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From the Foreword. And what of the Key of Libberty ? We do not claim to have discovered a forgotten Locke or a homespun Montesquieu. Yet apart from its value as a curiosity - the extraordinary spelling, the diction, racy of New England soil, the shrewd home thrusts on current politics - the work has merits. William Manning appears to have discovered for himself what many great minds have exposed as a fundamental weakness of democracy - the fact that its successful working requires an educated and informed electorate. Unlike most American reformers, Manning did not seek salvation in an extension of the franchise, although the Massachusetts of his day lacked even full manhood suffrage. Nor did he wish any radical alteration of political machinery. Instead, he hoped to enlighten the existing electorate, the great mass of which was unable to obtain correct information on current issues. This defect in democracy, it may be said, is as glaring today as it was in 1798. In spite of the cheap daily and weekly press, it is difficult even for an educated person who wants the truth on men and measures, to obtain it. The other element of originality in Manning's work, is his discovery of the value of association. No other American political writer of the Revolutionary generation seems to have apprehended this truth, as a general principle, although leaders like Samuel Adams devised political machinery for definite ends. As Manning shrewdly observed, the upper classes of the community, the merchants, lawyers, ministers and physicians, all had their associations, through which they obtained favorable legislation and a friendly press. To prevent these small classes perverting the Republic to their selfish purposes, Manning would establish a nation-wide association of the Many, the farmers and laborers. Unknown to Manning, the crude foundations of American trade unionism were being laid at Philadelphia at the time he wrote. But American trade unionism has always been divided within itself, and pursued economic rather than political ends. Manning's aim is nearer that of the British Labour Party, or of the Non-partisan League, than of the American Federation of Labor. His proposal, looking as it does to an eventual world-wide association, is a lonely American whisper of Karl Marx's cry, Workers of the World, Unite!

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