Chapter 4: TYRANNY IS TYRANNY Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would

prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the nited !tates, they could ta"e over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the #ritish Empire. $n the process, they could hold bac" a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership. %hen we loo" at the American &evolution this way, it was a wor" of genius, and the 'ounding 'athers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries. They created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times, and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command. !tarting with #acon(s &ebellion in )irginia, by 176*, there had been eighteen uprisings aimed at overthrowing colonial governments. There had also been six blac" rebellions, from !outh +arolina to ,ew -or", and forty riots of various origins. #y this time also, there emerged, according to .ac" /reene, 0stable, coherent, effective and ac"nowledged local political and social elites.0 And by the 176*s, this local leadership saw the possibility of directing much of the rebellious energy against England and her local officials. $t was not a conscious conspiracy, but an accumulation of tactical responses. After 1761, with England victorious over 'rance in the !even -ears( %ar 2"nown in America as the 'rench and $ndian %ar3, expelling them from ,orth America, ambitious colonial leaders were no longer threatened by the 'rench. They now had only two rivals left4 the English and the $ndians. The #ritish, wooing the $ndians, had declared $ndian lands beyond the Appalachians out of bounds to whites 2the 5roclamation of 17613. 5erhaps once the #ritish were out of the way, the $ndians could be dealt with. Again, no conscious forethought strategy by the colonial elite, hut a growing awareness as events developed. %ith the 'rench defeated, the #ritish government could turn its attention to tightening control over the colonies. $t needed revenues to pay for the war, and loo"ed to the colonies for that. Also, the colonial trade had become more and more important to the #ritish economy, and more profitable4 it had amounted to about 6**,*** pounds in 17** but by 177* was worth 7,8**,*** pounds. !o, the American leadership was less in need of English rule, the English more in need of the colonists( wealth. The elements were there for conflict. The war had brought glory for the generals, death to the privates, wealth for the merchants, unemployment for the poor. There were 76,*** people living in ,ew -or" 2there had been 7,*** in 177*3 when the 'rench and $ndian %ar ended. A newspaper editor wrote about the growing 0,umber of #eggers and wandering 5oor0 in the streets of the city. 9etters in the papers :uestioned the distribution of wealth4 0;ow often have our !treets been covered with Thousands of #arrels of 'lour for trade, while our near ,eighbors can hardly procure enough to ma"e a <umplin to satisfy hunger=0 /ary ,ash(s study of city tax lists shows that by the early 177*s, the top 6 percent of #oston(s taxpayers controlled >?@ of the city(s taxable assets. $n 5hiladelphia and ,ew -or" too, wealth was more and more concentrated. +ourtArecorded wills showed that by 176* the wealthiest people in the cities were leaving 7*,*** pounds 2e:uivalent to about B6 million today3. $n #oston, the lower classes began to use the town meeting to vent their grievances. The governor of Cassachusetts had written that in these town meetings 0the meanest $nhabitants ...

by their constant Attendance there generally are the maDority and outvote the /entlemen, Cerchants, !ubstantial Traders and all the better part of the $nhabitants.0 %hat seems to have happened in #oston is that certain lawyers, editors, and merchants of the upper classes, but excluded from the ruling circles close to EnglandAmen li"e .ames Etis and !amuel AdamsA organiFed a 0#oston +aucus0 and through their oratory and their writing 0molded laboringA class opinion, called the (mob( into action, and shaped its behaviour.0 This is /ary ,ash(s description of Etis, who, he says, 0"eenly aware of the declining fortunes and the resentment of ordinary townspeople, was mirroring as well as molding popular opinion.0 %e have here a forecast of the long history of American politics, the mobiliFation of lowerA class energy by upperAclass politicians, for their own purposes. This was not purely deceptionG it involved, in part, a genuine recognition of lowerAclass grievances, which helps to account for its effectiveness as a tactic over the centuries. As ,ash puts it4 James Otis, Samuel Adams, Royall lyler, Oxenbridge Thacher, and a host of other Bostonians, linked to the artisans and laborers through a network of neighborhood taverns, fire com anies, and the !aucus, es oused a vision of olitics that gave credence to laboring"class views and regarded as entirely legitimate the artici ation of artisans and even laborers in the olitical rocess# $n 