# Human exculpation was Blatchford's declared project

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH08.P026](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH08.P026/#char=1110,1382): "Mr. Blatchford set out, as an ordinary Bible-smasher, to prove that Adam was guiltless of sin against God; in manoeuvring so as to maintain this he admitted, as a mere side issue, that all the tyrants, from Nero to King Leopold, were guiltless of any sin against humanity."

The objection asks whether an argument excusing Adam also excuses tyrants. Blatchford's *God and My Neighbour* (1903; inspected in Project Gutenberg's electronic transcription, which does not identify its print exemplar), under ‘Determinism: Can Man Sin Against God?’, argues that responsibility belongs to the maker of a person's nature. Since a person did not make that nature, he cannot ultimately answer for the actions it produces. This supplies a real basis for Chesterton's charge: the exemption cannot consistently stop with Adam or sympathetic offenders. [Read the argument](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6172/pg6172-images.html#link2H_4_0021).

But *Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog* (a London edition is catalogued in 1906; inspected in the New York, Boni and Liveright, 1918 edition transcribed by Gutenberg) makes rejection of both human and divine blame its declared project in ‘The Author's Apology’. It is therefore misleading to treat the human consequence as a concession merely slipped in during biblical controversy. Chapters I and VIII also dispute Chesterton directly. [Read *Not Guilty*](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43466/43466-h/43466-h.htm).

Chesterton's strongest point is about consistency: a theory devised to excuse the oppressed also excuses their oppressors from ultimate desert. The correction concerns the history and presentation of the argument: Blatchford acknowledges that universal consequence as part of his position, rather than stumbling into it unnoticed. The named tyrants illustrate Chesterton's inference; they should not be read as a verified quotation from Blatchford.

## Sources

- [Robert Blatchford, God and My Neighbour](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6172/pg6172-images.html), ‘Determinism’, subheading ‘Can Man Sin Against God?’, opening paragraphs; Gutenberg eBook 6172
- [Robert Blatchford, Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43466/43466-h/43466-h.htm), 1918 Boni and Liveright edition: ‘The Author's Apology’; chapter I, response to Chesterton; chapter VIII, response to Chesterton
- [Not Guilty, Clarion Press 1906 bibliographical record](https://books.google.com/books/about/Not_Guilty.html?id=2EJYAAAAMAAJ), Publisher and publication year
- [God and My Neighbour, Clarion Press 1903 bibliographical record](https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Robert_Blatchford_God_and_My_Neighbour?id=s1kwAQAAMAAJ), Publication metadata

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