The Republican Tradition and the Struggle for Constitutional Liberty
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became the first modern dictator, crowned himself Emperor, and plunged
all of Europe into nearly two decades of war, death, and destruction. In
retrospect, then, it may be seen that the case for a limited constitutional
monarchy was not as weak as some maintained. Even today we are
struck by the fact that Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and other
regimes that have kept the throne and have evolved into a limited constitutional monarchy have been among the freest and most stable democracies of modern Europe.
A few Americans entertained the notion that perhaps George Washington should be crowned the American king; and there were rumors
that John Adams and Alexander Hamilton harbored monarchist sentiments. But Washington never took it seriously, and the charges against
Adams and Hamilton were false. Many American political leaders, especially Hamilton, did greatly admire the English Constitution, however,
even though they agreed with the great majority of their countrymen
that American society, lacking a permanent aristocracy or class system
like that of England, was not suited for a monarchy. No proposal to establish such a system was ever made at the Philadelphia Convention, the
Framers being unanimously agreed that a republican form of government, though difficult to maintain, was the best system for the people of
the United States.
The extent to which the writings of Sidney and Locke contributed to
the increasing disenchantment with monarchy and the growing popularity of republicanism among the American people cannot easily be
measured. Among the educated class, however, their works were read
widely and often discussed. Although James I had published a defense
of monarchical government early in the seventeenth century, the principal
book was Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1680), a learned treatise which argued nevertheless that the King ruled by divine right and could trace his
line of authority back to Holy Scripture. Sidney denied the validity of the
theory in his Discourses, and Locke repudiated it in his First Treatise of
Civil Government. With the notable exception of Jonathan Boucher, a Tory
preacher from Maryland who published a defense of Filmer and ridiculed the doctrines of Locke, few Americans seem to have been much
persuaded by Filmer. With many other Loyalists, Boucher eventually
fled the colonies, never to return. What sentiment there was for monar-