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Written in response to Sir Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha" (1680), the
"Discourses Concerning Government" by Algernon Sidney (1623-1683)
has been respected for more than three centuries as a classic
defence of republicanism and popular government. Sidney rejected
Filmer's theories of royal absolutism and divine right of kings,
insisting that title to rule should be based on merit rather than
on birth; and republics, he thought, were more likely to honour
merit than were monarchies. Like Milton, Sidney revered and
idealised the Commonwealth (1649-1660) as England's noble
achievement in the grand tradition of ancient Greece and Rome.
Sidney's treatise was published posthumously in 1698, 15 years
after he was executed for complicity in a plot to assassinate
Charles II. Sidney's papers, including a draft of the "Discourses",
were used as evidence against him. Although there is nothing in the
work incompatible with a constitutional monarchy, the indictment
claimed that it was a "false, seditious and traitorous libel",
citing sentences which stated that the king is subject to law and
is responsible to the people. Sidney's "Discourses" was widely read
in the colonies, and influenced a number of American revolutionary
leaders.
"I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on government. .
. . As often as I have read it, and fumbled it over, it now excites
fresh admiration 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 for the intrinsic 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, philosophical, and political illumination in the
world--ought to be now printed in America."--John Adams to Thomas
Jefferson (1823)Written in response to Sir Robert Filmer's
"Patriarcha" (1680), the "Discourses Concerning Government" by
Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) has been treasured for more than three
centuries as a classic defense of republicanism and popular
government.Sidney rejected Filmer's theories of royal absolutism
and divine right of kings, insisting that title to rule should be
based on merit rather than birth; and republics, he thought, were
more likely to honor merit than were monarchies. Like John Milton,
Sidney revered and idealized the Commonwealth (1649-1660) as
England's noble achievement in the grand tradition of ancient
Greece and Rome.Sidney's treatise was published posthumously in
1698, fifteen years after he was executed for complicity in a plot
to assassinate Charles II. Sidney's papers, including a draft of
the "Discourses, " were used as evidence against him. Although
there is nothing in the work incompatible with constitutional
monarchy, the indictment claimed that it was a "false, seditious,
and traitorous libel," citing sentences which stated that the king
is subject to law and is responsible to the people.Sidney's
"Discourses" was widely read in the colonies and influenced a
number of American revolutionary leaders.Thomas G. West is
Professor of Politics at the University of Dallas.
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