THOMAS PAINE ~ [UPDATE, 1PUB 05/2013] ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA (Ch 5) ~ PROGRESS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS: From the Greeks to Magna Carta to the Constitution, By Walker F. Todd, [continued]

Walker F. Todd [Todd, Walker / Walker, Todd] Pp 43 -60:

ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA (Ch 5) .. Paine's pamphlet flourished due to John Locke's treatises and publications in London, by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon:  The Independent Whig and Cato's Letters (1719 - 1723) ..  Every influential American read Trenchard and Gordon, even a generation or two afterward among the educated classes.

Trenchard and Gordon .. attacked High Church pretensions .. establishment of RELIGION .. attacked corruption, both petty and grand, in English high society and government in the after math of the SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, a great stock market boom-and-bust that involved political corruption.

John Adams and his friend Josiah Quincy Jr., both read and admired the constitutional precepts taught by Trenchard and Gordon.

Benjamin Franklin, who had helped Thomas Paine immigrate to Philadelphia, published them .. Americans view of taxation by London descended from the thinking of these radical Whigs.

Almost a generation before Washington, Henry, and Jefferson were even born, two Englishmen, concealing their identities with the honored ancient name of Cato, wrote newspaper articles condemning tyranny and advancing principles of liberty that immensely influenced American colonists. The Englishmen were John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. Their prototype was Cato the Younger (95-46 B.C.), the implacable foe of Julius Caesar and a champion of liberty and republican principles. Their 144 essays were published from 1720 to 1723, originally in the London Journal, later in the British Journal. Subsequently collected as Cato’s Letters, these “Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious” became, as Clinton Rossiter has remarked, “the most popular, quotable, esteemed source of political ideas in the colonial period.” This new two-volume edition offers minimally modernized versions of the letters from the four-volume sixth edition printed in London in 1755.

>>http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1237&Itemid=27 

[SIDEBAR:  THEIR WELL KNOWN ARGUMENT ~ particular forms of taxation, such as stamps on legal documents and tea taxes, were not inherently objectionable .. Rather they objected to the principle of taxation without representation in Parliament .. as early as 1761 .. Writs of Assistance .. John Adams .. British customs officers requiring local law enforcement officials to assist them in searches of private homes and stores .. it's probably .. main source for FOURTH AMENDMENT, U.S. CONSTITUTION .. CLASSICAL LIBERAL UNDERSTANDING OF PROPERTY RIGHTS' .. PROHIBITS UNREASONABLE SEARCHES & SEIZURES~

JAMES OTIS JR. was struck on the head with a cane for his higher intelligence.  Do not study other than the true story about James Otis, Jr. who said to his sister he wanted to have the divine intelligence strike him with lightening and that is exactly how he died.  BUT, again, only study the true story about this very great enlightened American We The People Hero.

 
P44, paraphrased ~ 1764 Revenue Act, levied a sugar tax, REPEALED; 1767 Stamp Act, REPEALED, Otis argued Americans unrepresented in Parliament produced threat to natural freedom rights .. none of property rights' could be viewed secured when Parliament did not recognize Americans' as represented .. 

The History of the Boston Marathon: A Perfect Way to Celebrate Patriot's Day .. does not honor James Otis Jr., indeed!

>The Boston Marathon Isn't An Athletic Event It's a celebration of our democratic republic

.. to be continued ..