In my earliest days of learning about the American Revolution, I found myself filled with awe for the heroism of the Patriots, the wisdom of the founding fathers, and the moral soundness of our nation’s foundational documents. Something about the history of the United States felt so honorable to me, and ever the little patriot, I thought of the leaders in our history as inherently idealistic. “A Kind of Revolution” outlines exactly the sentiments that have drastically shifted my sentiments toward our history’s leaders. I learned in my early education that the Revolution was fought for the establishment of a just democracy. The American colonies were subject to parliamentary taxation without representation, and in recognition of this injustice, the morally upright Patriots rebelled in the name of equality. As it turns out, this isn’t the full story.
At this point in society, we’ve come to accept that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and men of the likes probably weren’t the best of guys according to today’s standards. But we excuse them on the notion that they were great leaders to whom we’re indebted for our freedom. “A Kind of Revolution” raises the question as to whether we really do, and moreover whether that was really what the Revolution was fought for. It seems self-evident, in consideration of the class revolts that were put down by colonial governments during the Revolution as well as unequal pay between low-ranking Patriot soldiers and the elite officers, that this war was not really fought for the equality it advertised. Otherwise, why would the lower class have to be coerced into fighting for such a cause through legislation and financial incentive? In recognition of the systemic divide between classes in Revolution-era America, it’s pretty clear that any liberty the founding fathers might have been fighting for was not that of the have-nots. This is further questionable when considering the governmental actions taken in response to forceful political participation from the lower class. The Riot Act, The Sedition Act, and bars against poor citizens voting and holding office all demonstrate a governmental desire to suppress the voice of the “mob,” the majority of the American polity who held little wealth. As I learned, the American colonies rebelled against Britain to counteract the injustice of taxation without representation, but as the Constitution and other foundational documents were founded by a systemically designed elite network of men, our country was in turn founded on legislation without representation.
If we’re to give our early government the benefit of the doubt, maybe high concentration of power within the elite minority is an issue that’s inevitable in a society where power requires expertise, which requires education, which requires resources, which requires wealth. However, this chapter makes it clear that this issue was addressed in movements of the time. The bigger problem lies within the suppression of these movements. Shays’ Rebellion, The Whiskey Rebellion, and revolts of that sort were fought to address the lack of power offered to the lower class, and the government responded to each with combative force, only appealing to the lower class with performative reform that achieved little and mostly sought to maintain the peace (a euphemism for elite power). We can see further in the developmental period of our history that government officials were not only unconcerned with the needs of the poor, but sought specifically not to address them by establishing a strong central government that would maintain economic power for the elite and establishing laws that would punish citizens for speaking out against the government through action such as libel. In fairness, no government can be expected to act without bias, and a government dominated by the rich will act with bias favoring the desires of the rich. All of this considered, I think it’s important to question the motives of our history’s leaders as well as those of our current leaders. How much of social achievement can actually be attributed to these leaders, and how much was fabricated through myth or strong rhetoric?
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