1767, Etis, spea"ing against the conservative rulers of the Cassachusetts colony represented by Thomas ;utchinson, gave an example of the "ind of rhetoric that a lawyer could use in mobiliFing city mechanics and artisans4 $ am forced to get my living by the labour of my hand% and the sweat of my brow, as most of you are and obliged to go thro& good re ort and evil re ort, for bitter bread, earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me, and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the oor## ## #oston seems to have been full of class anger in those days. $n 1761, in the #oston Gazette, someone wrote that 0a few persons in power0 were promoting political proDects 0for "eeping the people poor in order to ma"e them humble.0 This accumulated sense of grievance against the rich in #oston may account for the explosiveness of mob action after the !tamp Act of 1766, Through this Act, the #ritish were taxing the colonial population to pay for the 'rench war, in which colonists had suffered to expand the #ritish Empire. That summer, a shoema"er named EbeneFer Cacintosh led a mob in destroying the house of a rich #oston merchant named Andrew Eliver. Two wee"s later, the crowd turned to the home of Thomas ;utchinson, symbol of the rich elite who ruled the colonies in the name of England. They smashed up his house with axes, dran" the wine in his wine cellar, and looted the house of its furniture and other obDects. A report by colony officials to England said that this was part of a larger scheme in which the houses of fifteen rich people were to be destroyed, as pan of 0a %ar of 5lunder, of general levelling and ta"ing away the <istinction of rich and poor.0 $t was one of those moments in which fury against the rich went further than leaders li"e Etis wanted. +ould class hatred be focused against the proA#ritish elite, and deflected from the nationalist elite= $n ,ew -or", that same year of the #oston house attac"s, someone wrote to the ,ew -or" /aFette, 0$s it e:uitable that ??, rather ???, should suffer for the Extravagance or /randeur of one, especially when it is considered that men fre:uently owe their %ealth to the impoverishment of their ,eighbors=0 The leaders of the &evolution would worry about "eeping such sentiments within limits.

Cechanics were demanding political democracy in the colonial cities4 open meetings of representative assemblies, public galleries in the legislative halls, and the publishing of rollAcall votes, so that constituents could chec" on representatives. They wanted openAair meetings where the population could participate in ma"ing policy, more e:uitable taxes, price controls, and the election of mechanics and other ordinary people to government posts. Especially in 5hiladelphia, according to ,ash, the consciousness of the lower middle classes grew to the point where it must have caused some hard thin"ing, not Dust among the conservative 9oyalists sympathetic to England, but even among leaders of the &evolution. 0#y midA1776, laborers, artisans, and small tradesmen, employing extralegal measures when electoral politics failed, were in clear command in 5hiladelphia.0 ;elped by some middleAclass leaders 2Thomas 5aine, Thomas -oung, and others3, they 0launched a fullAscale attac" on wealth and even on the right to ac:uire unlimited private property.0 <uring elections for the 1776 convention to frame a constitution for 5ennsylvania, a 5rivates +ommittee urged voters to oppose 0great and overgrown rich men .. . they will be too apt to be framing distinctions in society.0 The 5rivates +ommittee drew up a bill of rights for the convention, including the statement that 0an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness, of man"indG and therefore every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property.0 $n the countryside, where most people lived, there was a similar conflict of poor against rich, one which political leaders would use to mobiliFe the population against England, granting some benefits for the rebellious poor, and many more for themselves in the process. The tenant riots in ,ew .ersey in the 17>*s, the ,ew -or" tenant uprisings of the 176*s and 176*s in the ;udson )alley, and the rebellion in northeastern ,ew -or" that led to the carving of )ermont out of ,ew -or" !tate were all more than sporadic rioting. They were longAlasting social movements, highly organiFed, involving the creation of countergovernments. They were aimed at a handful of rich landlords, but with the landlords far away, they often had to direct their anger against farmers who had leased the disputed land from the owners. 