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In the late 1670s and early 1680s, when John Locke first put pen to paper to work on The Two Treatises of Government, he was grappling with a question unnervingly familiar to contemporary Americans. The king, Charles II, had made clear through his policies and actions that he sought to centralize control by establishing an absolutist state modeled on France. English liberties were threatened. By issuing “declarations of indulgence” removing certain legal handicaps on Catholics and others who did not conform with the Church of England, Charles unilaterally canceled laws passed by Parliament. In towns and counties across the country, Charles removed local officials hostile to his policies and replaced them with his allies, bending the apparatus of the English state to his will. His critics decried these actions but were powerless to stop them. Worse, his brother James, next in line to the throne, threatened to build on Charles’s policies. What could be done?

Johann Neem, author of this piece, is a professor of History at ��������. Click link at right to read entire story.