[snip] The late historian Clinton Rossiter wrote that no one can spend any time in colonial newspapers without realizing the presence of Cato’s Letters and how Cato, rather than Locke’s Two Treatises, was the quotable, most popular source of political ideas in the colonial period. As noted by Ronald Hamowy, “From its first publication through the revolutionary era that ended the century, its impact on both side of the Atlantic was enormous. Its arguments against oppressive government and in support of the splendors of freedom were quoted constantly and its authors were regarded as the country’s most eloquent opponents of despotism.” [/snip]