John Oswald ( – 14 September 1793) was a Scottish philosopher, writer, soldier, and revolutionary. He served in the British Army before becoming involved in radical literary and political circles in London and Paris. His writings addressed republicanism, direct democracy, atheism, animal rights, and vegetarianism.
Oswald served in India during the Second Anglo-Mysore War, where he encountered Hindu vegetarianism and later adopted vegetarianism. He moved to Paris in 1790, joined the Jacobin Club, edited revolutionary newspapers, and became a commander in the French Revolutionary Army. He was killed in action during the War in the Vendée in 1793. His best-known work, The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals (1791), argues against meat consumption and is discussed as an early work in the history of animal rights and vegetarian thought.
Biography
Early life Oswald was born in Edinburgh around 1760. Contemporary sources differ on his family background. According to one account, his father, also named John Oswald, was a goldsmith of considerable learning who operated a coffee house in Edinburgh. Another account states that his mother kept "John's Coffee-house".
Oswald was apprenticed to a goldsmith or jeweller. He learned Latin and Greek at a young age and later acquired knowledge of Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Accounts of his early military career vary. According to one version, he enlisted as a private in the 18th Regiment of Foot around 1776 or 1777, was promoted to sergeant because of his education, and later used money, either from a legacy or a marriage dowry, to purchase his discharge and a commission as an ensign in the 42nd Regiment of Foot.
He briefly served during the American Revolutionary War and, in 1780, was commissioned as a lieutenant in the newly raised second battalion of the 42nd Foot, which was then sent to India to fight in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Before departing, he married his first wife, Louisa, with whom he had two sons.
India (1780–1783) During the voyage to India, Oswald reportedly fought a duel with Colonel Norman Macleod. Although Oswald was not the instigator, the two men exchanged two shots without injury.
After arriving in India, Oswald did not dine with the officers' mess because of limited personal funds and instead lived on the standard rations issued to enlisted soldiers. He served during the Second Anglo-Mysore War, which had effectively ended by 1783. While in India, he began to express doubts about his military role and about colonialism.
Marguerite M. Regan attributes Oswald's changing views to his low social position among fellow officers and his appreciation of the local cultures he encountered in India, which she writes led him to reflect critically on colonialism. Through contact with Indian cultures, Oswald was introduced to vegetarianism and adopted it. He eventually resigned his commission and left the British Army.
Return to Britain (1783–1790) Oswald returned overland to Britain in 1783. His first wife having died, he married Bathesheba Fagge Owen (bapt. 1759) in 1784; they had a daughter, Jane, and an infant son.
During the 1780s, Oswald moved to London and was active in literary and political circles. He worked on the Political Herald and Review under the pseudonym Ignotus, and co-published The British Mercury with James Ridgway, which featured illustrations by James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson. He also reported parliamentary debates for the London Gazetteer and took part in public lectures and debates, including at the Society of Free Debate in 1790.
Writing under the pseudonym Sylvester Otway, he published poetry and political pamphlets, including Review of the Constitution of Great Britain (1784), Ranae Comicae Evangelizantes (1786), Euphrosyne; or, An Ode to Beauty (1788), and The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals (1791). By this time, he was associated with figures including Thomas Paine, John Horne Tooke, and James Mackintosh, and was known for his revolutionary sympathies in England and France. His 1793 work Constitution for the Universal Commonwealth was circulated alongside writings by Paine, Sieyès, and Mirabeau.
The Cry of Nature
Oswald's encounter with Hindu vegetarianism during his time in India influenced his 1791 work, The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals. A historical overview by Indira Nathan, Frances Robinson, Lynne Burgess, and Allan Hackett describes the book as a contribution to the development of vegetarian thought in the Western tradition.
In the book, Oswald argued that modern society was at odds with innate human nature, in a way comparable to arguments made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He maintained that humans possess a natural disposition toward mercy and compassion, especially toward animals. Oswald suggested that vegetarianism would be more widely adopted if people were required to witness or carry out the killing of animals themselves. He argued that the division of labour allowed people to consume meat while remaining detached from its ethical consequences, and that social conditioning weakened natural sympathetic responses. Although Oswald promoted compassion and practised vegetarianism, Peter Marshall notes that he did not advocate pacifism.
France (1790–1793)
Revolutionary activity in Paris By May 1790, Oswald had settled in Paris and became involved in revolutionary politics. He attended sessions of the National Assembly and presented a patriotic ode in September that year. During this period, he came into contact with revolutionary figures including Thomas Cooper, Wolfe Tone, Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton, and Théroigne de Méricourt.
