HISTOCRACY_CATO'S_LETTERS_VOL 1 SUMMATION
These letters were originally published weekly in London, November 1720, as a response to the corrupt events of the South-Sea Bubble. Written 65 years prior to the Federalist Papers of Publius (which is without coincidence a response to Federalism's detractors, one by the nom de guerre of Cato themselves, the voluminous series of weekly essays portends profusely the anatomy of free systems and how they become corrupt, both citing current examples and ancient.
From the dedication
You can vouch, that, as these letters were the work of no faction or cabal, nor calculated for any lucrative or ambitious ends, or to serve the purposes of any party whatsoever, but that they attacked falsehood and dishonesty in all shapes and parties, without temporizing with any, but doing justice to all, even to the weakest and most unfashionable, and maintaining the principles of liberty against the practices of most parties; so they were dropped without any sordid composition, and without any consideration, save that already mentioned.
(NOTE: I left the grammar as is from the text with which this is transcribed. I've also included some notes I've enclosed as a utility to further engage with relational content on the subject. These notations will be of low-volume, but high-impact; the projects they support is where the greater fidelity lies. These are long-form, as they are both summations and analysis for the text at hand. This summation includes part 1; amending the post to include the second/third/fourth and final volume three will be apart of the next content updates.
ESSAY 1 - 05.11.1720
Thank God, in spite of the Folly of Parties, and the Arts of Betrayers, we see in all Men a steady, warm, and unanimous Spirit for the Preservation of Gibraltar...
ESSAY 2 - 12.11.1720
But complaining does not mend the Matter; yet what sensible Heart can avoid complaining, when he hears his Country, a whole Country, a potent Nation, a Nation happy in its Climate, in its Prince, and in its Laws, groaning under mighty Evils, brought upon it by mean and contemptible Hands, and apprehending Evils still more mighty?
'Tis true, it is both prudent and religious in private Persons, to stifle the Notions of Revenge, and calmly to expect Reparation from God and the Law: But Jealousy and Revenge, in a whole People, when they are abused, are laudable and politick Virtues; without which they will never thrive, never be esteemed.
...Liberty will never subsist long where this Spirit is not...
For a Nation to suffer itself to be ill used, is of dangerous Example; whether those that use it ill be its Neighbors or its Natives. Patience, in this Case, invites fresh Injuries; and that People, who would not bear many unjust Burthens, must not bear one.
ESSAY 3 - 19.11.1720
The Law is the great Rule in every Country, at least in every free Country, by which private Property is ascertained, and the Publick Good, which the great End of all Laws, is secured; and the religious Observance of this Rule, is what alone makes the Difference between good Laws and none.
...A free People are kept so, by no other Means than an equal Distribution of Property: every Man, who has a Share of Property, having a proportionable Share of Power; and the first Seeds of Anarchy, (which, for the most part, ends in Tyranny) are produced from hence, that some are ungovernably rich, and many more are miserably poor; that is, some are Masters of all Means of Oppression, and others want all the Means of Self-defense.
...what is meant by the Publick Credit of the Nation,
First...when the Commodities of a Nation find a ready Vent, and are sold at a good Price...
Secondly, when Lands and Houses find ready Purchasers; and when Money is borrowed at low Interest...
Thirdly, When People think it safe and advantageous to venture large Stocks in Trade and Dealing...
Fourthly, When Notes, Mortgages, and Puclick and Private Security will pass for Money, or easily procure Money, by selling for as much Silver or Gold as they are Security...
ESSAY 5 - 03.12.1720
...It is some Consolation to the Inhabitants of a Village, who have been bit all round by a mad Dog, to see the Instrument of the Poison, and the Author of their Pain and Danger, honestly hung up, or knocked on the Head.
...And what is civil-Society, but a Mock-Alliance between Hypocrisy and Credulity?
ESSAY 6 = 10.12.1720
Self-love beguils Men into false Hopes, and they will venture to incur a hundred probable Evils, to catch one possible Good; nay, they run frequently into distracted Pains and Expences, to gain Advantages which are purely imaginary, and utterly impossible.
ESSAY 7 = 17.12.1720
ESSAY 8 = 24.12.1720
There is not in Politicks a more established Rule, than, That when a corrupt and wicked Ministry intend to pillage a Nation, they make use of vile and contemptible Instruments, to gather in their Plunder, and allow the Miscreants Part of it; and when the Cry for Justice becomes strong and universal, then always hang up their faithful Rogues. By this Means they stop the People's Mouths, and yet keep the Money.
ESSAY 9 = 31.12.1720
ESSAY 10 = 03.01.1721
If, in taxing Labor and Manufactures, we exceed a certain Proportion, we discourage Industry, and destroy that Labor and those Manufactures. The like may be said of Trade and Navigation; they will bear but limited Burthens: And we find by Experience, that when higher Duties are laid, the Product is not encreased; but the Trade is lost, or the Goods are run.
...Spain, that from terrifying all Christendom with Chains, and from threatening all Europe with universal Slavery, reduced itself, by mortgaging its publick Revenues, to such a despicable Condition, that we have seen, in our Days, that once formidable Kingdom contended for by two small Armies of Foreigners, within its own Bowels: In which Contest the Natives themselves were little more than Spectators...
All innocent Men, throughout the World, find a private Blessing in the general Felicity of the Publick; and none but Mock-Patriots, who foolishly or deliberately can lead Kingdoms into Ruin; desperate hard-hearted Parricides, who can wantonly suck out the Vitals of their Country, whose Fortunes are often the Plunder of the Publick, whose Creatures are Conspirators, hired against the Publick; I say, none but such Traytors can find private Joy in publick Confusion, or their own Security in the Slavery of their Country.
But the most terrible Instance of all, is that of France: That Government, though to the Ruin of great Multitudes of other People, has almost, if not quite, got rid of its Incumbrances and Engagements. The whole Wealth of the great Kingdom is now got into the Hands of the Publick. From which formidable Situation of theirs, is there not Room to fear, that as soon as the present Confusion is a little abated, they will renew their Designs for Empire, and throw Europe into Arms again?
To tell us, that this is to be done out of Tenderness to the Miserable, is adding Contempt to the Injury: It is insulting our Understandings, and playing with the publick Misfortunes; it is first to make us Beggars, then to treat us like Idiots.
...Our own Laws, and the Laws of every Country in the World, give Precedence to the Prerogative, in the Business of Debtor and Creditor; and always secure the Debts due to the Publick, whatever becomes of those due to private Men. Surely we shall not reject the Wisdom of Nations, and invert the Maxims of Government, that while we confirm the Bargains of particular Men, we destroy those made for the Benefit of all the Men in the Kingdom.
ESSAY 11 = 07.01.1721
Laws, for the most part, do not make Crimes, but suit and adapt Punishments to such Actions as all Mankind knew to be Crimes before. And though National Governments should never enact any positive Laws, never annex particular Penalties to known Offenses...
This is nothing less than asserting, that a Nation has not a Power within itself to save itself: That the Whole ought not to preserve the Whole: That particular Men have the Liberty to subvert the Government which protects them, and yet continue to be protected by that Government which they would destroy: That they may overturn all Law, and yet escape by not being within the express Words of any particular Law.
...They would not allow a Man to have it in his Power to enslave his Country. And, indeed, it is Wisdom in a State, and a Sign that they judge well, to suppose, that all Men who can enslave them, will enslave them. Generosity, Self-denial, and private and personal Virtues, are in Politicks but mere Names, or rather Cant-Words, that go for nothing with wise Men, though they may cheat the Vulgar. The Athenians knew this; and therefore appointed a Method of punishing Great Men, thought they could prove no other Crime against them but that of being Great Men. This Punishment was called the Ostracism, or the Sentence of a Majority in a Ballot by Oyster-Shells; by which a suspected Citizen was adjudged to Banishment for Ten Years. They would not trust to the Virtue and Moderation of any provate Subject, capable, by being great, to be mischievous; but would rather jurt a private Subject, that endanger the publick Liberty. Worthy Men are thought to have suffered unjustly by this Ostracism; and it may be true, for ought that I know; but still it secured the Publick, and long secured it. Weak and babbling Men, who penetrate no deeper than Words, may blame this politick Severity in the Commonwealth of Athens; but it is justified, in that it was politick.