2!ee Edward +ountryman(s pioneering wor" on rural rebellion.3 .ust as the .ersey rebels had bro"en into Dails to free their friends, rioters in the ;udson )alley rescued prisoners from the sheriff and one time too" the sheriff himself as prisoner. The tenants were seen as 0chiefly the dregs of the 5eople,0 and the posse that the sheriff of Albany +ounty led to #ennington in 1771 included the privileged top of the local power structure. The land rioters saw their battle as poor against rich. A witness at a rebel leader(s trial in ,ew -or" in 1766 said that the farmers evicted by the landlords 0had an e:uitable Tide but could not be defended in a +ourse of 9aw because they were poor and . . . poor men were always oppressed by the rich.0 Ethan Alien(s /reen Countain rebels in )ermont described themselves as 0a poor people . . . fatigued in settling a wilderness country,0 and their opponents as 0a number of Attorneys and other gentlemen, with all their tac"le of ornaments, and compliments, and 'rench finesse.0 9andAhungry farmers in the ;udson )alley turned to the #ritish for support against the American landlordsG the /reen Countain rebels did the same. #ut as the conflict with #ritain intensified, the colonial leaders of the movement for independence, aware of the tendency of poor tenants to side with the #ritish in their anger against the rich, adopted policies to win over people in the countryside. $n ,orth +arolina, a powerful movement of white farmers was organiFed against wealthy and corrupt officials in the period from 1766 to 1771, exactly those years when, in the cities of the

,ortheast, agitation was growing against the #ritish, crowding out class issues. The movement in ,orth +arolina was called the &egulator movement, and it consisted, says Carvin 9. Cichael Hay, a specialist in the history of that movement, of 0classAconscious white farmers in the west who attempted to democratiFe local government in their respective counties.0 The &egulators referred to themselves as 0poor $ndustrious peasants,0 as 0labourers,0 0the wretched poor,0 0oppressed0 by 0rich and powerful . . . designing Consters.0 The &egulators saw that a combination of wealth and political power ruled ,orth +arolina, and denounced those officials 0whose highest !tudy is the promotion of their wealth.0 They resented the tax system, which was especially burdensome on the poor, and the combination of merchants and lawyers who wor"ed in the courts to collect debts from the harassed farmers. $n the western counties where the movement developed, only a small percentage of the households had slaves, and >1 percent of these were concentrated, to ta"e one sample western county, in less than 7 percent of the households. The &egulators did not represent servants or slaves, but they did spea" for small owners, s:uatters, and tenants. A contemporary account of the &egulator movement in Erange +ounty describes the situation4 Thus were the eo le of Orange insulted by The sheriff, robbed and lundered # # # neglected and condemned by the Re resentatives and abused by the 'agistracy% obliged to ay (ees regulated only by the Avarice of the officer% obliged to ay a TA) which they believed went to enrich and aggrandi*e a few, who lorded it over them continually% and from all these +vils they saw no way to esca e% for the 'en in ,ower, and -egislation, were the 'en whose interest it was to o ress, and make gain of the -abourer# $n that county in the 176*s, the &egulators organiFed to prevent the collection of taxes, or the confiscation of the property of tax delin:uents. Efficials said 0an absolute $nsurrection of a dangerous tendency has bro"e out in Erange +ounty,0 and made military plans to suppress it. At one point seven hundred armed farmers forced the release of two arrested &egulator leaders. The &egulators petitioned the government on their grievances in 1768, citing 0the une:ual chances the poor and the wea" have in contentions with the rich and powerful.0 $n another county, Anson, a local militia colonel complained of 0the unparalleled tumults, $nsurrections, and +ommotions which at present distract this +ounty.0 At one point a hundred men bro"e up the proceedings at a county court. #ut they also tried to elect farmers to the assembly, asserting 0that a maDority of our assembly is composed of 9awyers, +ler"s, and others in +onnection with them....0 $n 177* there was a largeAscale riot in ;illsborough, ,orth +arolina, in which they disrupted a court, forced the Dudge to flee, beat three lawyers and two merchants, and looted stores. The result of all this was that the assembly passed some mild reform legislation, but also an act 0to prevent riots and tumults,0 and the governor prepared to crush them militarily. $n Cay of 1771 there was a decisive battle in which several thousand &egulators were defeated by a disciplined army using cannon. !ix &egulators were hanged. Hay says that in the three western counties of Erange, Anson, and &owan, where the &egulator movement was concentrated, it had the support of six thousand to seven thousand men out of a total white taxable population of about eight thousand. Ene conse:uence of this bitter conflict is that only a minority of the people in the &egulator counties seem to have participated as patriots in the &evolutionary %ar. Cost of them probably remained neutral.

