Key Individuals Flashcards
John Locke
Leading Whig in taking on the Divine Right of Kings Doctrine.
Sir Edward Coke
“The censors cannot be judges, ministers, and parties; judges to give sentence or judgement; ministers to make summons.”
“And it appears in our books, that in many cases, the common law will control acts of parliament, and sometimes adjudge them to be utterly void: for when an act of parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will control it, and adjudge such act to be void.”
John Marshall
Answer
Charles Louis de Montesquieu
Nobleman and member of the French Court (magistrate as a lower level judge). Political philosopher and jurist that taught younger jurists how to be magistrates.
David Hume (1711-1776)
Scottish philosopher. Historian, atheist, and empiricist. Believed in gaining knowledge by observation and experience and not by mere reason. Author of Original Contract (1748).
Patrick Henry
From Virginia, Anti-Federalist, wanted a Bill of Rights,
“Give me Liberty, or Give me Death.” speech
Heavenly King over earthly king
Lamp of experience is his guide
He’s patriotic, but the question is one of “freedom or slavery…” Troops are in the country.
Robert Yates
He was a politician and judge well known for his Anti-Federalist stances. He is also well known as the presumed author of political essays published in 1787 and 1788 under the pseudonyms “Brutus” and “Sydney”. The essays opposed the introduction of the Constitution of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson
- Influences Madison of the wisdom in Bill of Rights
- All people are entitled to a bill of rights
- “Half a loaf is better than no bread” – Secure what we can.
- Legislatures can be tyrannical
- TJ to JMAD 1826: Coke influenced the views and ideas of American Constitution, lawyers, whig ideology, 5th & 14th, Due Process of Law, Just Compensation.
James Madison
- He was against a bill of rights
-People may limit rights in drafting such bills
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Sam Adams
“The Rights of Colonist” 1772
• Natural rights
o First right, self-preservation
o Positive law should confirm Natural Law if possible
o Absolute Rights of Englishmen: personal security, personal liberty, private property
Friedrich Hayek
F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian, later turned British, economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism.
John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon
Radical Whig authors of the Cato Letters, an independent Whig paper. Commonwealth men and against centralized power, immorality, corruption, and tyranny. Gentry and wealthy. Drew on Liberal and republican themes of Cato, Machiavelli, Sidney, and Locke.
James Otis
Advocate General of the Vice Admiralty Court in Boston
-resigned from his position to protest the Writs of Assistance in the Colonies and represent the accused in the Superior Court of Massachusetts
William Blackstone
“So long therefore as the English constitution lasts, we may venture to affirm, that the power of parliament is absolute and without control.”
Charles I
Beheaded by the Puritans to give way to the 1649 Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell as Protectorate. Accused for forming special courts and creatively taxing.