ESSAY 12 = 14.01.1721
The great Principle of Self-Preservation, which is the first and funamental Law of Nature, calls for this Procedure; the Security of Commonwealths depends upon it; the very Being of Government makes it necessary; and whatever is necessary to the Publick Safety, is just.
ESSAY 13 = 21.01.1721
Yet even in Countries where the highest Liberty is allowed, and the greatest Light shines, you generally find certain Men, and Bodies of Men, set apart to mislead the Multitude; who are ever abused with Words, ever don of the worst of Things recommened by good Names, and ever abhor the best Things, and the most virtuous Actions, disfigured by ill Names. One of the great Arts, therefore, of cheating Men, is, to study the Application and Misappropriation of Sounds. - A few loud Words rule the Majority, I had almost said, the whole World.
The Law tells us, that the King can do no Wrong: And, I thank God, we have a King that would not, if he could. But the greatest Servants to Princes may do Wrong, and often have done it; and the Representatives of the People have an undoubted Right to call them to an Account for it.
ESSAY 14 = 28.01.1721
ESSAY 15 = 04.02.1721
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech: Which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it he does not hurt and control the Right of another; and this is the only Check which it ought to suffer, the only Bounds which it ought to know.
This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Government, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech, always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of the Nation, must begin by subduing the Freedom of Speech; a Thing terrible to publick Traytors.
Tacitus, speaking of the Reign of some of the Princes above-mentioned, says with Extasy, Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, & quae sentias dicere liceat (A blessed Time, when you might think what you would, and speak what you thought!) Histories 1.1
Tacitus tells us, that the Roman Commonwealth bred great and numerous Authors, who writ with equal Boldness and Eloquence: But when it was enslaved, those great Wits were no more...Tyranny had usurped the Place of Equality, which is the Soul of Liberty, and destroyed publick Courage. The Minds of Men, terrified by unjust Power, degenerated into all the Vileness and Methods of Servitude: Abject Sycophancy and blind Submission grew the only Means of Prefemerments, and indeed of Safety; Men durst not open their Mouths, but to flatter.
Freedom of Speech, therefore, being of such infinite Importance to the Preservation of Liberty, every one who loves Liberty ought to encourage Freedom of Speech.
ESSAY 16 = 11.02.1721
A very great Authority has told us, that 'Tis worth no Man's Time to serve a Party, unless he can now and then get good Jobs by it.
...no Experience will make the Bulk of Mankind so, or put them upon their Guard; they will be caught over and over again by the same Baits and stale Strategems: No sooner is a Party betrayed by one Head, but they rail at him, and set up another; and when this has served them in the same manner, they choose a Third; and put all Confidence in every one of them successively, theough they all make the same Use of their Credulity...
I have often seen honest Tories foolishly defending knavish Tories; and untainted Whigs protecting corrupt Whigs, even in Instances where they acted against the Principles of all Whigs; and by that Means depreciated Whiggism itself, and gave the stupid Herd Occassion to believe that they had no Principles at all, but were only a factious Combination for Preferment and Power.
It is high Time, at last, for the Bubbles of all Parties, for Whigs and Tories, for High Church and Low Church, to come to an éclaircissement, and no longer suffer themselves to be bought and sold by their Drivers: Let them cease to be Calves and Sheep, and they will not be used like Calves and Sheep.
...Let us learn to value an honest Man of another Party, more than a Knave of our own...
