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2. 1
Adam Ferguson on Civil Liberty and the American Revolution
Yi-Jia Zeng
Contents
Introduction
1. Civic Activism and Liberty in Ferguson’s Political Thought
2. Ferguson’s Constitutionalism and Modern Liberty
3. Ferguson as Liberal Conservative
Conclusion
Bibliography

3. 2
Introduction
Adam Ferguson (1723-1815) places much importance on the question of defining and
preserving civil liberty in modern society. He explores the subject in the areas of politics and
ethics, writing extensively on its associated values in a historical context. Ferguson’s
preoccupation with liberty opens up dialogues between it and other political notions such as
democracy and constitutionalism throughout his work. In An Essay on the History of Civil
Society (1767) and Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792), he investigates different
periods of human history and finds liberty to be the product of political institutions and
political cultures more generally. Reflecting on the decline of the Roman Republic, Ferguson
advocates a life of civic value, service, and community spirit. He asserts that human beings
are political by nature and that ethics, rather than being capable of being abstracted from
political life, is in fact interwoven with politics, on both the individual and communal levels.
For Ferguson, liberty is secured only if people devote themselves to politics, for they are
able to exercise and develop their ethical and civic virtues when they deal with matters that
are of concern to the public. In light of this, I argue that Ferguson’s discussions about liberty
in fact serve to promote a moral life which suits modern commercial society, despite the fact
that Ferguson himself often suggests a negative impact of commercialisation on civic life and
virtue.1
I also argue for Ferguson, the regular pursuit of liberty with the public good in mind
enables a citizen to gradually enhance their moral character and become a more virtuous
person. My enquiry begins with the relationship between virtue and liberty by means of an
analysis of Ferguson’s civic activism. I subsequently proceed to his constitutionalism to show
the mechanism of preserving liberty in modern politics and society. Finally, I present
Ferguson’s critique of the American Revolution, which was alleged to be a struggle for
liberty, to see how he applies his liberal thought to an actual political situation.
In the first part, I shall begin with Ferguson’s political ideal of republican citizens and
their duty of playing an active role in public affairs, the purpose of which is the prevention of
corruption which would eventually lead to political slavery and the decline of the civil
society. Writing about the cruciality of virtue probably with the decline of Rome in his mind,
Ferguson’s concept of liberty cannot be extricated from his ideas on virtue. He introduces the
1
Cf. Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, ed. Fania Oz-Salzberger (Cambridge,
1995), pt. IV, pt. VI sec. I-III. (hereafter cited as Essay).

4. 3
ancient moralities as the ground of his moral system and suggests ‘the excellence of men’s
nature’2
to be a virtue for the moderns, which amounts to the view that a virtuous person is
willing to accept the guidance of his reason when it comes to making political decisions. In
addition, there is also, for Ferguson, a perennial dilemma in the history of political
philosophy that needs to be dealt with, which is the confrontation between personal and
public interests, again, a conflict that is most salient with regard to the Fall of Rome.
Ferguson has an explicit answer: a citizen with a public spirit will always give priority to
public interests. Ferguson’s political philosophy aims at sustaining the order of society and
the liberty enjoyed by its population, which are both necessarily bound up with the moral life
of the individual.
In the second part, I intend to demonstrate that Ferguson is also an advocator of liberty
understood in specifically modern terms, that is, as a product of political institutions. It is true
that Ferguson promotes the value of ancient conceptions of virtue in order to maintain the
dynamics and spirit of civil society and wishes to preserve the precious elements of ancient
politics which are public spirit and virtue as well,3
but these commitments constitute only half
of his philosophical framework. Fully aware of the insufficiencies of ancient systems of
thought, Ferguson seeks for an adequate political mechanism to preserve liberty for
contemporary society. We see in Principles of Moral and Political Science that Montesquieu
(1689-1755) then becomes the most essential source of Ferguson’s constitutionalism.
Ferguson follows him in emphasising the separation of powers and the rule of law as the most
significant principles in modern republican politics, thereby further developing the principle
of non-transgression, with the implication that it is crucial to maintain political order and
social ranks.
In the third part, we will see that Ferguson’s debate with Richard Price (1723-1791)
demonstrates the existence of two different traditions of republican liberty.4
His criticism of
2
Adam Ferguson, Analysis of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy (Edinburgh, 1766), p. 32. (hereafter
cited as Analysis).
3
Christopher Berry, The Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 129.
4
Ronald Hamowy, ‘Two Whigs’ Views of the American Revolution: Adam Ferguson’s Response to
Richard Price,’ in The Political Sociology of Freedom: Adam Ferguson and F. A. Hayek
(Cheltenham, 2005), pp. 159-167. Apart from Hamowy’s classification of the British and French
traditions, James A. Harris and Mikko Tolonen introduce Hume’s differentiation on ‘political Whig’
and ‘religious Whig’. Ferguson obviously suits the former in virtue of the following definition: ‘A
political Whig was “a Man of Sense and Moderation, a Lover of Laws and Liberty, whose chief
Regard to particular Princes and Families, is founded on a Regard to the publick Good’’.’ See James
A. Harris and Mikko Tolonen, ‘Hume In and Out of Scottish Context,’ in Aaron Garrett and James A.