'ortunately for the &evolutionary movement, the "ey battles were being fought in the ,orth, and here, in the cities, the colonial leaders had a divided white populationG they could win over the mechanics, who were a "ind of middle class, who had a sta"e in the fight against England, who faced competition from English manufacturers. The biggest problem was to "eep the propertyless people, who were unemployed and hungry in the crisis following the 'rench war, under control. $n #oston, the economic grievances of the lowest classes mingled with anger against the #ritish and exploded in mob violence. The leaders of the $ndependence movement wanted to use that mob energy against England, but also to contain it so that it would not demand too much from them. %hen riots against the !tamp Act swept #oston in 1767, they were analyFed by the commander of the #ritish forces in ,orth America, /eneral Thomas /age, as follows4 The Boston 'ob, raised first by the $nstigation of 'any of the ,rinci al $nhabitants, Allured by ,lunder, rose shordy after of their own Accord, attacked, robbed, and destroyed several .ouses, and amongst others, mat of the -ieutenant /overnor#### ,eo le then began to be terrified at the S irit they had raised, to erceive that o ular (ury was not to be guided, and each individual feared he might be the next 0ictim to their Ra acity# The same (ears s read thro& the other ,rovinces, and there has been as much ,ains taken since, to revent $nsurrections, of the ,eo le, as before to excite them# /age(s comment suggests that leaders of the movement against the !tamp Act had instigated crowd action, but then became frightened by the thought that it might be directed against their wealth, too. At this time, the top 1* percent of #oston(s taxpayers held about 66 percent of #oston(s taxable wealth, while the lowest 1* percent of the taxpaying population had no taxable property at all. The propertyless could not vote and so 2li"e blac"s, women, $ndians3 could not participate in town meetings. This included sailors, Dourneymen, apprentices, servants. <ir" ;oerder, a student of #oston mob actions in the &evolutionary period, calls the &evolutionary leadership 0the !ons of 9iberty type drawn from the middling interest and wellAtoA do merchants ... a hesitant leadership,0 wanting to spur action against /reat #ritain, yet worrying about maintaining control over the crowds at home. $t too" the !tamp Act crisis to ma"e this leadership aware of its dilemma. A political group in #oston called the 9oyal ,ineAmerchants, distillers, shipowners, and master craftsmen who opposed the !tamp ActAorganiFed a procession in August 1766 to protest it. They put fifty master craftsmen at the head, but needed to mobiliFe shipwor"ers from the ,orth End and mechanics and apprentices from the !outh End. Two or three thousand were in the procession 2,egroes were excluded3. They marched to the home of the stampmaster and burned his effigy. #ut after the 0gentlemen0 who organiFed the demonstration left, the crowd went further and destroyed some of the stampmaster(s property. These were, as one of the 9oyal ,ine said, 0amaFingly inflamed people.0 The 9oyal ,ine seemed ta"en abac" by the direct assault on the wealthy furnishings of the stampmaster. The rich set up armed patrols. ,ow a town meeting was called and the same leaders who had planned the demonstration denounced the violence and disavowed the actions of the crowd. As more demonstrations were planned for ,ovember 1, 1766, when the !tamp Act was to go into effect, and for 5ope(s <ay, ,ovember 6, steps were ta"en to "eep things under controlG a dinner was given for certain leaders of the rioters to win them over. And when the !tamp Act was repealed, due to overwhelming resistance, the conservative leaders severed their connections with the rioters. They held annual celebrations of the first antiA!tamp Act demonstration, to

which they invited, according to ;oerder, not the rioters but 0mainly upper and middleAclass #ostonians, who traveled in coaches and carriages to &oxbury or <orchester for opulent feasts.0 %hen the #ritish 5arliament turned to its next attempt to tax the colonies, this time by a set of taxes which it hoped would not excite as much opposition, the colonial leaders organiFed boycotts. #ut, they stressed, 0,o Cobs or Tumults, let the 5ersons and 5roperties of your most inveterate Enemies be safe.0 !amuel Adams advised4 0,o CobsA ,o +onfusionsA,o Tumult.0 And .ames Etis said that 0no possible circumstances, though ever so oppressive, could be supposed sufficient to Dustify private tumults and disorders....0 $mpressment and the :uartering of troops by the #ritish were directly hurtful to the sailors and other wor"ing people. After 1768, two thousand soldiers were :uartered in #oston, and friction grew between the crowds and the soldiers. The soldiers began to ta"e the Dobs of wor"ing people when Dobs were scarce. Cechanics and shop"eepers lost wor" or business because of the colonists( boycott of #ritish goods. $n 176?, #oston set up a committee 0to +onsider of some !uitable Cethods of employing the 5oor of the Town, whose ,umbers and distresses are dayly increasing by the loss of its Trade and +ommerce.0 En Carch 6, 177*, grievances of ropema"ers against #ritish soldiers ta"ing their Dobs led to a fight. A crowd gathered in front of the customhouse and began provo"ing the soldiers, who fired and "illed first +rispus Attuc"s, a mulatto wor"er, then others. This became "nown as the #oston Cassacre. 