...Through the Villainy and knavish Designs of Leaders, this Nation has lost several glorious Opportunities of rescuing the Constitution, and settling at upon a firm and solid Basis...
Machiavel tells us, that no Government can long subsist, but by recurring often to its first Principles; but this can never be done while Men live at Ease and in Luxury; for then they cannot be persuaded to see distant Dangers, of which they feel no Part.
ESSAY 17 = 18.02.1721
Few Men have been desperate enough to attack openly, and barefaced, the Liberties of a free People. Such avowed Conspirators can rarely succeed: The Attempt would destroy itself. Even when the Enterprise is begun and visible, the End must be hid, or denied. It is the Business and Policy of Traytors, so to disguise their Treason with plausible Names, and so to recommend it with popular and bewitching Colors, that they themselves shall be adored, while their Work is detested, and yet carried on by those that detest it.
They will be ever contriving and forming wicked and dangerous Projects, to make the People poor, and themselves rich; well knowing that Dominion follows Property; that where there are Wealth and Power, there will be always Crowds of servile Dependents; and that, on the contrary, Poverty dejects the Mind, fashions it for Slavery, and renders it unequal to any generous Undertaking, and incapable of opposing any bold Usurpation. They will squander away the publick Money in wanton Presents to Minions, and their Creatures of Pleasure or of Burthen, or in Pensions to mercenary and worthless Men and Women, for vile Ends and traiterous Purposes.
They will create Parties in the Commonwealth, or keep them up where they already are; and, by playing them by turns upon each other, will rule both. By making the Guelfs afraid of the Ghibilines, and these afraid of the Guelfs, they will make themselves the Mediums and Balance between the two Factions; and both Factions, in their Turns, the Props of their Authority , and the Instruments of their Designs.
They will prefer worthless and wicked Men, and not suffer a Man of Knowledge or Honesty to come near them, or enjoy a Post under them. They will disgrace Men of Virtue, and ridicule Virtue itself, and laugh at Publick Spirit. They will put Men into Employments, without any Regard to the Qualifications for those Employments, or indeed to any Qualifications at all, but as they contribute to their Designs, and show a stupid Alarcity to do what they are bid. They must be either Fools or Beggars; either void of Capacity to discover their Intrigues, or of Credit and Inclination to disappoint them.
ESSAY 18 = 25.02.1721
I wish I could say, that the Abbot Vertot's Description of the Roman State, in its last Declension, suited no other State in our own Time. I hope that we ourselves have none of these Corruptions and Abuses to complain of: I am sure, if we have, that it is high time to reform them, and to prevent the dismal Evils which they threaten. It is wild to think that there is any other Way to prevent the Consequence, without preventing the Corruption, and the Causes which produce it: Mankind will be always the same, will always act within one Circle; and when we know what they did a Thousand Years ago in any Circumstance, we shall know what they will do a Thousand Years hence in the same. This is what is called Experience, the surest Mistress and Lesson of Wisdom.
ESSAY 19 = 04.03.1721
Opinion and Reputation have often the greatest Share in governing the Affairs of the World. Misled by the great Bias of Superstition, every where found in human Nature, or by Ignorance and Prejudices, proceeding as often from Education itself, as from the Want of it, we often take the Appearance of Things for Things themselves, mistake our own Imaginations for Realities, our Delusions for Certainties and Truth. A very small Part of Mankind is exempted from the delusive Influence of Omens, Presages, and Prognosticks.
ESSAY 20 = 11.03.1721
Shall a poor Pick-pocket be hanged for filching away a little loose Money; and whosesale Thieves, who rob Nations of all that they have, be esteemed and honored? Shall a Roguery be sanctified by the Greatness of it; and Impunity be purchased, by deserving the highest Punishment? This is inverting the Nature of Things, confounding Virtue and Vice, and turning the World topsy-turvey.
