Item 63: An Exhibit Bulletin by John C. Dann and The Clements Library, entitled “John Wilkes: Symbol of Liberty", 1976
Item — Box: 6, Folder: 63
Dates
- Created: 1976
Creator
- Dann, John C. (Person)
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Bulletin
Condition Note:
Good, no issues.
Measurements:
7 ½ in. x 10 ½ in.
Description:
The following item dated 1976, depicts a printed bulletin by John C. Dann and The Clements Library, for an upcoming exhibit they had on John Wilkes. The item contains a brief biography of the life of John Wilkes, as well as an itemization of the works displayed in the exhibition. These items include engravings, portraits, and letters. Dann writes that the display is only a fraction of their larger collection, which contains more than 400 letters and numerous contemporary printed items by and about John Wilkes.
Transcription:
[Page 1:]
JOHN WILKES: SYMBOL OF LIBERTY
A Guide to a Bicentennial Exhibit
Concerning a
British Friend of America
By John C. Dann Curator of Manuscripts
Bulletin 82 Ann Arbor The Clements Library 1976 [Page 2:] John Wilkes is one of those historical figures whose career and personality have always provoked strong feeling. To the British political establishment of the 1760’s and the 1770’s, he was immoral, self-seeking, hypocritical, dangerous: to the laborers and “sturdy beggars” of London, he was a friend of the common man; to the rising middle class and to the American colonists, he was a champion of constitutional liberty. In a very real sense, all three portraits were correct. Son of a wealthy London brewer, student at University of Leyden, Wilkes was intellectually precocious, socially engaging, and a master of witty sarcasm. He integrated himself with the rising political stars of the 1750’s and entered Parliament in 1757 as a staunch supporter of William Pitt. Wilkes’ talents with the acid-dipped pen, which exceeded his powers of discretion, made him a useful but somewhat dangerous and expendable political weapon in the assault on the Earl of Bute’s ministry. For describing a speech from the throne as “the most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed on mankind” in the North Briton, No. 45, Wilkes was temporarily arrested, his papers seized, and his commission in the Buckinghamshire militia summarily revoked. Among personal effects illegally taken from him was a privately printed and pornographic Essay on Woman which became the basis of further libel charges. In November 1763, in spite of the General Warrant by which he was arrested, he was censured by the House of Commons. In January 1764, he was expelled. Wilkes’ stormy career can be explained at least partially in terms of his own personality. Brilliant, sensitive, completely self-centered, he was immoderately conscious of childish jests about being cross-eyed, and, throughout his career, wounded deeply by real or imagined sights. His student literary style made hima foe as dangerous as he was unforgiving. It was the apparent neglect, during his Paris exile, 1764-1767, of the political allies for whom he felt he had taken risks which, more than ministerial opposition, turned an opportunist into a dedicated radical. Wilkes was able in his own mind to equate completely his personal ambitions and controversies whit liberal reforms itself. The political style of personal anecdotes, of pictures, of slogans that he developed with a personal polish worthy of Madison Avenue had immense popular appeal. Even his trips to London’s bawdy houses and his perpetual indebtedness, which Wilkes made no attempt to conceal, were shrewd and effective methods of creating an image with which lower class voters could identify. The private correspondence conclusively demonstrates that from the time of his return from France in 1767 until his seating in Parliament in 1774, Wikes consciously and masterfully played off Lords against Commons, Parliament against the City. Outlawed, jailed, denied his seat in Commons, he turned each catastrophe to popular political advantage. He baited trap after legal trap, forcing constitutional support from Grenville, Temple, Pitt, Grafton, his onetime allies, and then publicly scorned them for it. Wilkes’ approach to public office was pragmatic, opportunistic, and selfish. His enunciations Of high political principals, when viewed alongside his privately expressed cynicism, substantiate the charges of insecurity leveled by contemporaries and historians alike. And yet, neither his private immorality nor his public irresponsibility were in any way exceptional in this era. His loudest critics were equally as fond of mistresses and low life, as willing to buy votes, and far more contemptuous of their political constituents. John Wilkes’ real “crimes” were not his personal feelings, but his refusal, after 1764, to play the game of eighteenth-century politics by the accepted rules. To men who had grown up in the shadow of Walpole's and Newcastle’s patronage, who saw the family influence, “connexions”, and mutual favors as the lifeblood of the British Constitutional system, a politically active “loner” was invariably suspect. Wilkes, after 1767, not only spurned all political alliances, but he did so consciously, vocally, and worst of all, with eminent success. He created a popular financial
[Page 3:] base of power in London which mocked the entire system of political deference. He appealed to the lowest impulses and prejudices of the voters. He flattered the vanities of the populace; he amused them, he manipulated them. But in a direct sense, Wilkes did represent the inhabitants of his district. He brought, for the first time, modern urban democracy into the arena of Parliamentary politics John Wilkes was more than an innovative politician with very human attributes. As a fighter for constitutional liberty, he deserves unqualified praise. His political tenacity and success, whatever the motivation, augmented legal safeguards against arbitrary search, seizure, and arrest, promoted a substantive concept of libel, and reinforces the privileges of elected officials. He consistently supported the colonies in their constitutional struggle eight the Crown and spoke out forcefully against military coercion. Whatever ironies lay behind appearances, John Wilkes was, for the Anglo-American world in the Revolutionary era, a vital symbol of English liberty.