'eelings against the #ritish mounted :uic"ly. There was anger at the ac:uittal of six of the #ritish soldiers 2two were punished by having their thumbs branded and were discharged from the army3. The crowd at the Cassacre was described by .ohn Adams, defense attorney for the #ritish soldiers, as 0a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes, and mulattoes, $rish teagues and outlandish Dac" tarrs.0 5erhaps ten thousand people marched in the funeral procession for the victims of the Cassacre, out of a total #oston population of sixteen thousand. This led England to remove the troops from #oston and try to :uiet the situation. $mpressment was the bac"ground of the Cassacre. There had been impressment riots through the 176*s in ,ew -or" and in ,ewport, &hode $sland, where five hundred seamen, boys, and ,egroes rioted after five wee"s of impressment by the #ritish. !ix wee"s before the #oston Cassacre, there was a battle in ,ew -or" of seamen against #ritish soldiers ta"ing their Dobs, and one seaman was "illed. $n the #oston Tea 5arty of <ecember 1771, the #oston +ommittee of +orrespondence, formed a year before to organiFe antiA#ritish actions, 0controlled crowd action against the tea from the start,0 <ir" ;oerder says. The Tea 5arty led to the +oercive Acts by 5arliament, virtually establishing martial law in Cassachusetts, dissolving the colonial government, closing the port in #oston, and sending in troops. !till, town meetings and mass meetings rose in opposition. The seiFure of a powder store by the #ritish led four thousand men from all around #oston to assemble in +ambridge, where some of the wealthy officials had their sumptuous homes. The crowd forced the officials to resign. The +ommittees of +orrespondence of #oston and other towns welcomed this gathering, but warned against destroying private property. 5auline Caier, who studied the development of opposition to #ritain in the decade before 1776 in her boo"From Resistance to Revolution, emphasiFes the moderation of the leadership and, despite their desire for resistance, their 0emphasis on order and restraint.0 !he notes4 0The officers and committee members of the !ons of 9iberty were drawn almost entirely from the middle and upper classes of colonial society.0 $n ,ewport, &hode $sland, for instance, the !ons of 9iberty, according to a contemporary writer, 0contained some /entlemen of the 'irst 'igure in (Town for Epulence, !ense and 5oliteness.0 $n ,orth +arolina 0one of the wealthiest of the

gentlemen and freeholders0 led the !ons of 9iberty. !imilarly in )irginia and !outh +arolina. And 0,ew -or"(s leaders, too, were involved in small but respectable independent business ventures.0 Their aim, however, was to broaden their organiFation, to develop a mass base of wage earners. Cany of the !ons of 9iberty groups declared, as in Cilford, +onnecticut, their 0greatest abhorrence0 of lawlessness, or as in Annapolis, opposed 0all riots or unlawful assemblies tending to the disturbance of the public tran:uility.0 .ohn Adams expressed the same fears4 0These tarrings and featherings, this brea"ing open ;ouses by rude and insolent &abbles, in &esentment for private %rongs or in pursuing of private 5reDudices and 5assions, must be discountenanced. $n )irginia, it seemed clear to the educated gentry that something needed to be done to persuade the lower orders to Doin the revolutionary cause, to deflect their anger against England. Ene )irginian wrote in his diary in the spring of 177>4 0The lower +lass of 5eople here are in tumult on account of &eports from #oston, many of them expect to be press(d I compell(d to go and fight the #ritainsJ0 Around the time of the !tamp Act, a )irginia orator addressed the poor4 0Are not the gentlemen made of the same materials as the lowest and poorest among you= . . . 9isten to no doctrines which may tend to divide us, but let us go hand in hand, as brothers....0 $t was a problem for which the rhetorical talents of 5atric" ;enry were superbly fitted. ;e was, as &hys $saac puts it, 0firmly attached to the world of the gentry,0 but he spo"e in words that the poorer whites of )irginia could understand. ;enry(s fellow )irginian Edmund &andolph recalled his style as 0simplicity and even carelessness. . .. ;is pauses, which for their length might sometimes be feared to dispell the attention, rivited it the more by raising the expectation.0 5atric" ;enry(s oratory in )irginia pointed a way to relieve class tension between upper and lower classes and form a bond against the #ritish. This was to find language inspiring to all classes, specific enough in its listing of grievances to charge people with anger against the #ritish, vague enough to avoid class conflict among the rebels, and stirring enough to build patriotic feeling for the resistance movement. Tom 5aine(s Common Sense, which appeared