John Adams's 1765 Defense of Religious and Political Liberty

About this episode

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 220 In 1765, Great Britain had foolishly decided to continue escalating its attempts to recover the cost of the French and Indian War from its American Colonists by passing the infamous and odious Stamp Act upon the colonies, who famously were not represented in the Parliament that would tax them. In response, a great deal of pre-Revolutionary mayhem and energy was unleashed on this side of the Pond, and within that current came one of the most brilliant and under-recognized essays (https://www.fredbischoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Adams-Canon-Feudal.pdf) of the nascent American era, penned under pseudonym by the incredible John Adams. "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law," as it was called, was a hammerstroke against the twin tyrannies of an overbearing church and state, and worse yet, their confederacy. It was also a call to learning and to memory for the colonists about who they are, who they were, and why they and their forefathers came: not just for religion, but for religious liberty and a hatred of these wicked tyrannies all across Europe. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay reads