EXHIBITION
The materials displayed here represent a small portion of the more than four hundred letters and numerous contemporary printed items by and about John Wilkes in the collections of the Clements Library. The portrait, final item in the exhibition, was graciously loaned to us by Alvan Macauley of Grosse Pointe Farms Michigan.
By John C. Dann Curator of Manuscripts
Bulletin 82 Ann Arbor The Clements Library 1976 [Page 2:] John Wilkes is one of those historical figures whose career and personality have always provoked strong feeling. To the British political establishment of the 1760’s and the 1770’s, he was immoral, self-seeking, hypocritical, dangerous: to the laborers and “sturdy beggars” of London, he was a friend of the common man; to the rising middle class and to the American colonists, he was a champion of constitutional liberty. In a very real sense, all three portraits were correct. Son of a wealthy London brewer, student at University of Leyden, Wilkes was intellectually precocious, socially engaging, and a master of witty sarcasm. He integrated himself with the rising political stars of the 1750’s and entered Parliament in 1757 as a staunch supporter of William Pitt. Wilkes’ talents with the acid-dipped pen, which exceeded his powers of discretion, made him a useful but somewhat dangerous and expendable political weapon in the assault on the Earl of Bute’s ministry. For describing a speech from the throne as “the most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed on mankind” in the North Briton, No. 45, Wilkes was temporarily arrested, his papers seized, and his commission in the Buckinghamshire militia summarily revoked. Among personal effects illegally taken from him was a privately printed and pornographic Essay on Woman which became the basis of further libel charges. In November 1763, in spite of the General Warrant by which he was arrested, he was censured by the House of Commons. In January 1764, he was expelled. Wilkes’ stormy career can be explained at least partially in terms of his own personality. Brilliant, sensitive, completely self-centered, he was immoderately conscious of childish jests about being cross-eyed, and, throughout his career, wounded deeply by real or imagined sights. His student literary style made hima foe as dangerous as he was unforgiving. It was the apparent neglect, during his Paris exile, 1764-1767, of the political allies for whom he felt he had taken risks which, more than ministerial opposition, turned an opportunist into a dedicated radical. Wilkes was able in his own mind to equate completely his personal ambitions and controversies whit liberal reforms itself. The political style of personal anecdotes, of pictures, of slogans that he developed with a personal polish worthy of Madison Avenue had immense popular appeal. Even his trips to London’s bawdy houses and his perpetual indebtedness, which Wilkes made no attempt to conceal, were shrewd and effective methods of creating an image with which lower class voters could identify. The private correspondence conclusively demonstrates that from the time of his return from France in 1767 until his seating in Parliament in 1774, Wikes consciously and masterfully played off Lords against Commons, Parliament against the City. Outlawed, jailed, denied his seat in Commons, he turned each catastrophe to popular political advantage. He baited trap after legal trap, forcing constitutional support from Grenville, Temple, Pitt, Grafton, his onetime allies, and then publicly scorned them for it. Wilkes’ approach to public office was pragmatic, opportunistic, and selfish. His enunciations Of high political principals, when viewed alongside his privately expressed cynicism, substantiate the charges of insecurity leveled by contemporaries and historians alike. And yet, neither his private immorality nor his public irresponsibility were in any way exceptional in this era. His loudest critics were equally as fond of mistresses and low life, as willing to buy votes, and far more contemptuous of their political constituents. John Wilkes’ real “crimes” were not his personal feelings, but his refusal, after 1764, to play the game of eighteenth-century politics by the accepted rules. To men who had grown up in the shadow of Walpole's and Newcastle’s patronage, who saw the family influence, “connexions”, and mutual favors as the lifeblood of the British Constitutional system, a politically active “loner” was invariably suspect. Wilkes, after 1767, not only spurned all political alliances, but he did so consciously, vocally, and worst of all, with eminent success. He created a popular financial
[Page 3:] base of power in London which mocked the entire system of political deference. He appealed to the lowest impulses and prejudices of the voters. He flattered the vanities of the populace; he amused them, he manipulated them. But in a direct sense, Wilkes did represent the inhabitants of his district. He brought, for the first time, modern urban democracy into the arena of Parliamentary politics John Wilkes was more than an innovative politician with very human attributes. As a fighter for constitutional liberty, he deserves unqualified praise. His political tenacity and success, whatever the motivation, augmented legal safeguards against arbitrary search, seizure, and arrest, promoted a substantive concept of libel, and reinforces the privileges of elected officials. He consistently supported the colonies in their constitutional struggle eight the Crown and spoke out forcefully against military coercion. Whatever ironies lay behind appearances, John Wilkes was, for the Anglo-American world in the Revolutionary era, a vital symbol of English liberty.
EXHIBITION
The materials displayed here represent a small portion of the more than four hundred letters and numerous contemporary printed items by and about John Wilkes in the collections of the Clements Library. The portrait, final item in the exhibition, was graciously loaned to us by Alvan Macauley of Grosse Pointe Farms Michigan.
Creator
- Dann, John C. (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu