Richard Price on how the “domestic enemies” of liberty have been more powerful and more successful than foreign enemies (1789)

In another few months the sentiments expressed by Richard Price in his 1789 “Discourse on Patriotism” would probably have resulted in his arrest and possible imprisonment for sedition. As a friend of the revolutions in America and then in France he would have been “a person of interest” to the authorities because of his claim that “executive officers of government” (i.e. one’s own government) were more of a threat to liberty than foreign enemies. Price stressed the 2nd and 3rd provisions of the manifesto of the Society for Commemorating the Revolution (of 1688) in Britain and this would become a provocative thing to do in the 1790s: “Secondly; The right to resist power when abused. And, Thirdly; The right to chuse our own governors; to cashier them for misconduct; and to frame a government for ourselves.” As the war against the French Republic continued the executive officers of government began to think of their positions in government as “a right vested in themselves” and not as “a trust derived from the people.” The latter sentiment of course being the essence of both the American and French Revolutions (at least until the military despot Napoleon came to power). As far as the British state was concerned, they, and only they, had any right to “cashiering”.