.
I had a delightful surprise when I finally got to read
Addison’s Cato: a Tragedy in Five
Acts on my Kindle recently. It
was much better than I’d hoped. This
short drama was first staged in 1713 in London and was a big hit in the 18th
Century. Said to be the favorite play of
George Washington, he had it staged by his officers during the bitter winter
bivouac at Valley Forge. Now I can see
why.
.
Cato is a concise but immensely powerful
classic of the struggle between liberty (represented by Cato the Younger) versus tyranny (that of Julius Caesar). I had always heard of the
fame and influence of the classical-liberal (i.e., libertarian), radical Whig
pamphlet series, Cato’s Letters (1720-23), by the Englishman
John Trenchard and the Scotsman Thomas Gordon, but only now do I appreciate
exactly why they chose the pseudonym of “Cato” for their revolutionary publications:
in those days every reader knew that the
name stood solidly for individual freedom against authoritarian power. This latter pamphlet series was said to be
the most widely read of political writings in the American Colonies in the
decades running up to the Revolution. And,
of course, today’s libertarian think tank, Cato Institute,
famously takes its name from the Trenchard-Gordon series.
.
One thing that jumped right out at me as I read
Cato was that a couple of the most famous quotations from
the American Revolutionary era must surely have been proclaimed while knowing
that the contemporary audience also was well-versed in Addison’s play. I’m thinking of Patrick Henry and Nathan
Hale.
.
Another thing that struck me fully was how much, in Addison’s
era, the name of Julius Caesar was tied to villainous tyranny. Caesar’s ambition for power led to the
destabilization and end of the great Roman Republic, a republic with a rule of
law, strong checks on government power, and strong institutions protecting the
freedom of its citizens. Cato and the Republic
represented liberty, while Caesar brought in the age of empire, rule by
conquering generals, endless war, the end of liberty, and the establishment of
absolute power in one man.
.
The history of Caesar’s ambition for power was blasted by 18th
Century thinkers. Addison was born in
1672 and witnessed England’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, a milestone in
human history so far as chaining down government power. This revolution in political thinking was
articulated best by John Locke and Algernon Sidney, and was furthered by
Addison, Trenchard and Gordon, and on through the American Founders. Remember Henry’s other famous speech: “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First had
his Cromwell; and George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of
it!”
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My point: the very
idea of ambitious power-lusting tyrants such as Caesar was abhorred, on both
sides of the Atlantic, in the 18th Century Enlightenment (except for
odd collectivists like Rousseau). But,
tragically, Anglo-American thinkers started to worship the memory of the
dictator Julius Caesar by the latter half of the 19th Century, at
the same time when libertarians like Thomas Jefferson were no longer admired as
much as before. This was the time when Statism,
i.e., the conceit that state power can be “good” and that “great men” should be
allowed great power, was becoming the new political god. To objectify the predictable result from this
new surge in statist ideology, witness:
the 20th Century, with its bloody totalitarian dictatorships
and gruesome total wars; Caesar triumphant!
Cato forgotten.
.
Is there hope for the true freedom of individuals in the
modern world? Probably not in my
lifetime, as the rot of slavish worship of government power as a cure-all is
still rampant. Yet, there is always
future hope in education. There are the
timeless libraries of liberty. E.g., after
being unavailable for more than a century, Cato’s Letters is
now back in print as well as online here. And Addison’s Cato:
a Tragedy in Five Acts is available online here.
.
Cato the Younger was famous for his love of liberty, his
integrity, his refusal of any bribes, and his opposition to Julius Caesar. One reason Caesar had so many allies is that
he gave out the goodies, the spoils of war and power, to both his cronies and
the populace, making the corruption surrounding him remind us in Thailand of
today’s (exiled) big boss of ambition.
.
-Zenwind.
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