Political Economy as an Ecumenical Creed: The Case of John Witherspoon

Abstract John Witherspoon's political and economic thought, which developed mainly in the American phase of his career, borrowed extensively from Francis Hutcheson and even David Hume, both of whom were his intellectual antagonists in Scotland. This fact has led some scholars to conclude that there is a discontinuity between the American and Scottish phases of Witherspoon's career. A more plausible interpretation, however, is that political economy had become, by the late eighteenth century, an ecumenical creed. The example of Witherspoon illustrates how men of very different theological persuasions could agree substantively on matters of political economy. After making a case for the continuity of Witherspoon's thought, this article surveys the contours of his economic ideas, drawing from his early writings and speeches, his Lectures on Moral Philosophy, and his 1786 Essay on Money. Notwithstanding his vigorous disagreements with Hutcheson, Hume, and the Moderate literati of Edinburgh, Witherspoon largely shared their economic perspectives. The theologically orthodox Witherspoon was classically liberal in economics.