By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--July 4, 2021 @ Canada Free Press
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Somewhere between confusion and ignorance lies the teaching many Americans receive today on the motives of the Founders of the USA. The American Revolution was really a battle over ideas between the Old and New Worlds. And the chief idea being fought over in the 1770s was that of Liberty.
Colonists considered themselves heirs of the rights of freeborn Englishmen. This powerful conviction was torn-asunder by the decisions of mad King George and an arrogant Parliament. The English realized too late that principled Americans would be willing to fight and die for such beliefs as the right to representative government and the sanctity of private property.
I. Primary Goal of American Revolution: Preservation of Liberty
Amazingly, we again today must reassert our rights to such concepts as Life, Liberty and Property, against a tyrannical government or allow our children to eke out an existence as slaves of an all-powerful state.
The singular concern of American colonists—their overarching goal—was to maintain their liberty, according to Bernard Bailyn, Professor Emeritus of Early American History at Harvard. Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, won the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes, and is considered the single most important work on this topic in the last half century. Bailyn claims the Founders exhibited “a cluster of convictions focused on the effort to free the individual from the oppressive misuse of power, from the tyranny of the state.”
II. Overview of American Revolutionary Influences
The general influences of Americans supporting the Revolution were as follows:
A. England’s “Unwritten Constitution” & Legal History: This includes Magna Carta, Bill of Rights and Parliamentary style of government.
B. Classical Thinkers - The American Founders read Classical authors. Writes one author:
The typical education of colonial times began at about age eight. Students lucky enough to attend school normally learned Latin and Greek grammar. They read the historians Tacitus and Livy, Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, and translated the Latin poetry of Virgil and Horace. They were expected to know the language well enough to translate from the original into English and back again to the original in another grammatical tense. Classical Education also stressed the seven liberal arts: Latin, logic, rhetoric (the “trivium”), as well as arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the “quadrivium”).
C. Enlightenment - Many Americans read widely in the European Enlightenment including the French philosophers, British empiricists—like Locke, and Scottish Enlightenment thinkers such as Frances Hutcheson.
D. British Puritan Revolution Pamphlets—(see below).
E. Christianity—Both the Constitution in general, and specifically the concept of Federalism—were based upon the Biblical concept of “Covenant.”
Says Bailyn, the Americans, already much adjusted to greater levels of freedom than their continental British brethren, had long suspected England was attempting to surreptitiously deny their English rights. Colonists suspected the Anglican clergy would be used to undermine the State’s religious freedoms; whereas petty bureaucrats sent from the mother country would succeed in taxing them to death. Other issues bedeviling the colonists included being under a foreign standing army.
III. Revolutionary Writers and Themes
Colonial mid-18th century American writers were influenced by the works of Classical thinkers and 17th century English Revolutionaries, like John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government and John Milton’s political writings, such as his The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. These thinkers hallowed ideals of natural rights and individual liberty. Colonial American Revolutionary tracts were massively influenced by such British libertarian articles and pamphlets, widely distributed in the American colonies.
For instance, American libertarianism was taught via Cato’s Letters, an English newspaper article series. These libertarian writers translated John Locke’s sublime political writings for a more general audience. Thus did some men learn they had natural rights of life, liberty, and property, which governments must not poach. Bailyn proved the American Revolution was both genuinely radical and revolutionary, calling it “the transforming libertarian radicalism” of the American Revolution.
III. Defining Events: Property Rights Versus Tax Acts
The tinder which helped spark the Revolution aflame was taxation. Many remember the war-cry: “No taxation without representation!” Yet the issue was larger than just taxes. According to the Revolutionary mindset, it was not just the amount of taxes taken, but the very fact that England deigned to do such a taking, period. In fact, one author argued smaller taxes were even more devilish since they were less likely to be protested, but still as much a subjugation.
There were many different tax acts which drew outcries:
- The Sugar Act- 1764—Strictly collected on molasses, a very common import, and placed taxes on other common goods, including sugar, silk, and wine.
- The Stamp Act—1765 - This tax had nothing to do with stamps, but rather taxed every printed document used in the colonies. This included licenses, newspapers, and fliers. If it was printed, it had a tax.
- The Townshend Acts- 1766- This series of acts put taxes on commonly used goods, including on tea, paint, paper, lead, almost everything used in daily life in the colonies.
