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Sobering - then again, some of them (Old Ben, for sure) got lots of jobs, money and power from it. Thomas Jefferson didn't do so bad either (become POTUS).....many of the other achieved great power and wealth because the war was fought partially for "stuff".
The Brits don't give up their stuff without a fight....or unless it is hopeless.
I am a history nut so I definitely appreciate many of the Founders for who they were (children of the Enlightenment). At the same time those other places where the crown stayed and went peacefully (Canada, Australia) didn't turn out so bad. We basically followed English law even after The Revolution (with a side of French)....other than we were later in terms of abolishing slavery (took the suffering and deaths of much of our population to do so) and stuff like that.
I guess if I were an African American I'd have preferred to be freed without violence in 1833 rather than with violence and then 100 years of Jim Crow here.
It always depends on where you look at it from. Looking at our extended Family (both blood and marriage) we have many who pre-date the Founding, meaning they would be loyal subjects of the King. These families then become the truest of Americans later on (fought in most every war, held high gov. positions, etc.)......
I'd rather be American than Russian (in terms of government, economy, etc.) , that's for certain....so if the Revolution was the embodiment of the Western Enlightenment I'm ready to celebrate.
They are great not because they were dedicated to what they believed in; they are great because of what they believed in.
Nazis were dedicated to what they believed in. Should we honor them by what they gave up after their defeat?
I think it takes both - a noble cause combined with the dedication to actually go out and do whatever it takes to support it.
Americans have become too complacent or maybe too spoiled or too lazy. We take our democracy for granted, assuming that our republic will still survive no matter what.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -- Frederick Douglass
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -- John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.)
Well said, gentlemen.
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