Was Nathaniel Hawthorne a Paleolibertarian?
by H. Arthur Scott Trask by H. Arthur Scott Trask Note: The following essay is adapted from Dr. Trasks forthcoming book on the northern opposition to the civil war: Copperheads and Conservatives. Not quite, but Hawthorne was certainly a classical liberal, a Jeffersonian, and a cultural conservative. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his friend Herman Melville were Democrats when it was the party of both liberty and conservatism, standing for leaving things alone and keeping the government in its cage. The degree of liberty Americans then enjoyed was almost unimaginable by todays standards. Americans paid no direct taxes to the federal government, only the tariff, and their only contact with that government was likely to be the post office. The phrases laissez-nous faire and ne trop governeur (do not govern too much) were considered by many to be expressions of the highest political wisdom. The Constitution limited the federal government to a handful of clearly specified powers. After the Jackson
