A point I think I've seen made here, but not as widely elsewhere as I would like, is that the Founders were not only a bunch of classically educated stuffy white guys in powdered wigs. They were simultaneously tax protestors, smugglers in at least one case, inciters of mobs, organizers of illegal militias and stockpilers of military grade small arms and artillery. We talk about the Revolution being caused by unjust taxation, and it was by American standards, but by the standards of history our ancestors rebelled against their lawful government over a not unreasonable rate of taxation that they just had no veto over.
I look at the taxes we pay, the regulations we live under, the local code requirements to build a shed on your own land or the city business license fee to run a home business out of your garage if its permitted at all, and I have to think its not different in kind than what triggered our first rebellion. The only difference is there's still some hope of peaceful redress. But the petty bureaucrats and elected officials who are working to make the tax and regulatory state unchallengeable don't know what they're going to reap when they succeed.
Also keep in mind that the Founders established the Articles of Confederation as the form of government for the united States... *not* the Constitution.
Do you have a National Archives link for this image?
ReplyDeleteI have the link that I provided.
ReplyDeleteduh (with a facepalm)
ReplyDeleteSee here, General Howe promoted temperance, increased food safety and also reformed health care.
ReplyDeleteA point I think I've seen made here, but not as widely elsewhere as I would like, is that the Founders were not only a bunch of classically educated stuffy white guys in powdered wigs. They were simultaneously tax protestors, smugglers in at least one case, inciters of mobs, organizers of illegal militias and stockpilers of military grade small arms and artillery. We talk about the Revolution being caused by unjust taxation, and it was by American standards, but by the standards of history our ancestors rebelled against their lawful government over a not unreasonable rate of taxation that they just had no veto over.
ReplyDeleteI look at the taxes we pay, the regulations we live under, the local code requirements to build a shed on your own land or the city business license fee to run a home business out of your garage if its permitted at all, and I have to think its not different in kind than what triggered our first rebellion. The only difference is there's still some hope of peaceful redress. But the petty bureaucrats and elected officials who are working to make the tax and regulatory state unchallengeable don't know what they're going to reap when they succeed.
Also keep in mind that the Founders established the Articles of Confederation as the form of government for the united States... *not* the Constitution.
ReplyDelete