in early 1776 and became the most popular pamphlet in the American colonies, did this. $t made the first bold argument for independence, in words that any fairly literate person could understand4 0!ociety in every state is a blessing, but /overnment even in its best state is but a necessary evil. .. .0 5aine disposed of the idea of the divine right of "ings by a pungent history of the #ritish monarchy, going bac" to the ,orman con:uest of 1*66, when %illiam the +on:ueror came over from 'rance to set himself on the #ritish throne4 0A 'rench bastard landing with an armed #andits and establishing himself "ing of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. $t certainly hath no divinity in it.0 5aine dealt with the practical advantages of stic"ing to England or being separatedG he "new the importance of economics4 $ challenge the wannest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can rea by being connected with /reat Britain# $ re eat the challenge% not a single advantage is derived# Our corn will fetch its rice in any market in +uro e, and our im orted goods must be aid for by them where we will## # # As for the bad effects of the connection with England, 5aine appealed to the colonists( memory of all the wars in which England had involved them, wars costly in lives and money4 But the in1uries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection are without number## # # any submission to, or de endence on, /reat Britain, tends directly to involve

this !ontinent in +uro ean wars and 2uarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendshi # # ## ;e built slowly to an emotional pitch4 +verything that is right or reasonable leads for se aration# The blood of the slain, the wee ing voice of nature cries, &T$S T$'+ TO ,ART# Common Sense went through twentyAfive editions in 1776 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. $t is probable that almost every literate colonist either read it or "new about its contents. 5amphleteering had become by this time the chief theater of debate about relations with England. 'rom 176* to 1776 four hundred pamphlets had appeared arguing one or another side of the !tamp Act or the #oston Cassacre or The Tea 5arty or the general :uestions of disobedience to law, loyalty to government, rights and obligations. 5aine(s pamphlet appealed to a wide range of colonial opinion angered by England. #ut it caused some tremors in aristocrats li"e .ohn Adams, who were with the patriot cause hut wanted to ma"e sure it didn(t go too far in the direction of democracy. 5aine had denounced the soAcalled balanced government of 9ords and +ommons as a deception, and called for singleAchamber representative bodies where the people could be represented. Adams denounced 5aine(s plan as 0so democratical, without any restraint or even an attempt at any e:uilibrium or counterApoise, that it must produce confusion and every evil wor".0 5opular assemblies needed to be chec"ed, Adams thought, because they were 0productive of hasty results and absurd Dudgments.0 5aine himself came out of 0the lower orders0 of EnglandAa stayAma"er, tax official, teacher, poor emigrant to America. ;e arrived in 5hiladelphia in 177>, when agitation against England was already strong in the colonies. The artisan mechanics of 5hiladelphia, along with Dourneymen, apprentices, and ordinary laborers, were forming into a politically conscious militia, 0in general damn(d riffAraffAdirty, mutinous, and disaffected,0 as local aristocrats described them. #y spea"ing plainly and strongly, he could represent those politically conscious lowerAclass people 2he opposed property :ualifications for voting in 5ennsylvania3. #ut his great concern seems to have been to spea" for a middle group. 0There is an extent of riches, as well as an extreme of poverty, which, by harrowing the circles of a man(s ac:uaintance, lessens his opportunities of general "nowledge.0 Ence the &evolution was under way, 5aine more and more made it clear that he was not for the crowd action of lowerAclass peopleAli"e those militia who in 177? attac"ed the house of .ames %ilson. %ilson was a &evolutionary leader who opposed price controls and wanted a more conservative government than was given by the 5ennsylvania +onstitution of 1776. 5aine became an associate of one of the wealthiest men in 5ennsylvania, &obert Corris, and a supporter of Corris(s creation, the #an" of ,orth America. 9ater, during the controversy over adopting the +onstitution, 5aine would once again represent urban artisans, who favored a strong central government. ;e seemed to believe that such a government could represent some great common interest, in this sense, he lent himself perfectly to the myth of the &evolutionAthat it was on behalf of a united people. The <eclaration of $ndependence brought that myth to its pea" of elo:uence. Each harsher measure of #ritish controlAthe 5roclamation of 1761 not allowing colonists to settle beyond the Appalachians, the !tamp Tax, the Townshend taxes, including the one on tea, the stationing of troops and the #oston Cassacre, the closing of the port of #oston and the dissolution of the Cassachusetts legislatureAescalated colonial rebellion to the point of revolution. The colonists had responded with the !tamp Act +ongress, the !ons of 9iberty, the +ommittees of +orrespondence, the #oston Tea 5arty, and finally, in 177>, the setting up of a +ontinental

