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Lot 233
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Jeremy Bentham Critiques American Declaration of Independence
Jeremy Bentham Critiques American Declaration of Independence
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Description:

Revolutionary War



[AMERICAN REVOLUTION.] The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, vol. 55 (July – December 1776). London: Ralph Griffiths, 1777. 558 pp. + index, 5.25" x 8.5". Early red morocco backed marbled boards. Internally clean, bindings rubbed and spines darkened, a few chips.

 



Each monthly issue has a section entitled “American Controversy” with summaries of recent books and pamphlets about the growing unrest in the American colonies, written by both British and American authors. Pamphlets reviewed in these six issues include Three Letters to Dr. Price, containing Remarks on his “Observations” [also by John Lind] (152-53); Reflections on the Most Proper Means of Reducing the Rebels, and What Ought to be the Consequence of Our Success (154); John Wesley’s Some Observations on Liberty (156); Observations on Dr. Price’s Theory and Principles of Civil Liberty and Government (239-40); The True Merits of a Late Treatise Printed in America, entitled, “Common Sense;” Clearly Pointed Out by a member of the Continental Congress (396-97); Samuel Adams’s An Oration delivered at the State-House in Philadelphia (397); Additions to Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of America (399); and dozens more.

 

The most important summary review is that in the November issue of John Lind’s anonymous An Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress, likely written mostly by Jeremy Bentham:

 

“Every attentive and dispassionate reader of the Declaration of Independency, issued by the American Congress in July last, must have observed, that many of the articles of impeachment there exhibited against his Majesty’s administration of government, have more the appearance of frivolous cavil, and peevish invective, than of the manly resentment of a people suffering under the iron hand of oppression, bereft of their constitutional liberties, plundered of their property, or deprived of the natural rights of mankind.” (345)

 

“the Author of the present tract does not condescend to take advantage of every opening in the weaker parts of the Declaration in question. He boldly undertakes to demolish the whole work, by successive attacks on every distinct article in which it consists; at the same time, however, appearing to make very light of his own enterprize....” (345-46)

 

“Confident, however, as this champion is, and exulting in his own strength, or, rather, in the weakness of his adversary, we must do him the justice to observe, that the abilities which he possesses, are well adapted to the task he has undertaken. He is amply furnished, with respect to every kind of necessary information, relative to the several points in debate; his reasoning is close, his language clear and his style acute and animated;...” (346)

 

“we cannot approve his angry and contemptuous manner of treating his antagonists. He seems to think no epithets too harsh for the Americans.... Will the verbal abuse of two or three millions of discontented people, remove their discontents, or convince them that their grievances are imaginary? That they believe them real, will admit of no doubt when we consider that men can give no stronger proof of their sincerity in any cause, than the hazarding their lives and fortunes in its defence.” (346)

 

“Our Readers have now seen that this Author is no common pamphleteer, or political Hack; but a respectable, spirited, and able advocate for the cause, in support of which he has drawn his pen. His performance is, unquestionably, one of the most elaborate pieces that the Public hath lately seen, on the subject of American Controversy; and we do not expect a more complete or more decisive Answer to the famous Declaration which hath given birth to it. The great question, however, of external taxation (the main object of the Colonies) still remains, in our opinion, for a more satisfactory discussion....” (353)

 

“At the close of this work, the Author has given a comprehensive review of the general dispute; and here he attacks the Preamble to the American Declaration, exploding the theory of Government which the Congress seem desirous of introducing. He concludes, that in the tenets which they had advanced, ‘they have outdone the utmost extravagance of all former fanatics’—‘even the German Anabaptists,’—and ‘have put the axe to the root of all Government.’” (353)

 

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, initially rejected American claims of oppression and opposed the legal arguments of the Declaration of Independence. Later, in his career, paradoxically, Bentham expressed enthusiasm and admiration for American democracy and government in his efforts to reform the British Constitution. Bentham communicated many of the ideas that appeared in his friend John Lind’s Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress in a letter to Lind in September 1776, and scholars consider Bentham the author of most of Lind’s pamphlet. Among the most important parts are Bentham’s assertion that the Americans had “put the axe to the root of all Government.”

 

The same November issue also includes a front-page review of Bentham’s anonymously published A Fragment on Government; Being an Examination of What is Delivered on the Subject of Government in General, in the Introduction to Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries (329-34).

 

 

John Lind (1737-1781) was born in England and graduated from Oxford with a bachelor’s degree in 1757 and a master’s degree in 1761. He took deacon’s orders in the Church of England and served as a chaplain to the ambassador to Constantinople. He then worked as a tutor to a Polish prince and as governor of an institution for educating cadets. In 1773, he returned to England, where he gained admission to the bar in 1776. He was close friends with Jeremy Bentham and had a brief career as a pamphleteer.

 

The Monthly Review (1749-1845) was a monthly periodical published in London. Founded by Ralph Griffiths (1720-1803), a Nonconformist bookseller, it was the first periodical in England to offer reviews. The Monthly Review generally supported the Whig reforming party in British government and took a more sympathetic outlook toward the claims of American colonists than its Tory and Royalist opponents. William Kenrick (1725-1779), the English novelist and satirist, was the editor from 1759 to 1766. George Edward Griffiths (1769-1829), the son of the founder, took over management of The Monthly Review on his father’s death in 1803 and edited it until 1825, when he sold it.

 

 

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