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To: Jeff Head; AIG
You are woefully mistaken about what "freedom" and "liberty" mean. You think it is just about economics and material pursuits ... but you are wrong. The people, the root stock that made this nation came here for different types of freedom and liberty and underwent significant economic and physical hardship to attain it. Their blessings were not wrapped up in mateial wealth and pursuit alone ... no, those things were merely an outgrowth of something much more fundamental .... Jeff Head

The biggest reason why the colonies declared independence from England in the first place was taxes, which is an economic issue. Do you remember the Boston Tea Party and the slogan, "No taxes without representation!" The colonists declared independence because of the economic issue of taxes! .... AIG

The basis of the Declaration of Independence was an extensive list of grievances against George III.  In effect, the colonies were making their case for independence.  This list of 'grievances' probably provides the best insight into exactly what it was that the colonies were seeking to free themselves from in fighting for their independence from the crown.  Was it primarily economic freedom and prosperity they were fighting and sacrificing to achieve?  (If it were, those lives, fortunes, and sacred honors which the founders pledged to lay down would have been sacrificed for a relative triviality.  What was at stake was something much more precious, and much more eternal, than economics.)

The founders' list of (non-economic in blue; economic in red) grievances against the King (i.e., 'Why We Fought The War' in one comprehensive list....):

So talk about principles all you want, but it was economic issues that brought about the founding of the USA. .... AIG

Yes, economic issues played a role in the call for independence.  But what fraction of the above list even remotely refers to economic issues?  And what (overwhelming) fraction of the above list refers to the 'principles' you pass by so cavalierly?  The 'principle' of the sanctity of individual life and liberty, the belief in genuinely representative government, and the corresponding need to untangle the colonies from an oppressive rule which allowed for less and less of each, was the driving force behind the movement for independence.  To intimate otherwise is to sadly misunderstand the instrinsicallly unique foundations of this republic.
 

169 posted on 07/13/2002 8:12:55 PM PDT by joanie-f
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 149 | View Replies ]


To: joanie-f
Amen, Joanie. Thanks for making the point so succinctly.

I had hoped to get AIG to go off and read the Declaration so that he could correct himself ... but your posting of the grievances as cited by the signators and as written there serves the same purpose.

See my post number 149.

Volume II is on its way to the street and I believe we are going to get incredible feed back.

170 posted on 07/13/2002 8:23:47 PM PDT by Jeff Head
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 169 | View Replies ]

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