5. 4
Price mainly relies on Montesquieu,5
whose classical liberalism belongs to the British
tradition; the radical thinkers in support of the American Revolution, including Price and
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), belong to the French tradition.6
Ferguson attacks Price with four
major points. Firstly, he rejects Price’s argument of counterposing liberty to restraints and
slavery. Ferguson asserts that all civil government is inevitable, including the regulations it
puts on its people, precisely to prevent encroachments on their liberty. Secondly, Price
misrepresents Montesquieu’s conception of independence or autonomy of citizens. Ferguson
clarifies Montesquieu’s idea, rendering it as the autonomy of self rather than merely the
power to do what one pleases.7
Thirdly, Price also wrongly assumes that democracy is
equivalent to liberty. Last, emphasising the ideas of duty and obligation in Montesquieu’s
thought, Ferguson highlights the illegitimacy of the revolution, for the American Colonies
should do their obligation to Britain before making further requests. By all accounts,
Ferguson rejects the possibility of justifying revolution even in the name of liberty.
Liberty in Ferguson’s thought is of such complexity that it can only be adequately
understood if it is also examined in the historical context of the Enlightenment period in
which he wrote. The major events of the time—the Jacobite uprising, the American
Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and, more generally, the expansion
of the British Empire—are disruptive of the existing order of things and, as such, serving to
deepen Ferguson’s concern for the progress of the civil society. Meanwhile, he notices the
increasing phenomena that his contemporaries tend to stay neutral on or be indifferent to
politics, which, to him, is symptomatic that the society is losing the dynamics most essential
for liberty given that there is a loss of public consciousness or community spirit, in which the
stake that each member of the community has in a given decision is made manifest and
efficacious, even if to a very limited degree.8
He therefore considers practical and pragmatic
Harris ed. Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion
(Oxford, 2015), pp. 173-175.
5
Richard Sher, ‘From Troglodytes to Americans: Montesquieu and the Scottish Enlightenment on
Liberty, Virtue, and Commerce’, in David Wootton ed. Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial
Society, 1649-1776 (Palo Alto, 1994), pp. 368-402.
6
F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago, 1978), pp. 55-56.
7
Adam Ferguson, Remarks on a Pamphlet Lately Published by Dr. Price, Intitled, Observations on the
Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with
America, &c. (London, 1776), p. 4. (hereafter cited as Remarks)
8
Essay, pp. 252ff.

6. 5
solutions to be much more necessary than an abstract political theory.9
Politics and moral
philosophy are then no longer distant academic disciplines but a way of life for citizens in
Ferguson’s political thought.
9
Fania Oz-Salzberger, ‘Ferguson’s Politics of Action’, in Eugene Heath and Vincenzo Merolle, ed.,
Adam Ferguson: History, Progress and Human Nature (London, 2008), p. 154.

7. 43
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