When Scotsman Joseph Hume died in 1855 his contemporaries assumed he would be remembered as one of the most important politicians of his time. He was a champion of free-trade principles & radical reform. Though Hume never held office, he was in the forefront of nearly every major reform endeavor in the first half of the 19th century. He rose to popularity on the basis of his attack on government spending. Like most other free traders, Hume believed that no government could be satisfactory until it recognized the full measure of citizen freedom, whether that involved economic liberty, civil liberty, or religious liberty. Bibliography.