Lone Butte North: a History of Bull Pound, Earltown, Eden, Fraserton, Golden Hill, Lake Rose... Book

One of the major theses of this book is that the Founding Fathers believed that an ideal form of government existed in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. This Anglo-Saxon society was supposed to have consisted of an elected monarchy and parliament, had a constitution, elected judges, had trials by juries of peers, and was generally virtuous in all things.

The belief among 18th-century writers in this utopian time in history is correct. I’ve run into a number of references to it. It comes in turn from a description by the Roman historian Tacitus, and the admiration for Republican Rome by the Founding Fathers really can’t be overstated. I think it’s been relatively forgotten as part of the history of political thought for a couple of reasons. First, it later became part of racist arguments for Anglo-Saxon supremacy.

Secondly, it’s incorrect. To quote the author: “Saxon was certainly not the democratic one envisaged by Jefferson and the whigs. As a society, in fact, the Saxon was less agrarian than military, and the personal tie which bound peasant to lord involved the performance of a customary service nearly as rigid as that bought in by the Normans . . . the Saxon Councils were composed, not of all classes, but of the upper ranks of the aristocracy, along with ecclesiastics when the church became established.”

The last chapter is titled the “The Saxon Myth Dies Hard”. Indeed it does. Cleon Skousen, so admired in Utah and by Glenn Beck, believed it completely. (Even more strangely, he goes on to write that a similar democratic system existed in ancient Israel). (Pgs. 12-17).

Skousen, Cleon.. The 5000-Year Leap. National Center for Constitutional Studies. 1981, 2006 *
*It is the kind of stimulating book I should like to see being studied in all our high schools and universities - Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch.