Algernon Sidney and the Republican Heritage in England and America. (book reviews)

Algernon Sidney was executed in 1683. He was suspected of plotting to assassinate Charles II, king of England, and his brother James, Duke of York, the future James II. In the absence of the two witnesses required by the English law of treason, the court allowed an unpublished theoretical treatise, the Discourses Concerning Government, to be admitted as evidence against him.

When the Discourses were published in 1698, edited by the pantheist and freethinker John Toland, they established Sidney's enduring reputation as a martyr for liberty. Throughout the eighteenth century Americans ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.