Charles Louis De Secondat, Baron De La Bréde Et De Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de Montesquieu’s literary works, such as The Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws, answer essential questions about the United States of America’s government and society. These literary works describe Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de Montesquieu’s philosophy about government’s appropriate role within a society. Analyzing the corruption of previous governments around the world, these works offer solutions to balance the power of administrations. This paper demonstrates Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de Montesquieu’s effect on the United States of America’s government and society.
Throughout history, literary works written by revolutionary people can profoundly impact the world around them. One example of a literary work that profoundly impacted a nation was Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws. Although this was a

controversial work during the Glorious Revolution, as the Roman Catholic Church once banned it, the United States of America’s Constitution was based off of the ideas of a French man’s work. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de Montesquieu’s political philosophy demonstrates how one man’s ideas can influence a nation.
The early life of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu such as his education and careers defined him into the influential figure he became as an adult. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu was born on January 18th, 1689 into a noble and successful family. A few years after his mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel, died Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu began his education at the age of seven at Oratorian Collège de Juilly to study general educational courses. In 1708, he continued his education by attending University of Bordeaux where he graduated with a law degree. After his father’s death in 1713, he returned to the University of Bordeaux to counsel. A year after his father’s death, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu married Jeanne de Lartigue a practicing Protestant who bore him three children. In 1716, his uncle died leaving Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu an inheritance of the title Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu. The next eleven years of his life were spent presiding over Tournelle as the chief of judicial and administrative body. Later in his life during 1728, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu was elected Académie Française. Before his death, the Roman Catholic Church placed The Spirit of the Laws on the index of forbidden books due to its radical political philosophy. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu inevitably met his death in 1755 where he died of a fever.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s early life was parallel with several momentous events. England’s declaration of constitutional monarchy was one of these events during the Glorious Revolution. The Glorious Revolution was a rebellion led by a union of English Parliamentarians with an objective to overthrow King James II of England. A few results of the Glorious revolution were a war with France and the alliance of England and Scotland. This experience during Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s life shaped many of his political philosophies. The influence of the Glorious Revolution is evident in some of his literary works such as The Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws. In these literary works, he suggests a government with a system of checks and balances in order to maintain an uncorrupted administration.
During Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s lifetime, he wrote two major works that have profoundly impacted the United States of America’s government and society.

Starting in a chronological order, The Persian Letters was the first literary work he wrote during 1721. In his early 30s, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu composed this fictional work describing two Persian traveller’s journeys across the world. In The Persian Letters, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s message throughout the literary work was to expose the advantages and disadvantages of different styles of government around the world, the derivation of political authority, and the appropriate role of law. While the Persian travellers toured the world, a common theme was civilians serving a political authority that is greater than them. Another theme in this literary work was virtue along with self-knowledge were almost unattainable values in the

society.
The succeeding literary work written by Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu heavily influenced the United States of America’s Constitution. The Spirit of the Laws is a literary work that argued for three separate divisions in power for the government. These three branches of government were the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judiciary Branch. An extremely simplified example of the power of these branches is as follows. The Legislative Branch has the ability to pass bills and a vast amount of authority to tax. Under the Executive Branch, a person has the ability to execute bills proposed by the Legislative Branch or to veto the bills. The Judiciary Branch of government determines what the bills or laws passed by Congress mean. Although this is a brief glimpse of each of these three branches of government’s power, these branches are able to oversee one another in order to maintain an equal amount of power throughout a government. For example, the Legislative Branch has the ability to pass a bill for the Executive Branch to overlook. The Executive Branch of the government can veto or pass the bill. However, if the Executive Branch continually vetoes bills, the Legislative Branch can overrule the Executive Branch with a two-thirds agreement from the Legislative Branch. This seemingly simple idea of a system of checks and balances within a government has become fundamental in the foundation of the United States of America. Although The Spirit of the Laws was written decades before its relevance, its ideas about political philosophy are correspond to essential concepts that form the government of the United States.
Throughout the course of any person’s life, many influential figures can shape the way a person views the world. For Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu there were four major influential people. John Locke, an English philosopher known as the “Father of Liberalism,” was one of these influential people. John Locke’s philosophy was a person’s natural rights. These natural rights a person is entitled were life, liberty, and property. Although this philosophy was important, one of the most influential politically philosophical theories John Locke defended was the idea of a majority rule in government and a separation in government powers. This idea of a separation of powers can been seen in one of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s literary works, The Spirit of the Laws where the idea of a government with a system of checks and balances was introduced.
Another one of the influential people in Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s life was Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury had the political philosophy that a person’s best chance for happiness can be attained under an authoritarian-sounding sovereign. This authoritarian-sounding sovereign was a government in which one absolute ruler has complete rule over every aspect of government. Another belief Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury had was that people are susceptible and easily directed astray when struggling to understand the world. Therefore, the ruler of the authoritarian-sounding sovereign government would be a person who is unsusceptible to corruption. This idea of people being vulnerable to corruption is seen in Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws. In this literary work, he wrote about his political theory of separating the government into three branches. In this system, every branch oversees a different branch of government in order to maintain equal power throughout the system. Although the theory of separating the government into branches would not completely eliminate human corruption, he believed this political theory would aid in an effort to minimize the amount of fraud within government.
The third influential figure impacting Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s was Aristotle. This Greek philosopher believed citizens have to actively participate in politics in order to be content in society. If the citizens were not content with their society, people actively participate in a reformation effort better the government through revolutions. Although Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu did not include focus on rebellions in this literary works, Aristotle’s political philosophy is parallel to the discontented society during the Glorious Revolution of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s early life.
The fourth significant character was Marcus Tullius Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero’s political philosophy was somewhat similar to that of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury; his political philosophy was that the people who currently hold an office in government were corrupt. In order to fix the corruption in government, the people presiding in an office should have values where they place others before their self-interest. People with this type of character would make excellent officers in a government. This idea of the corrupt human nature corresponded to Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s idea to separate authority in government to minimize the level of corruption. Although the theories and philosophies of each of these individuals vary, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu incorporated small portions of each of these people’s ideas into his literary works.
The Spirit of the Laws and The Persian Letters were Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s solutions to the corruption within government. In these literary works, he offered ideas that were plausible to resolve the majority of the corruption. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu believed in a government with a set of checks and balances that separate the power of the government to minimize fraud.
By representing governments from all around the world in his literary work The Persian Letters, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu demonstrated the systems of different authorities. Without a system to balance the power of a government, the corruption of the nation’s authority is assured which Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu demonstrates in The Spirit of the Law. By suggesting ideas on governing a nation, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu believes he can minimize corruption within a government system. This idea to govern a nation is this faction was adopted by the United States of America’s Constitution.