Posted on 09/17/2002 4:25:46 PM PDT by jstone78
I recently met a Canadian who is decended from a Boston colonial loyalist, which inspired this post. His ancestors fled to Canada in the 1770s and lost all their property, following violent attacks by revolutionary mobs. It is well known that during and after the American War of Independence, many loyalists were deprived of their property by mobs of pro-Independence supporters, and some loyalists were assaulted and even murdered.
Many thinkers have described the American Revolution as a "liberal" revolution, because it tossed out the old order of loyalty to the Crown, was influenced by French Enlightenment thinkers, and it violated the property rights of colonists who remained loyal to England. Thomas Paine, often regarded as one of America's founding fathers, later went on to play a major role in the French Revolution of 1789. By any ideological measure, Paine was a radical.
What about the loyalists (or Tories) who remained loyal to their King and country in 1776? Were they not the true "conservatives" of the time, by any definition of the term? England saw them as patriots, who were willing to stand up in defense of their country, even when it was unpopular among the pro-Independence radicals. Members of the Conservative Party in Britain are known as "Tories". American colonial Tories from the 1770s, were treated in the same manner that modern day black conservatives are treated by the black community, i.e. as "Uncle Toms".
It is also important to remember that only a minority of people in the 13 British colonies supported the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Most people in the colonies were either neutral, or remained loyal to King George III.
But if you listen to the anti-war views being expressed by Paleo-Conservatives and Libertarians, who are the closest thing we have to classic liberals in this day and age, they do have some of the same objections to globalization that we often hear from the left.
Tories were reactionists. Our founding fathers were visionaries. As for looting and killing, if I'm not mistaken, the Tories had blood and plunder on their hands too. It was an ugly time.
My first American forebears are buried in the Boston Park Street Church cemetary, circa 1660. They were chased out of France - to Boston - by the Catholics.
I think they were simply defending their lives, right up until 1786.
al = pertaining to
liberal = pertaining to freedom
Hillary ain't.
The bastards stole the word but I use it as intended.
Yes, some of the folks back in the 1770's really wanted a King. Not George, but they were convinced they had to have a monarch. They were the conservatives.
The liberals (Paine included: "kill the monarchy, not the Monarch!") horrified the rest of the world be declaring that the United States did not want a Monarch!
Thanks to my teacher: AJG.
But many a conservative colonist stood by the crown. The situation was complicated by the radical Puritan tradition of the New England colonists. What mattered was whether colonists in other states viewed the revolution in light of the Magna Charta and the Whiggish 1689 Revolution, or in light of the English Civil War and the periodic revolts and disturbances in the colonies themselves. Some viewed the Revolution as a defense of essential British liberties. Others saw it as another rabblerousing rebellion, and were turned off by the leading role of the sons of the Puritans, whose English cousins had taken Charles I's head in the 1640s. Paine, was truly a radical, who had all the animus against class societies of an English underdog.
Good point. And correct.
The conservative of today would have been an 18th Century liberal. Also, what our Founders proclaimed (the "inalienable rights of man" and declaring any government which violated those rights as illegitimate), and what they did (the establishment of a constitutional republic) were things that had never been done before. It was exceedingly radical by 18th Century political standards. Those today who strive to protect and promote the heritage of the Founders and their principles are conservatives -- conserving the principles of liberty, self-government, and the responsibility of legitimate governments to protect that liberty and form of government.
BTW, I am a direct descendent of Samuel Tilley, a prominent New York Tory, who led other Tories to Canada and who is considered a "Founding Father" of New Brunswick. However, while he is my great-great-great-great-grandfather (I may have left off a "great"), I am sympathetic to the American patriots.
Liberal in the sense that they wanted a "more to perfect union" and bold enough to fight and die for the idea. They were conservative in that they had the reason to enact the separation of powers based on a constitutional republic and rule of law.
Definitely Conservative...
Probably so conservative, the guy from Princeton was selling memberships for the Country Club two days after the little dust up in Trenton.
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