View source for Political views of Samuel Johnson

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[[Samuel Johnson]] (18 September 1709 {{smaller|<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] 7&nbsp;September]}}{{spaced ndash}}13 December 1784) was a British [[intellectual]] who wrote dozens of essays and a number of pamphlets in which he commented on the political issues of his time.
{{Conservatism UK|Intellectuals}}
{{Toryism}}

==Political writings==
Johnson was known as a staunch [[Tory]] or was thought not to be active within politics; his political writings were subsequently disregarded and neglected. Boswell's ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]'' is partly to blame. Boswell did not meet Johnson until later in life and was unable to discuss how politics affected Johnson during his early years. Two periods, [[Robert Walpole]]'s [[1722 British general election|control over British Parliament]] and the [[Seven Years' War]], were Johnson's most active periods and are the source for much of his early writings. Although Boswell was present with Johnson during the 1770s and described four major pamphlets written by Johnson, he neglected to discuss them because he is more interested in their travels to [[Scotland]]. That is compounded by the fact that Boswell held an opinion contradictory to two of the pamphlets, ''The False Alarm'' and ''Taxation No Tyranny'', and so he attacked Johnson's views in his biography<ref>Greene 2000 p. xxi</ref>—including Johnson's attacks on slavery.

Boswell was not the only reason for Johnson to be disregarded as a political thinker. [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] tried to promote the belief that Johnson's political thoughts were nonsensical and the writings of a bigot.<ref>Greene 2000 p. xxii</ref> However, Macaulay was also a Whig and established the philosophical view that Whigs and Tories were polar opposites, a view that Johnson did not hold.<ref>Greene 2000 p. xx</ref> Johnson's views on politics constantly changed through his life, and he early admitted to sympathies for the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] cause, but by the reign of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]], he had come to accept the [[Act of Settlement 1701|Hanoverian Succession]].<ref name="Bate 1977 p=537">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=537}}</ref> It was Boswell who gave people the impression that Johnson was an "arch-conservative", and it was Boswell who, more than anyone else, determined how Johnson would be seen by people years later.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=365}}</ref>

===Minor pamphlets===
The pamphlets played a major role, causing growing tension between America and Britain.

====''False Alarm''====
In 1770, he produced ''The False Alarm'', a political pamphlet attacking [[John Wilkes]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=443}}</ref>

====''Thoughts Respecting Falkland's Islands''====
In 1771, his ''Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands'' cautioned against war with Spain.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=445}}</ref>

====''The Patriot''====
In 1774, he printed ''The Patriot'', a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made a famous statement: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=182}}</ref> The line was not, as is widely believed, about patriotism in general but rather what Johnson saw as the false use of the term "patriotism" by [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]] (the prime minister) and his supporters. Johnson opposed most "self-professed patriots" in general but valued what he considered "true" patriotism.<ref name="Griffin p. 21">{{Harvnb|Griffin|2005|p=21}}</ref>

====''Taxation No Tyranny''====
[[File:Houghton MS Hyde 50 (59) - Taxation No Tyranny proofs.jpg|thumb|Annotated proofs of Johnson's ''Taxation No Tyranny'' (1775)]]
The last of the pamphlets, ''Taxation No Tyranny'' (1775), was a defence of the [[Coercive Acts]] and a response to the [[Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress|Declaration of Rights]] of the [[First Continental Congress]] of America, which protested against [[no taxation without representation|taxation without representation]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=446}}</ref> Johnson argued that by immigrating to America, colonists had "voluntarily resigned the power of voting" but that they still had "[[virtual representation]]" in Parliament. In a parody of the Declaration of Rights, Johnson suggested that the Americans had no more right to govern themselves than the [[Cornish people]]. If the Americans wanted to participate in Parliament, Johnson said that they could move to England and purchase an estate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ammerman|1974|p=13}}</ref> Johnson denounced English supporters of America as "traitors to this country" and hoped that the matter would be settled without bloodshed but that it would end with "English superiority and American obedience".<ref>{{Harvnb|DeMaria|1994|pp=252–256}}</ref>

==Views==
Johnson was a devout conservative Protestant [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and believed in a unity between the High Church and the Crown (the State).<ref>Bate Achievement p. 36</ref> Johnson respected [[John Milton]]'s poetry but could not tolerate Milton's Puritan and republican beliefs.<ref name="Bate 1977 p=537"/>