+ongressAan illegal body, forerunner of a future independent government. $t was after the military clash at 9exington and +oncord in April 1776, between colonial Cinutemen and #ritish troops, that the +ontinental +ongress decided on separation. They organiFed a small committee to draw up the <eclaration of $ndependence, which Thomas .efferson wrote. $t was adopted by the +ongress on .uly 7, and officially proclaimed .uly >, 1776. #y this time there was already a powerful sentiment for independence. &esolutions adopted in ,orth +arolina in Cay of 1776, and sent to the +ontinental +ongress, declared independence of England, asserted that all #ritish law was null and void, and urged military preparations. About the same time, the town of Caiden, Cassachusetts, responding to a re:uest from the Cassachusetts ;ouse of &epresentatives that all towns in the state declare their views on independence, had met in town meeting and unanimously called for independence4 0. . . we therefore renounce with disdain our connexion with a "ingdom of slavesG we bid a final adieu to #ritain.0 0%hen in the +ourse of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands . . . they should declare the causes....0 This was the opening of the <eclaration of $ndependence. Then, in its second paragraph, came the powerful philosophical statement4 3e hold these truths to he self"evident, that all men are created e2ual, that they are endowed by their !reator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are -ife, -iberty and the ursuit of .a iness# That to secure these rights, /overnments arc instituted among 'en, deriving their 1ust owers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any (orm of /overnment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the ,eo le to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new /overnment#### $t then went on to list grievances against the "ing, 0a history of repeated inDuries and usurpations, all having in direct obDect the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these !tates.0 The list accused the "ing of dissolving colonial governments, controlling Dudges, sending 0swarms of Efficers to harass our people,0 sending in armies of occupation, cutting off colonial trade with other parts of the world, taxing the colonists without their consent, and waging war against them, 0transporting large Armies of foreign Cercenaries to compleat the wor"s of death, desolation and tyranny.0 All this, the language of popular control over governments, the right of rebellion and revolution, indignation at political tyranny, economic burdens, and military attac"s, was language well suited to unite large numbers of colonists, and persuade even those who had grievances against one another to turn against England. !ome Americans were clearly omitted from this circle of united interest drawn by the <eclaration of $ndependence4 $ndians, blac" slaves, women. $ndeed, one paragraph of the <eclaration charged the Hing with inciting slave rebellions and $ndian attac"s4 .e has excited domestic insurrections amongst as, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless $ndian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions# Twenty years before the <eclaration, a proclamation of the legislature of Cassachusetts of ,ovember 1, 1766, declared the 5enobseot $ndians 0rebels, enemies and traitors0 and provided a bounty4 0'or every scalp of a male $ndian brought in ... forty pounds. 'or every scalp of such female $ndian or male $ndian under the age of twelve years that shall be "illed ... twenty pounds... .0 Thomas .efferson had written a paragraph of the <eclaration accusing the Hing of transporting slaves from Africa to the colonies and 0suppressing every legislative attempt to

prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.0 This seemed to express moral indignation against slavery and the slave trade 2.efferson(s personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died3. #ehind it was the growing fear among )irginians and some other southerners about the growing number of blac" slaves in the colonies 27* percent of the total population3 and the threat of slave revolts as the number of slaves increased. .efferson(s paragraph was removed by the +ontinental +ongress, because slaveholders themselves disagreed about the desirability of ending the slave trade. !o even that gesture toward the blac" slave was omitted in the great manifesto of freedom of the American &evolution. The use of the phrase 0all men are created e:ual0 was probably not a deliberate attempt to ma"e a statement about women. $t was Dust that women were beyond consideration as worthy of inclusion. They were politically invisible. Though practical needs gave women a certain authority in the home, on the farm, or in occupations li"e midwifery, they were simply overloo"ed in any consideration of political rights, any notions of civic e:uality. To say that the <eclaration of $ndependence, even