John TrenchardCritiques

On November 5, 1720, a letter signed "Cato" appeared in the London Journal denouncing the idea of returning Gibraltar to Spain. Over the next two years, 138 of Cato's letters in all were published denouncing the directors of the South Sea Bubble or talking about rights and liberties. Prime Minister Robert Walpole even bought off the editor of the Journal to have him publish editorials in favor of the government. But Cato simply switched to another Whiggish paper. The letters were widely read and were published by Thomas Gordon in four volumes. In this form they had a deep influence on the patriots in the American Revolution a half century later.

When I got this book, I was only curious about political tracts between the Glorious Revolution in 1689 and the ratification of the constitution in 1789. I did not dream how fascinating these particular letters would be. I highly recommend these books (here in two volumes) to anyone interested in the ideological development of the American Revolution.

Not something I'd really recommend, but I had to be aware of this book as it was being widely used at a certain point in my career.½