The British taxation of American goods was seen as putting colonists in bondage…”Taxation without representation is slavery!”
It sparked the Boston Tea Party protest, a precursor to the War. When
such writers as John Locke stated that all men were free, he meant any
freeman could also own property.
IV. Constitutionalism
We must study the Constitution itself to understand what the Founders were trying to achieve in the Revolution. In TThe Origins of American Constitutionalism, Donald S. Lutz claims American constitutionalism begins with the charters and covenants forming the American colonies.
Lutz says the US Constitution was neither inherited from the British or simply invented by the Federalists in the summer of 1787, but influenced by both. He claims the Constitution comes from a tradition of American colonial charters and documents of political theory beginning 150 years prior to 1787. Lutz argues this via close textual analysis of such documents as the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the Rhode Island Charter of 1663, the first state constitutions, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.
American Constitutionalism largely comes from radical Protestant interpretations of Judeo-Christian concepts first secularized into political agreements and incorporated into constitutions and bills of rights. This rich tradition also claims aspects of English common law and English Whig theory. Individual writers were also influential, such as Montesquieu, Locke, Blackstone, and Hume.
V. Values of the Founders & Their Use Today
The following ten ideals were used by the Founders to build the nation of America from whole cloth.
A. General Regime of Liberty.
Patriot Patrick Henry once said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Yet, today, we see constant encroachment of government into every area possible, often in the name of “security.” But the Founders would never accept trading freedom for comfort!
B. Principled Government Stands Upon Popular Consent
The Declaration says, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...” Yet we see many government decisions, such as Open Borders, being forced upon the people with only a minority of support.
C. Rule of Law
Only a commitment to run a government upon the rule of law can help men overcome institutional despotism, according to Rutherford’s Lex Rex (Law is King) and the Founders. And yet, today, American justice often depends just upon irrelevant factors, like one’s race—such as when Biden’s government seeks to benefit non-White farmers, which the courts then struck down.
D. Limited Government
The Founder knew that without a limited government, kings become gods rather quickly. This is why the Constitution is established to be a law settling all disputes. Yet, today we have leaders like Maxine Waters traveling out of her district to encourage a race war in the US Midwest.
E. Free Speech
Freedom of expression was a presumption to all the Founders, who then enshrined the concept in the First Amendment. Yet across the US, universities are using speech codes as an excuse to enforce Political Correctness and sanction and expel students and fire faculty.
F. Freedom of Religion
Most Founders self-identified as Christian, and blocking a state-sanctioned church was important to them in the interest of encouraging all sects equally. But America’s war against faith by many public and private institutions has no precedent.
G. Capitalism
Against the default socialism of the current administration, America was established upon a premise of Capitalism. This is why the Constitution has a Contracts Clause...No State shall pass any Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts. (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10). But Biden’s socialism can only be established when the rights of property are extinguished.
H. Federalism & State’s Rights
Federalism is the idea of separation of powers on a national, regional and local level. It is one of the reasons America has been so successful. Yet, Biden claims to have new insights, i.e. more federal control of states, like the border. This also explains the DOJ suing GA for voter laws which SCOTUS is upholding similar ones in other states.
I. Republicanism
One of the chief ideas of the Founders was leadership by wise elders within the context of a popularly elected government. This notion is seen in diffusion of power through many institutions across USA, such as the Electoral College. Yet Biden is attacking state legislatures and private businesses by forcing money into states for Covid aid after the virus is in retreat such that healthy workers are making more from Fed aid than their old jobs would pay. Governors have now decided to refuse the funds to help put their work-forces back on the job.
J. Separation of Powers
The Founders believed that power must be separated to avoid tyranny. But Democrats want to pack SCOTUS with extra judges to create a rubber stamp for all their policies.
K. Property Rights
The great insight of Locke into the nature of building wealth for an entire society was defending the rights of private property for all men. Yet Biden relishes the notion of “redistributing wealth.” Not only would the Founders be furious at such ignorant and un-American posturing, history proves economic and human rights disasters always follow hard on the heels of socialism and communism.
CONCLUSION:
Let’s celebrate our Freedoms while they still exist. Don’t forget the chief right – Freedom of Speech. Recall when Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo stated almost a century ago, “this is the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.” We cannot run a healthy democracy without our freedoms. Each one is precious, and together they help guarantee liberty, prosperity and happiness.
Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.
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