by its own language, was limited to life, liberty, and happiness for white males is not to denounce the ma"ers and signers of the <eclaration for holding the ideas expected of privileged males of the eighteenth century. &eformers and radicals, loo"ing discontentedly at history, are often accused of expecting too much from a past political epochAand sometimes they do. #ut the point of noting those outside the arc of human rights in the <eclaration is not, centuries late and pointlessly, to lay impossible moral burdens on that time. $t is to try to understand the way in which the <eclaration functioned to mobiliFe certain groups of Americans, ignoring others. !urely, inspirational language to create a secure consensus is still used, in our time, to cover up serious conflicts of interest in that consensus, and to cover up, also, the omission of large parts of the human race. The philosophy of the <eclaration, that government is set up by the people to secure their life, liberty, and happiness, and is to be overthrown when it no longer does that, is often traced to the ideas of .ohn 9oc"e, in hisSecond Treatise on Government. That was published in England in 168?, when the English were rebelling against tyrannical "ings and setting up parliamentary government. The <eclaration, li"e 9oc"e(s Second Treatise, tal"ed about government and political rights, but ignored the existing ine:ualities in property. And how could people truly have e:ual rights, with star" differences in wealth= 9oc"e himself was a wealthy man, with investments in the sil" trade and slave trade, income from loans and mortgages. ;e invested heavily in the first issue of the stoc" of the #an" of England, Dust a few years after he had written his Second Treatise as the classic statement of liberal democracy. As adviser to the +arolinas, he had suggested a government of slaveowners run by wealthy land barons. 9oc"e(s statement of people(s government was in support of a revolution in England for the free development of mercantile capitalism at home and abroad. 9oc"e himself regretted that the labor of poor children 0is generally lost to the public till they are twelve or fourteen years old0 and suggested that all children over three, of families on relief, should attend 0wor"ing schools0 so they would be 0from infancy . . . inured to wor".0 The English revolutions of the seventeenth century brought representative government and opened up discussions of democracy. #ut, as the English historian +hristopher ;ill wrote in The 5uritan &evolution4 0The establishment of parliamentary supremacy, of the rule of law, no doubt mainly benefited the men of property.0 The "ind of arbitrary taxation that threatened the security of property was overthrown, monopolies were ended to give more free reign to business, and sea

power began to be used for an imperial policy abroad, including the con:uest of $reland. The 9evellers and the <iggers, two political movements which wanted to carry e:uality into the economic sphere, were put down by the &evolution. Ene can see the reality of 9oc"e(s nice phrases about representative government in the class divisions and conflicts in England that followed the &evolution that 9oc"e supported. At the very time the American scene was becoming tense, in 1768, England was rac"ed by riots and stri"esA of coal heavers, saw mill wor"ers, halters, weavers, sailorsA because of the high price of bread and the miserable wages. The Annual &egister reviewed the events of the spring and summer of 17684 A general dissatisfaction unha ily revailed among several of the lower orders of the eo le# This ill tem er, which was ardy occasioned by the high rice of rovisions, and artly roceeded from other causes, too fre2uently manifested itself in acts of tumult and riot, which were roductive of the most melancholy conse2uences# 0The people0 who were, supposedly, at the heart of 9oc"e(s theory of people(s sovereignty were defined by a #ritish member of 5arliament4 0$ don(t mean the mob. ... $ mean the middling people of England, the manufacturer, the yeoman, the merchant, the country gentleman. . . .0 $n America, too, the reality behind the words of the <eclaration of $ndependence 2issued in the same year as Adam !mith(s capitalist manifesto, The Wealth of Nations3 was that a rising class of important people needed to enlist on their side enough Americans to defeat England, without disturbing too much the relations of wealth and power that had developed over 16* years of colonial history. $ndeed, 6? percent of the signers of the <eclaration of $ndependence had held colonial office under England. %hen the <eclaration of $ndependence was read, with all its flaming radical language, from the town hall balcony in #oston, it was read by Thomas +rafts, a member of the 9oyal ,ine group, conservatives who had opposed militant action against the #ritish. 'our days after the reading, the #oston +ommittee of +orrespondence ordered the townsmen to show up on the +ommon for a military draft. The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutesG the poor had to serve( This led to rioting, and shouting4 0Tyranny is Tyranny let it come from whom it may.0KpL