Selected Political Writings of John Thelwall Vol 1 by Robert Lamb Corinna Wagner

Author:Robert Lamb, Corinna Wagner [Robert Lamb, Corinna Wagner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9781000748574
Google: k2DdDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-04-14T03:50:29+00:00

FRATERNITY AND UNANIMITY

Citizen Thelwall, Fraternity and Unanimity to the Friends of Freedom (London 1795)

Fraternity and Unanimity was published as a four-page pamphlet in 1795, but it first appeared in one of Thelwall's Tribune lectures. It is transcribed from the last lecture of the season, Saturday 20 June 1795, and subsequently published in number fifteen of the Tribune as The Address of J. Thelwall to the Audience at Closing his Lectures for the Season.1 That this small extract from the Tribune was published separately testifies to its momentousness. This is an official public notice of Thelwall's decision to withdraw from popular political associations and to embark on an independent career as a lecturer. On one level, this pamphlet betrays the intense pressure he experienced in the aftermath of the 1794 Treason Trials and the degree to which debilitating health problems caused by his incarceration lingered and threatened the continuance of his public appearances.

There is something worth remarking on in the way Thelwall informs the publie of his decision. In Fraternity and Unanimity, but even more explicitly in the larger Address, he essentially asks his audience not only for support of his decision, but also their approval of his motives. This is in line with the philosophical and political principles he promoted in his lectures: political virtue required sincerity and transparency, as well as correction and self-sacrifice. That he makes clear that one of his reasons for leaving off the London Corresponding Society is to protect his family from further hardship as a result of his public role is also revealing. Throughout his career, he would emphasize his domestic virtues as part of his advocacy of a republican model of civic virtue.

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