The Political Writings of Rufus Choate

by Rufus Choate

For the first time in over a century, the essential political writings of one of the nineteenth century's greatest orators -- and one of America's most impressive conservatives -- are now available in a collector's-quality hardcover edition.

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	The American Democrat and other political writings by James Fenimore Cooper
	Calhoun: Selected Writings and Speeches by John C. Calhoun ; H. Lee Cheek Jr. (Editor)
	Political Writings of James Monroe by Monroe, James; Lucier, James
	New Views of the Constitution of the United States by John Taylor
	Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville; edited by Bruce Frohnen

Choate spoke with elegance, learning, and deep affection about his country and its history. He took delight in relating that the American Revolution, of which Americans were justly proud, had not descended into the depths of crime and impiety of its French counterpart but had rather been a model of the sober restraint characteristic of civilized liberty. One of nineteenth-century America's chief admirers of Edmund Burke, Choate warned of the catastrophic effects of political radicalism and ideological fanaticism. He condemned "that philosophy, falsely so-called, which boasts emptily of progress, renounces traditions, denies God and worships itself."

For Choate, leadership was not about slaking the thirst for innovation. Instead, he described leadership as the arduous twin tasks of preserving the political liberty and fundamentally sound institutions the United States already possessed and then cultivating and thus expanding that freedom and those institutions. Those were the tasks of the statesman: not to embark on grandiose schemes but to vindicate the rule of law and perfect the system of government that Americans had inherited. Choate once described conservatism as "the one grand and comprehensive duty of a thoughtful patriotism." This collection of Choate's best speeches is a compendium of that brand of American political thought long neglected but curiously now getting another hearing in America at the beginning of the 21st century.

The roots of 21st-century America's populist conservatism lie, it turns out, in Choate and the American Whigs. Choate advocated strong but not tyrannous national government, local control of local governments, stable families, and high personal morality. But he also advocated things unfamiliar to present-day conservative discourse but nonetheless at the core of the American political tradition. Choate urged on his fellow countrymen, for example, a judicious skepticism about sentimental, benevolent humanitarianism on the international scene -- which must ever to be distinguished, according to Choate, from America's right and duty to defend her true interests abroad. Choate also made ringing calls for the Federal government to foster domestic manufacture and prevent foreign dumping by means of carefully balanced, Constitutional tariffs. There is no other sure way, Choate argued, of protecting the interests of the common man.

As editor Thomas Woods writes in his Introduction, "Choate played an important role in establishing a venerable tradition of conservatism within the American tradition, an intelligent and consistent conservatism based on a proper deference to generations past and in particular to the political achievements of the founding era. Based as it was on serious historical reflection, Choate's conservatism cautioned against the careless supposition that all evils are easily amenable to political amelioration. Finally, it rejected a practical internationalism, which required the United States to intervene in the affairs of other nations, as well as the increasingly fashionable philosophical internationalism that condemned patriotism per se as a blight on civilization. It made no apologies for defending America first, a position grounded firmly both in prudence and morality. It was, in short, a philosophy of American sovereignty and independence, of respect for the Constitution, and of a Union stitched together by brotherhood and charity-developed by a man whose work, though until now nearly forgotten, always repays careful study."

The selections in this volume recapture the spirit of the intelligent and learned conservatism Rufus Choate bequeathed to his country -- a tradition of American conservatism in which Americans, with the close of the raw, ideological 20th century, might find solace and indeed guidance. Any polity searching to deepen its concern for its own citizens and at the same time reconcile that solicitude with its responsibilities to the world at large will always find Choate a valuable wellspring.