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Freedom and Power (Revisited)

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” [Acton to Bishop Creighton, 1887]

This set of readings is based upon the first ever Liberty Fund Colloquium on “Freedom and Power” (which is also available as a Reading List here). We have changed some of the readings in the light of later colloquia on similar topics. The six sessions will discuss the following topics:

• Session 1: Power and Corruption among the Ancients (The Bible, Tacitus, Edward Gibbon)
• Session 2: Power, Corruption and the Origins of Government (John Locke)
• Session 3: Power, Corruption and Law (Trenchard and Gordon, Blackstone)
• Session 4: Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic (Jefferson, Madison, the Federal Farmer)
• Session 5: Power, Corruption and Liberty in History (Acton)
• Session 6: Power, Order and Liberty in the Present (Sartori, Roepke, Jouvenal) - these readings are not available online.

For additional information about the authors and their works:

• Tacitus
• Edward Gibbon
• John Locke
• John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon
• William Blackstone
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison
• Richard Henry Lee (Federal Farmer)
• Lord Acton

• 1a: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - I Samuel 8

  Old Testament (Various Authors), The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the Original Tongues: being the Authorised Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version (Oxford University Press, 1885). The First Book of Samuel. Chapter: 8

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2021/140725 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1b: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - II Samuel 11

  Old Testament (Various Authors), The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the Original Tongues: being the Authorised Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version (Oxford University Press, 1885). The Second Book of Samuel. Chapter: 11

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2022/140760 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1c: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - II Samuel 12

  Old Testament (Various Authors), The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the Original Tongues: being the Authorised Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version (Oxford University Press, 1885). The Second Book of Samuel. Chapter: 12

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2022/140761 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1d: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - I Kings 21

  Old Testament (Various Authors), The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the Original Tongues: being the Authorised Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version (Oxford University Press, 1885). The First Book of Kings. Chapter: 21

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2020/140714 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1e: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - Tacitus Annals Book I

  Publius Cornelius Tacitus, The Works of Tacitus. In Four Volumes. To which are prefixed, Political Discourses upon that Author by Thomas Gordon. The Second Edition, corrected. (London: T. Woodward and J. Peele, 1737). Vol. 1. Chapter: BOOK I.

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/784/79108 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1f: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - Tacitus Annals Book VI

  Publius Cornelius Tacitus, The Works of Tacitus. In Four Volumes. To which are prefixed, Political Discourses upon that Author by Thomas Gordon. The Second Edition, corrected. (London: T. Woodward and J. Peele, 1737). Vol. 2. Chapter: BOOK VI.

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/785/79115 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 1g: Power & Corruption among the Ancients - Gibbon Chapter 3

  Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury with an Introduction by W.E.H. Lecky (New York: Fred de Fau and Co., 1906), in 12 vols. Vol. 1. Chapter: CHAPTER III

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1365/50991 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 2. Power and Corruption and the Origins of Government - John Locke

  Read from the Second Treatise of Government chapters I-III, V, VII-VIII, XI, and XIX.

  John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Thomas Hollis (London: A. Millar et al., 1764). Chapter: OF CIVIL-GOVERNMENT: BOOK II

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/222/16239 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 3a. Power, Corruption and Law - Cato’s Letters no. 25

  John Trenchard, Cato’s Letters, or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. Four volumes in Two, edited and annotated by Ronald Hamowy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1995). Vol. 1. Chapter: NO. 25. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1721. Considerations on the destructive Spirit of arbitrary Power. With the Blessings of Liberty, and our own Constitution. (Gordon)

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1237/64443 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 3b. Power, Corruption and Law - Cato’s Letters no. 31

  John Trenchard, Cato’s Letters, or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. Four volumes in Two, edited and annotated by Ronald Hamowy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1995). Vol. 1. Chapter: NO. 31. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1721. Considerations on the Weakness and Inconsistencies of human Nature. (Gordon)

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1237/64451 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 3c. Power, Corruption and Law - Blackstone on Laws in General

  Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books. Notes selected from the editions of Archibold, Christian, Coleridge, Chitty, Stewart, Kerr, and others, Barron Field’s Analysis, and Additional Notes, and a Life of the Author by George Sharswood. In Two Volumes. (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1893). Vol. 1 - Books I & II. Chapter: SECTION II.: OF THE NATURE OF LAWS IN GENERAL.

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2140/198645 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 4a. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Jefferson, A Summary View

  Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 2. Chapter: A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA. SET FORTH IN SOME RESOLUTIONS

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/755/86029 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 4b. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Jefferson, Query XIII

  Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 4. Chapter: QUERY XIII The constitution of the State and its several charters?

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/756/86247 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 4c. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Madison, Federalist 10

  George W. Carey, The Federalist (The Gideon Edition), Edited with an Introduction, Reader’s Guide, Constitutional Cross-reference, Index, and Glossary by George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001). Chapter: No. 10: The same Subject continued

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/788/108577 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 4d. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Madison, Federalist 51

  George W. Carey, The Federalist (The Gideon Edition), Edited with an Introduction, Reader’s Guide, Constitutional Cross-reference, Index, and Glossary by George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001). Chapter: No. 51: The same subject continued, with the same view, and concluded

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/788/108659 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 4e. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Federal Farmer Letter I

  John Dickinson, Empire and Nation: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (John Dickinson). Letters from the Federal Farmer (Richard Henry Lee), ed. Forrest McDonald (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1999). Chapter: letter i

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/690/102313 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 4f. Power, Corruption, and the Early Republic - Federal Farmer Letter III

  John Dickinson, Empire and Nation: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (John Dickinson). Letters from the Federal Farmer (Richard Henry Lee), ed. Forrest McDonald (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1999). Chapter: letter iii

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/690/102315 on 2009-10-19

  The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 5a. Power, Corruption and Liberty in History - Acton, Freedom in Antiquity

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays, ed. John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907). Chapter: I: THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM IN ANTIQUITY1

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/75/42894 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 5b. Power, Corruption and Liberty in History - Acton, Freedom in Christianity

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays, ed. John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907). Chapter: II: THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM IN CHRISTIANITY1

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/75/42896 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.

• 5c. Power, Corruption and Liberty in History - Acton, Power Corrupts

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, Acton-Creighton Correspondence (1887) Chapter: LETTER I.

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/2254/212809 on 2009-10-19

  The text is in the public domain.