The Spirit of Despotism

While renovating my friend’s newly purchased house i found a hidden copy of an 1805 hardback origionally printed in 1795. The name of the book is The Spirit of Despotism, written by Vicesimus Knox. The book was written in 1795 when Britain was leading the Coalition of monarchies in a war against the French Revolution, this is Knox’s warning that war against a foreign enemy helps create despotic government at home.

It may actually have been handed to me by God himself or it may have been some other sort of destiny. The book is of the utmost relevance in light of the current shifting political dynamics of our governmental structure as well as the controversial civil rights infringements in the news today relating to the war in Iraq.The book is fragile but intact including handwritten names and prices of several purchasers, as well as a printed list of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Deleware suscribers of the book organized by counties. The list of names includes the name Robert Drummond of Monmouth County; this is the name of my grandfather & father, he resided in the neighboring county to the one my father grew up in, and is likely my ancestor.

Surely this is a call to action. Accordingly, I urge you all not to read the book, for it is in impossibly complex sentence structure but consider the idea and perhaps do some research on Vicesimus Knox; his name is cool and he was obviously on to something… there are over 400 names of early americans who ordered this book.