William Manning Quotes
The few ... write their plans and scheems by asotiations, conventions and correspondence with each other .... Their professions are often called together and know each others mind ...
William Manning, 1747-1814, Farmer, Soldier, Tavern Owner and Political Philosopher, The Key to Libberty, 1798
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America followed the English example of forming associations (corporation and non-profit organizations) for everything from science to orphanages, libraries to agricultural organizations. But America went much further than England in the number, scale and scope. De Tocqueville was most amazed and impressed by this.
He had been lauded as the "father" of the field of Behavioral Economics -- the person who started an entirely new area of intelectual inquiry.
William Manning (1747–1814) was a New England farmer, foot soldier and author. After fighting in the American Revolutionary War, he began to believe that his service and labor meant little to those in charge. He soon became a member of the Jeffersonian Republican Party (otherwise known as the Democratic-Republican Party) in response to the day’s ruling Federalist Party. As the years passed and his distrust in government grew, he wrote multiple papers on what he deemed was the corruptness of the "Few" and what the "Many" endured because of it. In 1798, Manning wrote his most famous work, The Key of Libberty (later corrected to The Key of Liberty), in which he wrote that the goal of the Few was to distress and force the Many into financially depending on them, creating a continued cycle of dependence. He continued that the Many’s only hope was to vote for leaders that would fight for those with lesser power and urge for smaller government. His work, however, would not be published for more than a century, mostly due to its controversial content.