===Colonialism===
Johnson wrote that the [[French and Indian War]] between the [[New France|French]] and [[Thirteen Colonies|British colonies of North America]] was a war between "two robbers" of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] lands and that neither party deserved to live there.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=328}}</ref> After the signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|1783 Treaty of Paris]], which marked the American colonists victory over the British, Johnson wrote that he was "deeply disturbed" with the "state of this kingdom".<ref>{{Harvnb|Griffin|2005|p=15}}</ref>

===Scotland===
[[James Boswell]], a Scotsman, was a close companion and friend of Johnson during many important times of his life, but Johnson, like many of his fellow Englishmen, had a reputation for despising Scotland and its people. Even during their journey together through Scotland, Johnson "exhibited prejudice and a narrow nationalism".<ref>{{Harvnb|Rogers|1995|p=192}}</ref> Hester Thrale, in summarising Johnson's nationalistic views and his [[Anti-Scottish sentiment|anti-Scottish prejudice]], said, "We all know how well he loved to abuse the Scotch, & indeed to be abused by them in return".<ref>{{Harvnb|Piozzi|1951|p=165}}</ref>

On 6 August 1773, eleven years after first meeting Boswell, Johnson set out to visit his friend in Scotland to begin "a journey to the western islands of Scotland", as Johnson's 1775 account of their travels later put it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=463}}</ref> The work was intended to discuss the social problems and struggles that affected the Scottish people, but it also praised many of the unique facets of Scottish society, such as a school in Edinburgh for the deaf and mute.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=471}}</ref>

===Slavery===
He agreed with the Whigs in being an opponent of slavery, unlike most of his fellow Tories, and described it as "an immoral state". That was well before the heyday of the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|British abolitionist movement]], and he once proposed a toast to the "next [[Slave rebellion|rebellion of the negroes]] in the [[West Indies]]". He employed a free black manservant, the Jamaican [[Francis Barber]], whom Johnson made his heir.<ref>Boswell Aetat. 75 transcribes Johnson's will</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Citation |last=Ammerman |first=David |title=In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 |location=New York |publisher=Norton |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-393-00787-9}}
* {{citation |last=Bate |first=Walter Jackson |authorlink=Walter Jackson Bate |title=Samuel Johnson |year=1977 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=New York |isbn=0-15-179260-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/samueljohnson000bate }}.
* {{citation |last=Bate |first=Walter Jackson |title=The Achievement of Samuel Johnson |year=1955 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |oclc=355413}}.
* {{citation |last=Boswell |first=James |title=The Life of Samuel Johnson |year=1986 |editor-last=Hibbert |editor-first=Christopher  |publisher=Penguin Classics |location=New York |isbn=0-14-043116-0}}.
* {{Citation |last=DeMaria | first=Robert Jr. |title=The Life of Samuel Johnson |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-55786-664-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofsamueljohn0000dema}}
* {{citation |last=Greene |first=Donald |contribution=Introduction |title=Political Writings |year=2000 |editor-last=Greene |editor-first=Donald  |publisher=Liberty Fund |location=Indianapolis |isbn=0-86597-275-3}}.
* {{Citation |last=Griffin |first=Dustin |title=Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-00959-1}}
* {{citation |last=Johnson |first=Samuel |title=Political Writings |year=2000 |editor-last=Greene |editor-first=Donald  |publisher=Liberty Fund |location=Indianapolis |isbn=0-86597-275-3}}.
* {{citation |last=Piozzi|first=Hester |title=Thraliana: The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi) 1776–1809 |year=1951 |editor1-last=Balderson |editor1-first=Katharine |publisher=Clarendon |place= Oxford |oclc= 359617}}.
* {{citation |last=Rogers |first=Pat |title=Johnson and Boswell: The Transit of Caledonia |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-818259-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/johnsonboswelltr0000roge }}.

==External links==
*''[http://www.samueljohnson.com/tnt.html Taxation No Tyranny]'' (1775)

{{Samuel Johnson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel Johnson's Political Views}}
[[Category:Samuel Johnson|Politics]]
[[Category:Political views by person|Johnson, Samuel]]