ESSAY 21 = 18.03.1721
ESSAY 22 = 25.03.1721
ESSAY 23 = 01.04.1721
ESSAY 24 = 08.04.1721
The People have no Bias to be Knaves; the Security of their Persons and Property is their highest Aim. No ambition prompts them; they cannot come to be great Lords, and to possess great Titles, and therefore desire none. No aspiring or unsociable Passions incite them; they have no Rivals for Place, no Competitor to pull down...they can serve no End by Faction; they have no Interest, but the general Interest.
What, in such a Case, i is to be done? What Remedies have our Laws provided against so fatal a Mischief? Must the People patiently crouch under the heaviest of all Evils? Or has our Constitution pointed out the Means of Redress? It would be absurd to suppose that it has not; and, in effect, the People have a legal Remedy at hand: It is their undoubted Right, and acknowledged to so in the Bill of Rights passed in the Reign of King Charles I. and since, by the Act of Settlement of the Crown at the Revolution; humbly to represent their publick Grievances, and to petition for Redress to those whose Duty it is to right them, or to see them righted: And it is certain, that in all Countries, the People's Misfortunes are greater or less, in Proportion as this Right is encouraged or checked.
ESSAY 25 = 15.04.1721
The Exercise of despotick Power is the unrelenting War of an armed Tyrant upon his unarmed Subjects: It is a War of one Side, and in it there is neither Peace nor Truce.
He who compares the World now with what it was formerly, how populous once, how thin now; and considers the Cause of this doleful Alteration, will find just Reason to fear, that Spiritual and Temporal Tyranny, if they go on much longer, will utterly extunguish human Race. Of Turkey I have spoken already: The great Continent of America is almost unpeopled, the Spaniards having destroyed, 'tis thought, about Forty Millions of its Natives; and for some Kingdoms in Europe, especially towards the North, I do not believe that they have now half the Inhabitants that they had so lately as a Hundred Years ago.
From hence may be seen what a gatal and crying Crime it would be, in any free Country, to break the Confidence between the Prince and his People. When Loyalty is once turned into Indifference, Indifference will soon be turned into Hatred; Hatred will be returned with Hatred; Resentment may produce Tyrrany, and Rage may produce Rebellion. There is no mischief which this mutual Mistrust and Aversion may bot bring forth. They must therefore be the blackest Traytors, who are the first Authors of so terrible an Evil, as are they who would endeavor to protect them.
ESSAY 26 = 22.04.1721
"Liberty cannot be preserved, if the Manners of the People are corrupted..."
ESSAY 27 = 29.04.1721
ESSAY 32 = 10.06.1721
As long as there are such Things as Printing and Writing, there will be Libels: It is an Evil arising out of a much greater Good. And as to those who are for locking up the Press, because it produces Monsters, they ought to consider that so do the Sun and the Nile; and that it is something better for the World to bear some particular Inconveniences arising from general Blessings, than to be wholly deprived of Fire and Water.
...Whereas were all Men left to the boundless Liberty which they claim from Nature, every Man would be interfering and quarrelling with another; every Man would be plundering the Acquisitions of another; the Labor of one Man would be the Property of another; Weakness would be the Prey of Force; and one Man's Industry would be the Cause of another Man's Idleness.
Power is naturally active, vigilant, and distrustful; which Qualities in it puch it upon all Means and Expedients to fortify itself, and upon destroying all Opposition, and even all Seeds of Opposition, and make it restless as long as any thing stands in its way. It would do what it pleases, and have no Check.
...And as to wicked Men, their being accountable to God, whom they do not fear, is no Security to us against their Folly and Malice; and to say that we ought to have no Security against them, is to unsult common Sense, and give the Lye to the first Law of Nature, that of Self-Preservation. Human Reason says, that there is no Obedience, no Regard due to those Rulers, who govern by no Rule but their Lust. Such Men are no Rulers; they are Outlaws; who, being at Defiance with God and Man, are protected by no Law of God, or of Reason.
To conclude: Power, without Control, appertains to God alone; and no Man ought to be trusted with what no Man is equal to.