Classics of Liberty

John L. O’Sullivan and his Democratic Review gained fame, notoriety, and influence by spearheading the movement to produce an authentically American national culture distinct from European antecedents.  Publishing now-canonical authors like Whitman and Hawthorne as well as editorials written by O’Sullivan himself, the Democratic Review trumpeted the concept of “Manifest Destiny” cast in a decidedly radical liberal direction.  The wider New York cultural movement identified itself with the phrase “Young America,” sharply contrasting the United States, which O’Sullivan called “The Great Nation of Futurity,” with the monarchies, aristocracies, and corporate-plutocracies proliferating throughout the Old World.  O’Sullivan and his fellow Young Americans were far from perfect, and by no means were they equivalent to modern libertarians, but their visions and concepts of republicanism, democracy, and the United States constituted one of the most virulent and influential strains of liberal thinking in the entirety of nineteenth-century America.O’Sullivan and his Democratic Review gained fame, notoriety, and influence by spearheading the movement to produce an authentically American national culture distinct from European antecedents.  Publishing now-canonical authors like Whitman and Hawthorne as well as editorials written by O’Sullivan himself, the Democratic Review trumpeted the concept of “Manifest Destiny” cast in a decidedly radical liberal direction.  The wider New York cultural movement identified itself with the phrase “Young America,” sharply contrasting the United States, which O’Sullivan called “The Great Nation of Futurity,” with the monarchies, aristocracies, and corporate-plutocracies proliferating throughout the Old World.  O’Sullivan and his fellow Young Americans were far from perfect, and by no means were they equivalent to modern libertarians, but their visions and concepts of republicanism, democracy, and the United States constituted one of the most virulent and influential strains of liberal thinking in the entirety of nineteenth-century America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode features a remastered recording of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address. With the Cold War looming and the destruction of the species itself at stake, Eisenhower implores citizens to tirelessly and virtuously strive for peace, prosperity, love, and mutual respect between all peoples:  a harmonious world built upon democratic goodwill toward all, the very antithesis of unipolar, technetronic imperialism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Caleb O. Brown reads Lysander Spooner’s 1858 essay “To the Non-Slaveholders of the South.”In response to the 1857 Dred Scott decision, Spooner penned this essay advocating for a total overthrow of the slave trade dominating the South at the time. He advises all slaves and non-slaveholders to engage in covert and open conflict against those who perpetuate injustice, turning the slave masters’ whips against themselves.He argues for any and all actions that make slavery unprofitable, from refusing to plant and harvest crops, stealing or destroying farming equipment, to open and justified warfare. Perhaps most significantly for the history of liberal thought, Spooner accepts the time-honored Lockean premise that slavery indeed represented a state of war between slave and slave-master.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Caleb O. Brown reads the Loco-Foco Declaration of Principles.On the evening of 29 October, 1835, radical liberal conspirators poured into Tammany Hall, fulfilling their carefully-laid plans to overtake the local Democratic Party nominating conventions from the conservatives who controlled the Hall.  After shutting down the conventions and subsequently the gas lamps throughout the hall, the radicals lit the room with their newly-invented friction matches popularly called “loco-focos.” They nominated their own slate of candidates.The following morning, the press condescendingly referred to the rump conventioneers as the “Loco-Foco Party,” a name which they adopted as a badge of honor. The party later drafted the defining document of their equal rights movement, the Loco-Foco Declaration of Principles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Caleb O. Brown reads selections from Richard Cobden’s writings and speeches on the freedom of commerce after his election to Parliament in 1841. Cobden was a successful English businessman and manufacturer, who upon his arrival to the political stage, fought for the repeal of restrictive commerce laws and regulation. He believed that allowing free trade between nations was the key to improving and maintaining international relations.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Episode of Classics of Liberty, Caleb O. Brown reads excerpts from Benjamin Tucker’s speech on the parasitic and inherently agressive nature of the state. Originally given to the Unitarian Ministers’ Institute in 1890, Tucker explores anarchism as a stark contrast to the violence and coerciveness of state power.Show Notes and Further ReadingBenjamin R. Tucker’s “The Relation of the State to the Individual”  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Classics of Liberty, Caleb O. Brown reads selections from Henry David Thoreau’s subversive essay Civil Disobedience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Classics of Liberty, Caleb O. Brown reads two selections from the works of Adam Smith:  “The Man of System” from The Theory of Moral Sentiments and “Labor and Commerce” from The Wealth of Nations.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prominent abolitionist and writer, Frederick Douglass, addresses the contradiction between a country founded on liberty and the existence of slavery. He critiques the celebration of the Fourth of July while being enslaved. He passionately condemns slavery as America's great sin and calls for its removal.