Contemporary descriptions of Oswald state that he was of average or middle height but had a commanding or noble presence. In Paris, he was said to affect a Roman style of dress, with an open collar and hair styled à la Brutus. One account described him as having a "heroic and grave face, sober manners and [being] a bit stiff".
Journalism and political involvement Between 1791 and 1793, Oswald co-edited the journal Chronique du Mois with Nicolas Bonneville, contributing to the Cercle Social, a reformist intellectual circle that included Brissot and Condorcet. He also worked briefly on the English-language newspaper Universal Patriot, which reported on political developments in Britain and France.
In 1792, Oswald published an expanded French edition of his 1784 pamphlet Review of the Constitution of Great Britain. Its reception helped secure his admission to the Jacobin Club, where he became a prominent English-speaking supporter of the French Revolution.
Later that year, Oswald became secretary of the British Club in Paris, a group of British expatriates supporting the French Revolution. He addressed the Jacobin Club on several occasions, published La tactique du peuple, and produced a subsidised English translation of Collot d'Herbois's .
Military service and death
Oswald was granted honorary French citizenship in September 1792 and appointed a commander in the French Revolutionary Army. His two sons joined him as drummers. Oswald's strict discipline made him unpopular among his troops, and his attempt to replace muskets with specially designed pikes met resistance, with soldiers reportedly refusing to train with them.
In May 1793, he took command of the Parisian battalion of pikemen, later designated the 14th battalion of Paris, and joined the fighting in the War in the Vendée. Although his death had previously been attributed to either Les Ponts-de-Cé or Thouars, official records confirm that he died at Thouars on 14 September 1793. His death certificate, filed under the name "Jean Oswale" by Major General Gabriel Rey, lists his age as 33.
The exact circumstances of his death remain uncertain. He was probably killed in combat between Republican forces and Vendéen troops led by Louis Marie de Lescure. Some accounts report that his sons were killed alongside him, while others state that they were wounded but survived.
Contemporary sources differ on the details. One account states that Oswald was killed by a cannonball and his sons by grapeshot; another that he and one of his sons were shot while attempting to rally their retreating battalion under heavy fire; and another that disgruntled soldiers may have used the opportunity to kill Oswald, his sons, and another English officer because of his unpopularity.
Philosophy
Political thought
Oswald's political thought has been described as drawing on the Scottish Enlightenment, radical egalitarianism, and classical republicanism. Anna Plassart describes him as a lesser-known figure among British supporters of the French Revolution and discusses his contributions to debates on commerce, property, and democratic government.
Oswald drew on the ideas of writers including David Hume, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson, particularly in his writings for the Political Herald and Review and The British Mercury. He adopted the four stages theory of social development and praised the social benefits of commerce, while criticising hereditary privilege and advocating direct democracy and civic virtue. His Review of the Constitution of Great Britain opposed representative government and promoted legislation by popular acclamation.
Oswald also criticised the concentration of property and defended the idea of land as a common inheritance, influenced by William Ogilvie. His final political text, (1793), proposed a universal republic based on decentralised cantonal assemblies and mass approval of laws.
His political and military thought were closely linked. Concerned that modern commercial societies might lose their capacity for self-defence, he advocated a citizen militia and published (1792), a manual promoting military training for the people without reliance on standing armies. Plassart writes that these ideas combined elements of classical civic humanism with Enlightenment-era commercial republicanism.
Animal rights and vegetarianism In The Cry of Nature, Oswald rejected the traditional human-animal hierarchy and argued for the moral standing of non-human animals. Sarah R. Cohen, reviewing Stephen F. Eisenman's The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights, writes that Oswald's work challenged human dominion and presented animals as moral subjects. Oswald argued that hunting was morally indefensible, that killing animals for food was unnecessary, and that animals possess feelings and rights.
Regan argues that Oswald treated vegetarianism as a form of political resistance. In The Cry of Nature, he connected abstention from meat with opposition to tyranny and brutality, linking compassion for animals with democratic revolution.
Oswald practised vegetarianism in daily life. According to one account, he lived on fruits and fruit juices, and when dining in company would eat only potatoes, leaving the meat untouched.
Religious views Oswald was an atheist, a position reflected in his writings and noted by contemporaries such as Henry Redhead Yorke. In his 1786 satirical pamphlet Ranae Comicae Evangelizantes; or, The Comic Frogs Turned Methodist, he criticised religious enthusiasm and mocked Methodist preachers.
Oswald reiterated his irreligious views while living in revolutionary France. In (1793), he argued against the role of religion in public life and government, described Christianity as an "imposture", and advanced arguments associated with radical Enlightenment secularism. Although exposed to Hinduism during his military service in India, he rejected its theological claims, including reincarnation.
Reception