Orestes Augustus Brownson on the Nature and Scope of Political Authority
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Orestes Augustus Brownson on the nature and scope of political authority Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Moffit, Robert E. (Robert Emmet) Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 01/10/2021 17:36:49 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/318417 .ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON ON THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY Robert Emmet■Moffit A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of , MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 9 7 1 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill ment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowl edgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: ^ ^ _ v - n i CURRIH V. SHIELDS Date Professor of Government ACKNOWLEDGMENTS An undertaking of this sort is hardly,'if ever, carried forth alone. I am indebted, first, to the Honorable Robert James Gerstung, Judge of. the Municipal Court of Baltimore City for stirring my original inter est in the life and writings of Orestes Brovmson. As this is the culmination of one phase of my academic career, I should note here the kindly advice and instruction of certain members of the University of Arizona faculty, notable Professors Henry Kenski, Philip Chapman, and Lawrence Scaff. My advisor, Professor Currin Shields has pro vided me with advice and criticisms on certain aspects' of Brown son’s. political theory and related ideas, all of which have been helpful in the preparation of the final text. Finally, I am most appreciative for the work of the persevering Mrs. Susan Hogan, my typist. TABLE OF CONTENTS . Page ABSTRACi oooooooooooooooooooooooooeoooooooeooooooe "V 1. BROWNS ON IN PERSPECTIVE . 1 2. BROWNS ON ON THE ROLE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE......... 2S ' 3o A CRITIQUE OF SEVEN THEORIES..L........,.o... .... 44 The Patriarchal Theory....................... 46 The Contract Theory.......................... 6l Contract and Consent.............oo........... S 0 The Democratic Theory......e................. SS The Naturalist Theory........................ 99 Divine Right of -Kings Theory................. 106 The Papal Theory............................. Ill The People as Sovereign...................... 113 4. BROWNSON’S CONCEPTION OF AUTHORITY............... 120 Ecclesiastical and Political Authority....... 135 The Reconciliation of Authority and -L ah ertye............................. 1 4 S 5. THE.BROWNSONIAN THEORY IN PERSPECTIVE............ 155 LIST OF REFERENCES..........o.^.................. 1Y1 iv I ABSTRACT This thesis will endeavor to present an exposition of Orestes Brownson's ideas concerning the nature and scope of political authorityo Included in this presentation will be the opinions of Brownson’s contemporaries in contrast with his treatment by scholars in our own times<, Moreover, consideration will be allotted to Brownson's notions on the necessity of an ordered study of politics, the primary object of which should be the definition of political authority, the right of government to rule, and obligation in civil society, Brownson attacks the problem of political authority through a logical analysis of seven prominent theories of government. This thesis has sought to elaborate upon those criticisms, explaining in detail the essential points of Brownson’s objections. Finally, there is presented an expo sition and analysis of Brownson’s own theory of political authority, a notion of right rule grounded in ontological truth, and applied in accordance with Natural and Divine Law as adjudicated by the Roman Catholic Church, This thesis contends that the Brownsonian theory is, indeed, a ’’theory of balance", a theory comprised of ; ■ .. v . ■ - . vi important elements' of both the liberal and conservative tra ditions in Western thought- As a political theorist,. Orestes Brownson has made explicit the necessity of religion (especially as taught by the Roman Catholic Church) as a moral underpinning of the political order. CHAPTER 1 BROWNSON IN PERSPECTIVE For the serious"student of human events, the past, and the men who made it, can be an endlessly fascinating subject of analysis« This is true, not only for the events and the celebrities the chroniclers record or celebrate, but also for those incidents and personalities barely men tioned or largely ignored. The failure of contemporary men to appreciate the positive contributions of those who traveled this earth before them is indeed a tragedy. Doomed to suffer obscurity for their earthly pains, these person- ' alities, on occasion, may come under the scrutiny of select scholars who deal in esoterics in sophisticated academic journals. Again, they may occasion the notice of historians well acquainted with the times in which these personalities once lived. Otherwise, they remain unknown. Perhaps the only existing remnants of these forgot ten men may be a number of odd-looking old books, in ancient bindings, accumulating dust somewhere in the attic or cellar of some second-hand book shop. Works long since out of print, they may attract the attention of a casual collector of quaint old volumes, or even a dilettante hardly interested in the deeper contents of those yellowed pages. 2 How is it possible that figures of such great renown, respected talents in their own time, men in the forefront of their professions, can be so utterly lost to contemporary men? Perhaps we should not be surprised that such a negligence is possible<, History, including the his tory of ideas, is a human profession. The celebration of heroes, or the identification of villains, is a human affair. Our imperfections, especially the impact of our personal or ideological prejudices, are far too pervasive. : An eminent political scientist, Professor Carl, Friedrich, noting the many difficulties encountered in his discipline, once remarked that the element of bias in such an under— taking is inescapable. Yet, upon reflection, it does seem incredible that,outstanding personalities, men who have made positive contributions to the society in which they lived, could have passed into a state of near oblivion. In some extraordinary cases, certainly for a'variety of rea sons, the knowledge of these personalities has also been lost to a great many scholars. If this be doubted, one need only ask: Who was Orestes Augustus Brownson? Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a pioneer in Brownson scholarship, once posed the 1. Carl Friedrich, Constitutional Government and Democracy [Boston: Ginn and Company, 194-6J, p. 570. question artfully in his book on the subject; "Who in the America of i860 remembered Herman Melville or knew Stendahl or Karl Marx? But who did not know of No P® Willis, of Eugene Sue, or Orestes Brownson?" 2 Schlesinger notes that, "The measure of what is historically important is set by the generation that writes history, not the one that makes it. No historian can entirely escape judging by the stand ards of his day; in some sense .he must always superimpose one set of values on another. Only a few figures in each age survive the process of sifting."3 Orestes Augustus Brownson, Vermont-born son of Sylvester and Relief Brownson, a man who was to become one of. America’s most outspoken social critics as well, as an original political theorist, has, for the most part, been lost in the "process of sifting" by a considerable portion of the American academic community. Consider the facts. Examine three recent major text books that have been published on American political thought in the last decade. I refer here to Andrew Scott's Politi cal Thought in America;^ In Quest of Freedom; American .2. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Orestes Brownson; A Pilgrim’s Progress [New York; Octagon Books, 1963 j, p. 3 • 3 - Idem. - 4° ' [New York: Rinehart Company, 1959]« Political Thought and Practice by Professors Alpheus T . 5 Mason and Richard Leach; and, most recently, Professor Kenneth Do lb ear e * s Directions in American ■ Political Thought.^1 In none of these otherwise excellent works is the name of Orestes Brownson even mentioned. Other texts to be found are not quite so negligent of Brownson as an American political thinker, David Minar, for example, devotes one sentence in his book, Ideas and Politics: The. American Experience, to Brownson's radicalism during the Jacksonian period, explaining-how Orestes Brownson dissented from the laissez faire doctrine and advocated a kind of mild Christian socialism through which control of the state by the workers could protect workers rights and end the exploitation that accompanied the wage 7 system," In the same vein, a number of older volumes on American political theory exemplify a similar ’’passing refer ence” type of treatment regarding Orestes Brownson. Professor Raymond Gettell in his History of American Political Thought^ only makes note of Brownson’s rather interesting theory of constitutionalism, leaving the rest of his thought on poli tical science to our imagination. A year later, Professor 5. [New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, I960]. 6 . [New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1969]. 7. David Minar, Ideas and Politics: The American Experience [Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1961j, p.