"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Thomas Jefferson
By: Linda Case Gibbons
February 5, 2014
King George III had the world by the tail. He believed he was accountable to no one and he was right. After all, that is the definition of a king.
There were some constitutional constraints on his power, but he didn’t care. He did what he pleased.
Parliament may have gossiped about him behind his back, saying he wasn’t that great a leader, but when all was said and done, they were of one mind with the king. Use the colonists. That’s what they were there for.
Parliament didn’t care, either. There were no term limits on them, so they were fine.
And, as the governing body of the realm, Parliament received its share of the spoils.
If they passed burdensome laws against the colonists, targeting them in some way, they were rewarded with bonuses!
It was a win-win for everyone, except, of course, the colonists.
One day, the king was pouring over his royal checkbook. "Egads!” he exclaimed, throwing down his quill pen, " I’m broke!”
The king and his Parliament scratched their heads. Sure enough, the French and Indian War had broken the bank. But the king, well, he wasn’t in the mood to cut back on his lifestyle. He still liked going on holiday and hosting dance parties in the royal palace.
"We’ll tax ‘em,” he said. "We’ll tax ‘em,” said Parliament. And they both said, "What will the poor saps do? They dare not protest! They are loyal subjects of the king! They are powerless against the British Empire. Tax them ‘til the cows come home!”
Parliament, caught up in the spirit of the moment, exclaimed, "Yes, tax their health, tax their wealth. We’ll tax their street, we’ll tax their feet. We’ll tax everything and after that spy on them, quarter soldiers in their homes and if they don’t pay the taxes, we’ll make them pay a penalty!”
As predicted, the colonists didn’t like it, but so what.
The taxes were a great boon for the king, going way back to the 1760’s: Sugar taxes, currency taxes, you name it. There were a million ways to gather funds to offset the king’s burgeoning debt ceiling.
The one tax that really rankled among the colonists, these colonial "Englishmen,” was the tax on their favorite beverage, tea. (The sugar tax made them peevish as well.)
But what choice did the colonists have against paying these taxes?
"None!” said the king. "They might fall ill. They might go broke because we control their economic growth, but they have to fall into line! They are not a free people, after all.”
And indeed, England’s rule over the colonies was absolute. It was about the colonists not having choices. The king knew that people who have choices are dangerous and must be contained at all costs. After all, these colonists were, sorry to say, cash cows.
So if the king said a colonist could not work a 40-hour week even if he chose to do so, that colonist would have to work a lesser workweek. If the king said so.
Even if that colonist wanted to work, liked to work and besides, had hungry mouths to feed. Even if he didn’t want to be an artist or sit at home helping his children with their ciphers or bonding with his wife, eventually someone would say, "What’s for dinner?”
Yea, even if he wanted to succeed and prosper, to perhaps be a business owner , the "king” said he couldn’t, and just to make sure he didn’t, the king and parliament passed laws to make it tough on him.
Yea, verily!
Americans, as they were later called, had a strong work ethic and a strong sense of justice from the very beginning and they weren’t buying it. They didn’t want anyone telling them how to live their lives.
It was what made them take on a foe as powerful as the king of England.
It came to a head with the Boston Tea Party, resistance to the Crown! But imagine if this had happened instead.
Suppose Samuel Cooper (later a major in the Continental Army) said to Paul Revere, both participants in the Boston Tea Party incident, "Paul, old man, dost thou think we can do anything about yon tax, pray tell?”
"Nah,” replied Paul, looking a little peaked and worn, not at all like a successful silversmith.
"Well, then, Paul, perhaps thou might keep watch and ride your fine horse through the streets of Boston at some point in days to come, you know, to warn us ‘the British are coming, the British are coming.’”
"Nah,” replied Revere, "There’s no sense picking a fight we can’t win.”
And that was that. No War, no Constitution, no rights nor choices.
Suppose they had decided not to fight.
But interestingly some 116 men did decide to "fight,” in the form of a protest. And of that number, two-thirds were under 20 years of age. Youthful, but they knew their minds. They knew what they had to do.
They drew their red line and said to British soldiers, "don’t come into my house without a warrant.” They said, "In England a butcher’s son might be a butcher’s son forever, but not here!”
So how is it that we who are the recipients of their valor are in the pickle we’re in right now?
We understood it when a king was not on our side, but not when our elected officials are not.
We watch them as they engage in endless debate, as they issue endless statements to the press, wrangling publicly and conducting endless hearings.
But when the chips are down, their shameful response is to get ready for the next election or run for the hills.
Some even say the words Americans never have said, "There’s no sense picking a fight we can’t win.”
It is time for them to know, for us to tell them, regardless of party, "That’s not good enough for us.”