From: Gary Hunt at the Outpost of Freedom

Independence Day -- 1999

Beginning the 224th Year of our Independence
(or, Fourth Decade of Dependence)

Gary Hunt,
Outpost of Freedom

July 4, 1999

 

Yes, just two hundred twenty four years ago, farmers, merchants, lawyers and others gathered to respond to what was sure to be the greatest threat to the freedom and liberty of the British colonists in North America. For the fourteen months previous, American’s, in the form of both militia and Continental Army, had waged war on the subjugation the British had imposed upon the colonies. Taxes on common household goods had been the original source of objection – and had resulted in an agreement, among most of the colonies, to not buy any such goods which were taxed. The Non-Importation Agreement was enforced by people willingly refusing to but from merchants who imported these goods – through British channels. Other merchants arranged to acquire, and sell, smuggled goods of like kind, circumventing the imposed taxes.

Realizing the possibility of raising the ire of the Crown, these otherwise loyal subjects prepared to defend their right to buy or not to buy these goods. Rifles, cannon and powder were being stored around the countryside. Massachusetts, long recognized as the primary instigator of resistance to British tyranny (dependence on the British), has secured relatively small amounts of these weapons, and consolidated them in central locations – should the need arise. Through Tory sources, the British found that some of these munitions had been stored at Concord, and on April 18, 1775, had set out to seize the stores, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

Although the British failed, miserably, in this endeavor, the majority of the few thousand willing to take cause against the King. Felt that it was only a matter of time before the Parliament rescinded their taxes and allowed the colonists to continue their lives – as British citizens.

Fourteen months later, reality had come to roost. It had become apparent that should the colonists ever attempt to restore their relationship with the Crown, the Crown would never, again, trust the colonists with any degree of self-rule, at all.

Realizing that expulsion of the King and Britain from the chain of government would leave them without royal blood which they could submit to for leadership, the colonist began reviewing the works of philosophers of times past. The possibility that man was capable of establishing his own government – without submission to certain lineage – finally began to appear as the solution to the dilemma presenting itself to the thinkers of the time.

Independence from established means of government and dependence upon the individuals within a country as a source of governmental authority had now left the realm of ideology and entered the realm of reality. Over the next eleven years, this seed of self-government would grow to fruition – establishing the first true self-governed people in recent history.

It is, perhaps, necessary to understand the intentions of the Founders to understand what has gone amiss, since that time. In Federalist papers #11, Alexander Hamilton described the previous relationship with Britain, and her relationship with the remainder of the World, when he said, "The world may politically, as well as geographically, be divided into four parts, each having a distinct set of interests. Unhappily for the other three, Europe, by her arms and by her negotiations, by force and by fraud, has, in different degrees, extended her dominion over them all. Africa, Asia, and America, have successively felt her domination."

It is that domination – that dependence on the will of Europe that had let, as much as any other cause, to the desire for Independence from that authority and domination.

He continued, "The superiority she has long maintained has tempted her to plume herself as the Mistress of the World, and to consider the rest of mankind as created for her benefit."

Now, are we beginning to understand what the arrogance of the European, especially the British, had for the remainder of the world – including the Americas?

Further on, Hamilton notes, "It belongs to us to vindicate the honor of the human race, and to teach that assuming brother, moderation... Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!"

 So, where stand we now? Have we become the arrogant heir to the position of Mistress of the World? Have we determined that only our will need be considered by the people of the other continents and nations? Have we not only removed ourselves from the dependence of the will of others, but replaced that with the means of ‘using’ that assuming brother, moderation to subject the remainder of the world to our view – through force?

Not only have our people become, again, dependent upon the will of the power brokers, the Money Merchants of Washington, D.C., we have allowed those same brokers to force other nations of the world to become dependent upon their will.

Unless true Americans are, again, willing to take up the cause of Liberty, we might best describe our current time as our Fourth Decade of Dependence.

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