Cissy
07-04-2014, 07:18 PM
There was a slogan: "No taxation without representation." How did that slogan turn out? In 1776, there was no income tax. So, we got our representation, but taxes today are at 40% of our income. Washington extracts 25% of the nation's output. In 1776, taxes imposed by the British were in the range of 1% in the North, and possibly 3% in the South. I'm ready to make a deal: I'll give up being represented in Washington, but I'll get to keep 74% of my income. I'll work out something else with state and local politicians. Just get Washington out of my pocket.
Jefferson put these words into the Declaration of Independence:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He had no idea. Not counting troops, who were here to defend the Western territory from the French after 1763, the number of British officials was probably well under a thousand. They resided mainly in port cities, where they collected customs (import taxes): Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The average American had never met a British official in 1776.
By any modern standard, in any nation, what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration to prove the tyranny of King George III would be regarded by voters today as a libertarian revolution beyond the dreams of any elected politician, including Ron Paul. Voters would unquestionably destroy the political career of anyone who would call for the restoration of King George's tyranny, which voters would see as the destruction of their economic security, which they believe is provided only by politicians and each other's tax money.
I have therefore revised the Declaration of Independence, in order to make it conform to the prevailing American view of liberty and justice for all. You may read my revision here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north110.html
This is why the documents of the American Revolution make no sense to us. We read the words and marvel at the courage of those who risked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor by signing the Declaration. But we cannot really understand why they did it. We live under a self- imposed tyranny so vast, so all-encompassing by the standards of 18th-century British politics, that we cannot imagine risking everything we own in order to throw off the level of government interference suffered by the average American businessman in 1776, let alone the average farmer.
If we could start politically where the Continental Congress started in 1775, we would call home the members of that Congress. We would regard as crazy anyone who was willing to risk a war of secession for the sake of throwing off an import tax system that imposed a 1% burden on our income.
The Declaration of Independence points a finger at us, and shouts from the grave on behalf of the 56 signers: "What have you done? What have you surrendered in our name? What, in the name of Nature and Nature's God, do you people think liberty is all about?"
We have no clue. American voters surrender more liberty in one session of Congress than the colonists surrendered to the British crown/Parliament from 1700 to 1776.
We do not read the documents of the American Revolution. They make us uneasy and even guilty when we understand them, and most of the time, we do not understand them. They use language that is above us. The common discourse of American politics in 1776 was beyond what most university faculty members are capable of understanding.
You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. My friend Bertel Sparks used to teach in the Duke University Law School. Every year, he conducted an experiment. He wanted to put his first year law students -- among the cream of the crop of American college graduates -- in their place.
He assigned an extract from Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. This was the most important legal document of the American Revolution era. It was written in the 1760's. Every American lawyer read all four volumes. It was read by American lawyers for a generation after the Revolution. Sparks would assign a section on the rights of property. He made them take it home, and then return to class, ready to discuss it.
When they returned, they could not discuss it. The language was too foreign. The concepts were too foreign. The students were utterly confused.
Then Sparks would hold up the source of the extract from Blackstone. The source was the Sixth McGuffey reader, the most popular American public school textbook series of the second half of the 19th century.
That put the kiddies in their place.
If you want to be put in your place, pick up a copy of the Sixth McGuffey reader and try to read it.
Try to read the "Federalist Papers." These were newspaper columns written to persuade the voters of New York to elect representatives to ratify the Constitution. These essays were political tracts. They were aimed at the average voter. Few college graduates could get through them today, so students are not asked to read them in their American history course, which isn't required for graduation anyway.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OURSELVES?
Our march into what Jefferson would have described as tyranny has been a self-imposed march. Voters today would be unwilling to go to war to restore the Declaration's ideal of liberty. In fact, Americans would go to war to keep from having the Declaration's ideal of liberty from being imposed on us. By today's standards, King George III was indeed a madman: a libertarian madman, a character out of an Ayn Rand novel that never got published. On politics and economics, Jefferson was madder than King George.
(More at the link)
http://www.garynorth.com/public/385.cfm
Jefferson put these words into the Declaration of Independence:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He had no idea. Not counting troops, who were here to defend the Western territory from the French after 1763, the number of British officials was probably well under a thousand. They resided mainly in port cities, where they collected customs (import taxes): Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The average American had never met a British official in 1776.
By any modern standard, in any nation, what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration to prove the tyranny of King George III would be regarded by voters today as a libertarian revolution beyond the dreams of any elected politician, including Ron Paul. Voters would unquestionably destroy the political career of anyone who would call for the restoration of King George's tyranny, which voters would see as the destruction of their economic security, which they believe is provided only by politicians and each other's tax money.
I have therefore revised the Declaration of Independence, in order to make it conform to the prevailing American view of liberty and justice for all. You may read my revision here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north110.html
This is why the documents of the American Revolution make no sense to us. We read the words and marvel at the courage of those who risked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor by signing the Declaration. But we cannot really understand why they did it. We live under a self- imposed tyranny so vast, so all-encompassing by the standards of 18th-century British politics, that we cannot imagine risking everything we own in order to throw off the level of government interference suffered by the average American businessman in 1776, let alone the average farmer.
If we could start politically where the Continental Congress started in 1775, we would call home the members of that Congress. We would regard as crazy anyone who was willing to risk a war of secession for the sake of throwing off an import tax system that imposed a 1% burden on our income.
The Declaration of Independence points a finger at us, and shouts from the grave on behalf of the 56 signers: "What have you done? What have you surrendered in our name? What, in the name of Nature and Nature's God, do you people think liberty is all about?"
We have no clue. American voters surrender more liberty in one session of Congress than the colonists surrendered to the British crown/Parliament from 1700 to 1776.
We do not read the documents of the American Revolution. They make us uneasy and even guilty when we understand them, and most of the time, we do not understand them. They use language that is above us. The common discourse of American politics in 1776 was beyond what most university faculty members are capable of understanding.
You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. My friend Bertel Sparks used to teach in the Duke University Law School. Every year, he conducted an experiment. He wanted to put his first year law students -- among the cream of the crop of American college graduates -- in their place.
He assigned an extract from Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. This was the most important legal document of the American Revolution era. It was written in the 1760's. Every American lawyer read all four volumes. It was read by American lawyers for a generation after the Revolution. Sparks would assign a section on the rights of property. He made them take it home, and then return to class, ready to discuss it.
When they returned, they could not discuss it. The language was too foreign. The concepts were too foreign. The students were utterly confused.
Then Sparks would hold up the source of the extract from Blackstone. The source was the Sixth McGuffey reader, the most popular American public school textbook series of the second half of the 19th century.
That put the kiddies in their place.
If you want to be put in your place, pick up a copy of the Sixth McGuffey reader and try to read it.
Try to read the "Federalist Papers." These were newspaper columns written to persuade the voters of New York to elect representatives to ratify the Constitution. These essays were political tracts. They were aimed at the average voter. Few college graduates could get through them today, so students are not asked to read them in their American history course, which isn't required for graduation anyway.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OURSELVES?
Our march into what Jefferson would have described as tyranny has been a self-imposed march. Voters today would be unwilling to go to war to restore the Declaration's ideal of liberty. In fact, Americans would go to war to keep from having the Declaration's ideal of liberty from being imposed on us. By today's standards, King George III was indeed a madman: a libertarian madman, a character out of an Ayn Rand novel that never got published. On politics and economics, Jefferson was madder than King George.
(More at the link)
http://www.garynorth.com/public/385.cfm