Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750

Contrapunctus 1,

“The Art of Fugue”

Monday, September 25

• University Forum: Robert Putnam speaking Tuesday, September 26th at 11am in the Marriot Center

English Sources of American Government

Day 1: The Historical Context

Lockean Liberty: the Enlightenment-era shift to

individual freedom

• Freedom IN society:

– Liberties are granted by the sovereign and can be taken away

– Corollary: Rule legitimated by divine right

• Freedom FROM society– Liberty, or rights, are

the birthright of each individual and cannot be taken away

– Corollary: Rule legitimated by consent

English History

• The Stuart Monarchs: James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II– Autocratic approach to government

• The king’s “prerogative”

– The Divine Right of Kings• Sir Robert Filmer

Charles I

English history

• Conflict between Crown and Parliament– Financing wars by means of the royal

prerogative, w/o Parliament’s consent– Religious conflict: fears of Catholicism

“Guy Fawkes,” English nursery rhyme

Remember, remember, the 5th of November The Gunpowder Treason and plot ; I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'Twas his intent. To blow up the King and the Parliament. Three score barrels of powder below. Poor old England to overthrow. By God's providence he was catch'd, With a dark lantern and burning match Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!

A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope, A farthing cheese to choke him. A pint of beer to rinse it down, A faggot of sticks to burn him. Burn him in a tub of tar,' Burn him like a blazing star. Burn his body from his head, Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

The execution of Charles I, 1649

“I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things.”– Charles I, at his execution

Oliver Cromwell

English History

• The Restoration of the Monarchy (Charles II), 1660

• Rise of the Whig Party under John Locke’s mentor, the Earl of Shaftesbury, 1670s– Origin of “country party” (Whigs) vs “court

party” (Tories)

John Locke

Locke’s Second Treatise of Government

• Problem: Determine what gives legitimacy to a ruler if Divine Right does not

• Historical Context:– “Popish plot,” 1678 – Exclusion Crisis, 1679– James II assumes throne, 1685– The Glorious Revolution, 1688

On the right to revolution

“Wherever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.”

-- Locke, Second Treatise of Government

The primacy of law

According to the Athenian ruler, Solon, an orderly state is created when the people obey the rulers, and the rulers obey the laws.