Blackstone condemned the execution of Algernon Sidney for high treason

“Treason, proditio, in its very name (which is borrowed from the French) imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of faith. It therefore happens only between allies, faith the mirror [footnote] : for treason is indeed a general appellation, made use of by the law, to denote not only offences against the king and government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises whenever a superior reposes a confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a natural, a civil, or even a spiritual relation ; and inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the life of any such his superior or lord.”

– Sir William Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England” (1769), Book 4, Chapter 6

Algernon Sidney

Algernon Sidney was executed some four decades before Sir William Blackstone was born

Algernon Sidney was executed some four decades before Sir William Blackstone was born. Specifically, our subject Algernon Sidney was executed in 1683, and Sir William Blackstone would not be born until 1723. (But I’m getting ahead of myself here.) Blackstone was in his forties when he wrote his “Commentaries on the Laws of England.” This was a four-volume work, which gave a general overview of its chosen subject. Its fourth and final volume was published in the year 1769. This is the volume that I will be quoting from here. (Incidentally, all quotations from Blackstone’s “Commentaries” in this particular blog post will be from Book 4, Chapter 6 – a chapter entitled “Of High Treason.”)

Statue of Sir William Blackstone

How did Sir Edward Coke influence Sir William Blackstone?

In 1481 or 1482, Sir Thomas de Littleton wrote a then-famous work called “A Treatise on Tenures.” More than a century later, Sir Edward Coke commented on this work, by writing “The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, or a Commentary on Littleton” in 1628. More than a century after that, Sir William Blackstone discussed Coke’s work in the first volume of his “Commentaries on the Laws of England” in 1765. Coke is the person that Blackstone cited the most in the “Commentaries.” In this great work, Blackstone thus wrote a brief summary of Sir Edward Coke’s writings, to set up his esteemed source (whom he would use often throughout his work). He prefaced this summary with the following praise:

Sir Edward Coke

Lord Chief Justice Coke was “a man of infinite learning in his profession”

“Some of the most valuable of the ancient reports are those published by lord chief justice Coke; a man of infinite learning in his profession, though not a little infected with the pedantry and quaintness of the times he lived in, which appear strongly in all his works. However his writings are so highly esteemed, that they are generally cited without the author's name [footnote].” (Source: Blackstone’s “Commentaries,” Introduction, Section 3)

Sir Thomas de Littleton

Blackstone's summary of Sir Edward Coke ...

Blackstone then gave his brief summary of Sir Edward Coke's writings:

“ … the same learned judge we have just mentioned, Sir Edward Coke; who hath written four volumes of institutes, as he is pleased to call them, though they have little of the institutional method to warrant such a title. The first volume is a very extensive comment upon a little excellent treatise of tenures, compiled by judge Littleton in the reign of Edward the fourth. This comment is a rich mine of valuable common law learning, collected and heaped together from the ancient reports and year books, but greatly defective in method.” (Source: Blackstone’s “Commentaries,” Introduction, Section 3)

Sir Edward Coke

Blackstone quoted in Federalist Papers: The influence of Blackstone's “Commentaries”

"The observations of the judicious Blackstone,1 in reference to the latter; are well worthy of recital: 'To bereave a man of life,' says he, 'or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore A MORE DANGEROUS ENGINE of arbitrary government.' And as a remedy for this fatal evil he is everywhere peculiarly emphatical in his encomiums on the habeas-corpus act, which in one place he calls 'the BULWARK of the British Constitution.'2"

- Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 84)

Blackstone was on the other side of the Revolutionary War from our Founding Fathers ...

When the United States declared independence from Britain, it was not breaking with its British heritage to the degree that you might have expected then. The Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the English Bill of Rights remained influential in the thirteen states, you see. Ironically, one of the prior philosophers that most influenced our Founding Fathers was on the other side of the Revolutionary War from them, and he remained loyal to the British side even until his death in 1780 (five years into the War of Independence which had not yet ended). He had once received the patronage of Prince George, who later became "King George the Third" - the nemesis of the Revolution.

William Blackstone

... but his name still appears in the Federalist Papers no less than five times

This great philosopher was William Blackstone (of Blackstone's "Commentaries"), and he wrote his "Commentaries on the Laws of England" in 1765 - ten years before the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord. The four volumes of Blackstone's "Commentaries" were virtually required reading for students of the law in English-speaking countries. They thus had a powerful influence on these countries' legal traditions, and they were sometimes the only law books that lawyers on the frontier could read. In a young republic without a long-standing legal tradition of its own, they were the most influential description of these laws of the mother country. Mr. Blackstone was a powerful influence on the Founding Fathers even despite his being on the other side of the war from them, and his name actually appears in the Federalist Papers no less than five times. He continues to be quoted in Supreme Court decisions in America, and he influenced several generations on the American frontier (including a country lawyer named Abraham Lincoln). But it is his influence on the founding of our country - and specifically, on the writers of the Federalist Papers - that I will be discussing here.