Two Treatises of Government Author by John Locke. “Father of Liberalism” was born on 29 August 1632 in Wrington, Somerset, England. Died 28 October 1704 England. He is an English thinker and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers. Two Treatises of Government is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689.
Two Treatises is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise. The Treatises of Government, particularly the Second Treatise, are cornerstone works in Western thought.
Treatise 1: The “Divine Right of Kings”
1 The Introduction
2. Paternal and Regal Power
3. Adam’s Title to Sovereignty by Creation
4. Adam’s Title to Sovereignty by Donation
5. Adam’s Title to Sovereignty by the Subjection of Eve
6. Adam’s Title to Sovereignty by Fatherhood
7. Fatherhood and Property Considered Together
8. The Conveyance of Adam’s Sovereign Power
9. Monarchy by Inheritance from Adam
10. The Heir to Adams Monarchical Power
11. Who Heir
2: The Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government
1. Political Power
2. The State of Nature
3. The State of War
4. Slavery
5. Property
5 Paternal Power
7. Political or Civil Society
8. The Beginning of Political Societies
9. The Ends of Political Society and Government
10. The From of a commonwealth
11. The Extent of the Legislative Power
12. The Power of the commonwealth
13. The Subordination of the Commonwealth
14. Prerogative
15. Paternal, Political, and Despotically Power
16. Conquest
17. Usurpation
18. Tyranny
19 The disciplined of Government
The Introduction of Two Treatises of Government
1. Slavery is so vile and miserable an Estate of Man, and so directly opposite to the generous Temper and Courage of our Nation; that it is hard to be conceived, that an Englishman, much less a Gentleman, should plead fort And truly, I should have taken Sr. Rt: Filmer’s Patriarchs as any other Treatise, which would persuade all Men, that they are Slaves, and ought to be so, for such another exercise of Wit, as was his who writ the Encomium of Nero, rather than for a serious Discourse meant in earnest, had not the Gravity of the Title and Epistle, the Picture in the Front of the Book, and the Applause that followed it, required me to believe, that the Author and Publisher were both in earnest. I, therefore, took it into my hands with all the expectation, and read it through with-all the attention due to a Treatise, that made such a noise at its coming abroad, and cannot but confess myself mightily surprised, that in a Book, which was to provide Chains for all Mankind, I should find nothing but a Rope of Sand, useful perhaps to such, whose Skill and Business it is to raise a Dust and would blind the People, the better to mislead them, but in truth not of any force to draw those into Bondage, who have their eyes open, and so much Sense about them as to consider, that Chains are but an ill wearing, how much Care whatever means hath
been taken to file and polish them.
2. If anyone thinks I take too much liberty in speaking so freely of a Man, who is the great Champion of absolute Power, and the Idol of those who Worship it; I beseech him to make this small allowance for once, to one, who, even after the reading of Sir Robert’s Book, cannot but think himself, as the Laws allow him, a Freeman: And I know no fault it is to do so unless anyone better skilled in the Fate of it, than I, should have it revealed to him, that this Treatise, which has lain dormant so long, was, when it appeared in the World, to carry by the strength of its Arguments, all Liberty out of it; and that from thenceforth our Author’s short Model was to be the Pattern in the Mount and the perfect Standard of Politics for the future. His System lies in a little compass, it is no more but, this, That all Government is absolute Monarchy. And the Ground he builds on, is this, That no Man is Born free.
3. In this last age, a generation of men has sprung up among us, who would flatter princes with an Opinion, that they have a Divine Right to absolute Power, let the Laws by which they are constituted, and are to govern. The Conditions under which they enter upon their Authority, be what they will. Their Engagements to observe them never so well ratified by solemn Oaths and Promises. To make way for this doctrine, they have denied Mankind a Right to natural Freedom, whereby they have not only, as much as in them lies, exposed all Subjects to the utmost Misery of Tyranny and Oppression, but have also unsettled the Titles, and shaken the Thrones of Princes: (For them too, by these Men’s system, except only one, are all born Slaves, and by Divine Right, are Subjects to Adam’s right Heir); As if they had designed to make War upon all Government, and subvert the very Foundations of Human Society, to serve their present turn.
4. However, we must believe them upon their own bare Words when they tell us we are all born Slaves, and we must continue, so there is no remedy for it. Life and Thraldom we entered into together, and can never be quit of the one, till we part with the other. Scripture or Reason I am sure doe not anywhere say so notwithstanding the noise of divine right, as if Divine Authority hath subjected us to the unlimited Will of another. An admirable State of Mankind, and that which they have not had wit enough to find out till this latter Age. For, however, Sir Robert Filmer seems to condemn the novelty of the contrary Opinion, Pat. p. 3. yet I believe it will be hard for him to find any other Age or Country of the World, but this has asserted monarchy to be Jure Divino, And he confesses Part. p. 4. That Heyward, Blackwood, Barclay, and others, that have bravely vindicated the Right of Kings in most Points, never thought of this, but with one Consent admitted the Natural Liberty and Equality of Mankind.
