greykit.essays — #treatise

• 1748-01-01 [sources-of-liberty] The Spirit of the Laws

  The Enlightenment treatise on government the founders cited above all others — the source of the doctrine of the separation of powers, from the selected books on the forms, principles, and corruption of government and on political liberty.

  #enlightenment#1740s#treatise#separation-of-powers#liberty#republicanism#self-government
• 1689 [sources-of-liberty] Second Treatise of Government

  Locke's foundational argument for government by consent, natural rights, and the right of revolution — the deepest source of the American founding.

  #enlightenment#1680s#treatise#natural-rights#liberty#self-government#republicanism
• c. 54 BC [sources-of-liberty] On the Commonwealth

  Cicero's dialogue on the best form of the state — the mixed constitution, the doctrine of a natural higher law ("True law is right reason"), and the Dream of Scipio. Surviving in fragments, it shaped the founders' idea of a republic.

  #classical#1st-century-bc#treatise#republicanism#natural-rights#separation-of-powers#self-government