JOHN WILKES

AND THE
ANGLO-
AMERICAN
LIBERAL
TRADITION OF
CIVIC
LIBERTIES
Introduction

To understand the truly Anglo- American liberal tradition, we could

say that in the 1640s a civil war between the Crown and
Parliament finished in the beheading of the king, the abolition of
the monarchy, and the establishment of a Puritan-dominated
republic; as a result, “liberty” and “property” become England’s
watchwords, and the biggest fiction was that all freeborn English
were equal before the law. Furthermore, only Anglican men of
property had full civil and political rights, such as voting, holding
public office, attending university… until the Toleration Act of
1689.

It was after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that William of Orange

presented the Bill of rights, a document that establishes basic
American civil liberties that Government cannot violate and the
first ten amendments of the coming Constitution. As a
consequence of the revolution, Parliament gained powers over
taxation, over the royal succession, over appointments and over
the right of the crown to wage war independently.

The Anglo-American tradition

The old Anglo- American tradition of Abraham Lincoln and

Frederick Douglas, of the Founders and John Locke, is called
“liberal” with good reason; “liberal” comes from the Latin word
“free”. The antonym of liberalism is servility. The liberal society is
one where everyone is free and nobody is a slave of no one. The
American democratic system was based on fundamental beliefs,
feelings and individualism. Individualism is based on a belief of a
natural right that is not descended from God, thus it dissents
basically from feudalism, a system based on divine rights.

The society built, already during the colonial period, was elastic
and diverse, and the religious diversity and social equality of the
Americans differed sharply with the Spanish aristocracy in Latin
America. The Anglo American nation was formed by the American
Civil War, as a result of the terrible trauma of a civil war and the
liberation of the slaves and their inclusion in American society; all
this meant the redefinition of the American nation.
The “Agreement of the People” (1649) is the antecedent of rights
articulated in the Bill of Rights in the 18th century; it was published
by John Lilburne, and we can say that is the becoming of the
opening up of a legal space for privacy and individual freedom.
Many of the ideas embodied in the U. S. Constitution were in the
“Agreement of the People”: right to for all people to vote, freedom
of religion and press…

We can’t talk about the Anglo American tradition without mention

the puritans. Puritanism made an important impact on Anglo-
America. Seventeenth-century New England had a far more
religious establishment than did other English colonies. New
England was settled by Puritans: its leaders determined the
history, and Puritanism was the most important formative influence
on American culture.

The seventeenth-century Puritans had tried to re-establish English

ideas and social forms in the New World. Puritanism began with the
absolute sovereignty of God and the institutionalization of religious
enthusiasm.

John Wilkes: the character

One of the most colorful in English political history, John Wilkes

(1727-1797) is remembered as the father of the British free press,
defender of civil and political liberties, and a hero to American
colonists. His name became synonymous of “liberty” for London
crowds from 1763, while his battles with successive British
governments to establish various civil and political rights constitute
his lasting significance; he was a seminal figure in the Anglo-
American political tradition.

Wilkes was not a deep political thinker, but he was an excellent

publicist. Wilkes was the central figure in a number of
constitutional disputes which extended the political rights of
ordinary citizens. This Member of Parliament (1757-63 and 1770-
90) was equally famous for his “private” life - a confessed libertine
and the author of what has been called the dirtiest poem in the
English language; furthermore, he was repeatedly expelled from
Parliament.
He founded a newspaper, the North Briton, in which he made
outspoken attacks on George III and his ministers. In the famous
issue No.45 (1763), Wilkes went so far as to criticize the speech
from the throne. He was prosecuted for libel, expelled from
Parliament and arrested immediately on the basis of a general
warrant (one that did not specify who was to be arrested).
Reelected, he continued to print his attacks on the government
and was again tried. Regarded as a victim of persecution and a
champion of liberty, he gained popular support: the ejection, in the
eyes of the angry populace, became a case of royal manipulation
of parliamentary privilege against Wilkes to restrain the people’s
right to elect their own representative. He was again elected to
Parliament and again expelled, and become lord mayor of London
in 1774.

John Wilkes : “father of civil liberty”

Wilkes did adopt the radical demands of the urban middle class,
making the opening up of a legal space for privacy and individual
freedom: shorter Parliaments, parliamentary reform, exclusion of
place-men and pensioners from the Commons and pro-
Americanism. In the House of Commons, after being expelled again
(1774-90), he supported parliamentary reform and freedom of the
press.

The MP forced the extinction of general warrants – the practice of

arresting anyone who might have been involved in a crime and
doing the detective work afterwards – an issue of enormous
contemporary significance in both Britain and the United States. He
also established the first radical political society in eighteen-
century Britain, the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights
(1769).

He fought for the right of voters to determine their representatives

in the Middlesex election from 1768 to 1970; he was an important
piece in the decision of Lord North’s government to concede the
right of printers to publish word-by-word parliamentary debates,
and he introduced the first Bill for parliamentary reform in the
British parliament.
Wilkes had many American admirers; his key success was to
protect the freedom of the press, removing the power of general
warrants and also the ability of Parliament to punish political report
of debates, as an antecedent of rights that would be legally
articulated in the 18th century.

Influence

The Anglo-American liberal tradition appears in the unwritten

Constitution of the U.S., as well as in America’s Fourth
Amendment, which protects the privacy and security of the home
and personal effects and prohibits unreasonable searches and
seizures. The civil rights and liberties of U.S. citizens are largely
embodied in the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments of the
Constitution) and in similar provisions in states’ constitutions.

Wilkes became a hero in America as well as in Britain. British

People in the American colonies followed Wilkes’s career. The
Dutch politician Joan van der Capellen tot del Pol, who advocated
the American Revolution, was inspired by Wilkes. Wilkes has not
been ignored by biographers hitherto: P.D.G. Thomas’s study, John
Wilkes. A Friend of Liberty (1996); Arthur Cash’s book John Wilkes:
The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty and a long list of
bibliographies are some examples of the repercussion of the John
Wilkes’s character.

Conclusion

“Wilkes and liberty” became the slogan of the London crowds who
demonstrated his support. He gained popular support, forced the
extinction of general warrants, and was a champion of mass
politics henceforth one of the strands in popular radicalism.

Bibliography

CASH, ARTHUR (2006). John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil

Liberty

WILLIAMSON, AUDREY (1974). Wilkes, A Friend Of Liberty

STARR, PAUL (2007). Freedom’s Power. The True Force Of
Liberalism

HOLDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1938). A History Of English Law

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia