October 13, 2026

OUR RIGHTS AS ENGLISHMEN:

The British Radical Who Used the American Revolution to Curb the Crown: Danielle Allen’s valuable history of Charles Lennox shows the two sides weren’t foes but allies for popular sovereignty against tyranny (Andy Craig, 10/12/26, The UnPopulist)

In the spring of 1778, with the war in America going badly, a member of the House of Lords proposed that Britain withdraw its forces and recognize American independence. Charles Lennox, the third Duke of Richmond, was a great-grandson of King Charles II, one of the wealthiest men in the country, and about as well-placed in the British establishment as anyone could be. He was also, for 15 years, its most persistent critic.

Richmond is not a name most Americans would recognize. Danielle Allen’s Radical Duke makes a good case that he ought to be. […]

The central argument of the book, and its most valuable contribution, is that the reformers in London and the rebels in America were reacting to the same problem, and that the problem was not taxation as such. It was that Parliament had stopped functioning as an independent check on the Crown.

THUS DID hISTORY eND:

America Became Rich Because of Liberalism (Peter J. Boettke, October 12, 2026, ProMarket)

The great historian of the American Revolution, Gordon Wood, argued in The Radicalism of the American Revolution that what is most overlooked in discussions is the radical transformation of society that resulted. Colonial America was a society of status, of privileges, of station. Patronage and personal favoritism by those with power played a major role in social mobility—to the extent that it existed. This social system would all be transformed by the Revolution. One prominent example of the legal transformation was the abolition state by state of the practice of primogeniture between 1777 to 1798. Not only did this change the laws of inheritance, but transformed the meaning and use of property, encouraged entrepreneurship, credit markets and social and geographic mobility. Legal distinctions based on rank disappeared, and economic opportunities were based in interest, aptitude and talent rather than birth. Certainly not perfectly, it must be acknowledged. But in a far more sweeping nature than anywhere else in the world, ordinary individuals were enabled to “give it a go,” as the historian Deirdre McCloskey likes to stress about the ascendancy of the Bourgeois Era. Almost overnight, Wood argues, Americans became “the most liberal, most democratic, most commercially minds, and most modern people in the world.”

As a result, America became the richest country in history over the next 250 years. It did so without an aristocracy, and without central planning or a comprehensive blueprint by the governmental authorities. The Revolution succeeded because it created the institutional conditions for commercial civilization. It unleashed the creative powers of a free people to a greater degree than had ever been experienced before. As Hayek would stress, the transformation for a society of status to one of contract is critical to experiencing modern economic growth. And this is only possible if the governing system seeks to eliminate privileges and instead binds itself to the rule of law.

The American Constitution, democratic self-governance, geographic advantages, and abundance of resources all played a role, but it was the transformation of society that drove progress. The system of social hierarchy, deference, patronage, and inherited privileges was transformed into a system of equality before the law, civil society consisting of voluntary association, social mobility, entrepreneurship and dignity and respect for ordinary work. Commercial activity ceased being morally suspect and the marketplace was characterized by entrepreneurs, shopkeepers and independent participants rather than clients dependent on the good graces of the privileged and powerful elite.

The tragedy of Joe Biden was his disinterest in restoring the free movemnent of goods and people.