5. By whom this doctrine came at first to be broached, brought in fashion amongst us. What sad effects it gave rise to, I leave to historians to relate, or to the Memory of those who were Contemporaries with Sibthorp and Manwaring to recollect. My business at present is only to consider what Sir R. F. who is allowed to have carried this Argument farthest and is supposed to have brought it to perfection, has said in it for from him every one, who would be as fashionable as French was at Court, has learned, and runs away with this short System of Politics, viz. Men are not born free and therefore could never have the liberty to choose either Governors or Forms of Government. Princes have their Power Absolute, and by Divine Right, for Slaves could never have a Right to Compact or Consent. Adam was an absolute Monarch, and so are all Princes ever since.
Paternal and Regal Power
6. Sir, it F.’s great Position is that Men are not naturally free. This is the foundation on which his absolute Monarchy stands. From which it erects itself to a height, that its Power is above every, Power, Caput inter nubile, so high above all Earthly and Human Things, that Thought can scarcely reach it; that Promises and Oaths, which tie the infinite Deity, cannot confine it. But if this Foundation fails, all his Fabric falls with it, and Governments must be left again to the old way of being made by contrivance, and the consent of Men making use of their Reason to unite together into Society. To prove this grand position of his, he tells us, p. 12. Men are born in subjection to their parents, and therefore cannot be free And this Authority of Parents, he calls Royal Authority, p. 12, 14. Fatherly Authority, Right of Fatherhood, p. 12, 20. One would have thought would come at the beginning of such a Work like this, on which was to depend on the Authority of Princes. The Obedience of Subjects, have told us expressly what that Fatherly Authority is, have defined it, though not limited it, because in some other Treatises of his he tells us, it is Unlimited and Uninhabitable; he should at least have given us such an account of it, that we might have had an entire Notion of this Fatherhood, or Fatherly Authority, whenever it came in our way in his Writings. This, I expected to have found in the first Chapter of his Patriarcha. But instead thereof, having,
1. En Passant, Made his Obeisance to the Arcana Imperii, p. 5.
2. Made his Compliment to the Rights and Liberties of this, or any other Nation, p. 6. which he is going presently to null and destroy And
3. Made his Leg to those Learned Men, who did not see so far into the Matter as himself, p.7 He comes to fall on Bellarmine, p. 8. and, by a Victory over him, Establishes his Fatherly Authority beyond any question. Bellarmine being routed by his own Confession, p. 11. the day is clear got, and there is no more need of any Forces: For having done that, I observe not that he states the Question, or rallies up any Arguments to make good his Opinion, but rather tells us the Story, as to be thought fit, of this strange kind of domineering Phantom, called the Fatherhood, which whoever could catch, presently got Empire, and unlimited absolute Power.
He assures us how this Fatherhood began in Adam, continued its course, and kept the World in order all the time of the Patriarchs till the Flood, got out of the ark with Noah and his Sons, made and supported all the Kings of the Earth till the Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt, and then the poor Fatherhood was under hatches, till God by giving the Israelites Kings, Re-established the ancient and prime Right of the Lineal Succession in Paternal Government. This is his business from p. 12 to 19. And then obviating an Objection, and clearing a difficulty or two with one-half Reason, p. 23. to confirm the Natural Right of Regal Power, he ends the first Chapter. I hope it is no injury to call a half Quotation a half Reason, for God says, Honor thy Father and Mother; but our author contents himself with half, leaves out thy Mother quite, as little serviceable to his purpose. But of that more in another place.
“In Grants and Gifts that have their Original from God or Nature, as the Power of the Father has, no inferior Power of Man can limit, nor make any Law of Prescription against them. The Scripture teaches that supreme Power was Originally in the Father without any Limitation.”
7. I do not think our Author is so little skilled in writing Discourses of this nature, nor so careless of the Point in hand, that he by oversight commits the fault that he himself, in his Anarchy of a mixed Monarchy, p. 239. objects to Mr. Hunton in these words Where first I charge the A that he hath not given us any Definition, or Description of Monarchy in general; for by the Rules of Method, he should have first defined And by the like Rule of Method Sir Robert should have told us, what his Fatherhood or Fatherly Authority is before he had told us, in whom it was to be found, and talked so much of it. But perhaps Sir Robert found that this Fatherly Authority, this Power of Fathers, and Kings, for he makes them both the same, p. 24. would make a very odd and frightful Figure, and very disagreeing, with what either Child imagine of their Parents, or Subjects of their Kings, if he should have given us the whole Draught together, in that Gigantic Form, he had painted it in his own Pliancy: and therefore like a wary Physician, when he would have his Patient swallow some harsh or Corrosive Liquor, he mingles it with a large quantity of that, which may dilute it; that the scattered Parts may go down with less feeling, and cause less Aversion.
8. Let us then endeavor to find what account he gives us of this Fatherly Authority, as it lies scattered in the several Parts of his Writings. And first, as it was vested in Adam, he says, Not only Adam but the succeeding Patriarchs, had by Right of Fatherhood Royal Authority over their Children, p. 12. This Lordship which Adam by command had over the whole World, and by Right descending from him the Patriarchs did enjoy, was as large and ample as the Absolute Dominion of any Monarch which hath been since the Creation, p. 13. Dominion of Life and Death, making War and concluding Peace, p. 13. Adam and the Patriarchs had absolute Power of Life and Death, p. 35.
Kings, in the Right of Parents, succeed to the Exercise of Supreme Jurisdiction, p. 19. As Kingly Power is by the Law of God, so it hath no Inferior Law to Limit it, Adam was Lord of all, p. 40. The Father of a Family governs by no other Law, then by his own Will, p. 78. The Superiority of Princes is above Laws, p. 79. Samuel so amply describes the unlimited Jurisdiction of Kings, p. 80. Kings are above the Laws, p. 93. And to this purpose, see a great deal more which our A delivers in Bodin’s words: It is certain, that all Laws, Privileges, and Grants of Princes, have no Force, but during their life; if they are not ratified by the express Consent, or by Sufferance of the Prince following, especially Privileges, 0. p. 279.
The reason why Kings has also made laws was this; When Kings were either busied with Wars or distracted with public Cares, so that every private Man could not have Access to their Persons, to learn their Wills and Pleasure, then were Laws of Necessity invented, that so every particular Subject might find his prince’s Pleasure deciphered unto him in the Tables of his Laws, p. 92. In a Monarchy, the King must, by necessity, be above the Laws, p. 100.
A perfect Kingdom is when the king rules all things according to His own Will, p. 106. Neither Common nor Statute Laws are, or can be, any Diminution of that General Power, which Kings have over their People by right of Fatherhood, p. 115. Adam was the Father, King, and Lord over his Family; a Son, a Subject, and a Servant or Slave were the same thing at first.
The Father had the power to dispose or sell his Children or Servants, whence we find, that at the first reckoning up of Goods in Scripture, the Man-servant, and the Maid-servant, are numbered among the Possessions and Substance of the Owner, as other Goods were, 0. Praef. God also hath given to the Father a Right or Liberty, to alien his Power over his Children to any other, whence we find the Sale and Gift of Children to have been much in use at the beginning of the World when Men had their Servants for a Possession and an Inheritance, as well as other Goods, whereupon we find the Power of Castrating and making Eunuchs much in use in Old Times, 0. p. 155. Law is nothing else but the Will of him that hath the Power of the Supreme Father, 0. p. 223. It was God’s Ordinance that the Supremacy should be unlimited in Adam, and as large as all the Acts of his Will, and as in him, so in all others that have Supreme Power, 0. p. 245.
9. I have been fain to trouble my Reader with these several Quotations in our A—’s own Words, that in them might be seen his own Description of his Fatherly Authority, as it lies scattered up and down in his Writings, which he supposes was first vested in Adam, and by Right belongs to all Princes ever since.
This Fatherly Authority then, or Right of Fatherhood, in our A scene is a Divine unalterable Right of Sovereignty, whereby a Father or a Prince bath an Absolute, Arbitrary, Unlimited, and Uninhabitable Power, over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of his Children and Subjects; so that he may take or alienate their Estates, sell, castrate, or use their Persons as he pleases, they being all his Slaves, and the Lord or Proprietor of everything, and his unbounded Will their Law.
10. Our A has placed such a mighty Power in Adam. Upon that supposition, founded all Government, and all Power of Princes, it is reasonable to expect that he should have proved this with Arguments clear and evident, suitable to the Cause’s weightiness. That since Men had nothing else left them, they might in Slavery have such undeniable Proofs of its Necessity, that their Consciences might be convinced, and oblige them to submit peaceably to that Absolute Dominion, which their Governors had a Right to exercise over them. Without this, What Good could our A do, or pretend to do, by erecting such an unlimited Power, but flatter the Natural Vanity and Ambition of Men, too apt of itself to grow and increase with the Possession of any Power? And by persuading those, who, by the consent of their Fellow-Men, are advanced to great, but limited degrees of it, that by that part which is given them, they have a Right to all, that was not so; and therefore may do what they please, because they have Authority to do more than others, and so tempt them to do what is neither for their own nor the good of those under their Care, whereby great Mischiefs cannot but follow.
11. The Sovereignty of Adam, being that on which, as a sure Basis, our A builds his mighty Absolute Monarchy, I expected, that, in his Patriarchs, this his main Supposition would have been proved and established with all that Evidence of Arguments, that such a Fundamental Tenet required; and that this, on which the great stress of the Business depends, would have been made out with Reasons sufficient to justify the Confidence with which it was assumed. But in all that Treatise, I could find minimal tending that way; the Thing is there so taken for granted without Proof; that I could scarce believe myself when upon attentive reading that Treatise, I found there so mighty a Structure raised upon the bare supposition of this Foundation. For it is scarcely credible that in a Discourse where he pretends to confute the Erroneous Principle of Man’s Natural Freedom, he should do it by a bare supposition of Adam’s Authority, without offering any Proof for that Authority. Indeed he confidently says that Adam had Royal Authority. p. 12, and 13. Absolute Lordship and Dominion of Life and Death, p. 13. A Universal Monarchy, p. 33. Absolute Power of Life and Death, p. 35. Buy Now And Read More
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