementary books of public right” …
A year before his death, Thomas Jefferson gave some additional praise of Algernon Sidney. In 1825, specifically, Jefferson wrote that “This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take ... Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. All its authority rests then on the harmonising sentiments of the day, whether expressed, in conversations, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney etc. The historical documents which you mention as in your possession, ought all to be found, and I am persuaded you will find, to be corroborative of the facts and principles advanced in that Declaration.” (Source: Letter to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825)
John Locke
… “corroborative” of the facts and principles advanced in the Declaration of Independence
Thus, Thomas Jefferson classed John Locke and Algernon Sidney among “the elementary books of public right,” and further said that they were “corroborative of the facts and principles” advanced in the Declaration of Independence (as cited above).
Algernon Sidney
John Adams said that the book had “intrinsick merit,” and ought to be now published
This kind of praise makes me want to read Algernon Sidney. His “Discourses Concerning Government” had a massive influence upon our Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin had once said that “The English language[footnote] might be taught by grammar; in which some of our best writers, as Tillotson, Addison, Pope, Algernon Sidney, Cato’s Letters, &c. should be classicks: The stiles principally to be cultivated, being the clear and the concise.” (Source: His “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, [October 1749]”) Thus, Franklin listed Algernon Sidney among these “best writers.” And John Adams would later say that the work had “intrinsick merit,” and that it “ought to be now published in America” (see the footnote to this blog post for the citation). Given this well-documented influence, this work is much recommended to any student of the American Revolution. It helps to understand why Americans rebelled against the tyrannical King George the Third. It helps to explain how (and when) rebelling against a government can be justified. And, as mentioned earlier, Sidney paid for writing this book with his life. One might even say that he “sealed his testimony with his blood.”
“I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on Government … and fumbled it over; it now excites fresh admiration [in the sense of “wonder”], that this work has excited so little interest in the literary world—As splendid an edition of it, as the art of printing can produce, as well as for the intrinsick merit of the work, as for the proof it brings of the bitter sufferings of the advocates of liberty from that time to this, and to show the slow progress of moral phylosophical political illumination in the world ought to be now published in America.”
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