Our Heritage from 1776/On the Fourth of July
On the Fourth of July
By Jay Lovestone.
PRIOR to this year we communists in America called the day on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, July fourth. It occupied just the same place ideologically, politically, that July fifth, or sixth, or June thirtieth did. Until 1925 it had very little significance as a historic day for us.
This is the first time that we speak of "the Fourth of July." This day assumes a real significance for us.
We must guard against any Americanization craze. In the bourgeois sense of the word, Americanization is a very dangerous thing. In the bolshevik sense of the word, Americanization at once affords a hope for the future and practical results in the present.
To speak of Americanizing our Party in the bolshevik sense of the word, means to speak of the Party adopting tactics based on the objective conditions in America, Examination of these objective conditions will indicate that historical traditions much as they appear to the superficial observer as abstract forces, are in reality very concrete elements, very substantial phases of the objective conditions at hand and transmitted.
The American bourgeoisie have always prided themselves on saying that there are no classes in the United States, never have been, and never can be. The history of America, like the history of any other country, is the history of class struggle. The first American Revolution is a gigantic class struggle. If we scratch the surface of the historical evidence of the first American Revolution, we will find that the civil war was a class war. This Revolution grew out of conflict of economic class interests. It was not a single event; it was the climax of a series of events.
It is not my purpose to describe any battles or skirmishes or deal with the military disasters or victories of the contending forces of the first American Revolution. Such investigations are relatively unimportant for the American workers in 1925. What is timely for us at this time is to trace certain facts of the first American Revolution, to see what lessons we can draw from this tremendously significant historical event and to see how the experiences of our forefathers stack up in the light of the estimates of these experiences given by our bourgeoisie. More than that, what is most valuable for us is to compare the tactics, the practices and activities of the American masses and their leaders in 1776 with the advice now being given to the American workers by those whom they still, unfortunately in the main, recognize as leaders to-day.
Much ink is being spilled by the robed, untitled and well-paid defenders of the present system in their attacks on the opponents of the capitalist order. These apologists of the exploiting class are shouting against the revolutionists. They are yelling against a dictatorship by the proletariat. They are ranting against the use of force. The say that is foreign, that is un-American. They are yelling from the housetops against the American workers having anything to do with other workers from the different countries in their struggles against the bosses. The official historians and editors of our ruling class are working overtime propagating the idea that the present form of the American government is eternal, and that it affords the workers of this country an opportunity in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Let us examine these "eternal truths" that are hurled so gratuitously by the exploiters at the workingman.
It ill becomes the defenders of the bourgeois class which is a small minority of our population to speak of the sanctity, of the inviolability of majority rule. American democracy to-day is the most crass, tho in spots well camouflaged, expression of minority rule in the interests of a minority, at the costly expense of the vast majority of the population, in the world.
The American workers can very well draw inspiration on the question of majority and minority from the experiences of the first American Revolution. The workers and exploited farmers of this country are the overwhelming majority of this country. But in view of the fact that the capitalists who are a small minority are speaking so much against the Communist Party because it frankly says that the proletarian revolution at the outset may be initiated by a minority in the interests of the great majority, it is worth while to analyze the background of the first American Revolution for extremely valuable lessons.
At the time of the first American Revolution the Patriots (those who were against the government) were in a minority. The Loyalists (those who were for the then existing government) were numerically very strong. The conscious supporters of the government at that time were at least a third of the entire colonial population. They formed a majority in such important colonies as New York, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. It is estimated that at least 100,000 persons who were for maintaining the government existing then in America, were exiled by the revolutionists. Their property was confiscated. They were tarred and feathered and they were treated much more roughly in many respects than the Czarists who were for maintaining the old reactionary government in Russia were by the Bolsheviks. The Communists of to-day can learn many lessons from the American Revolutionists of 1776 in treatment of counter revolutionists, of Loyalists, of Tories. The noted historian, Adams, in his book "New England in the Revolution" declares that "More colonials served in the Imperial than the Revolutionary army." He further says, "If we accept the estimate that at the beginning of the war one third of the people were in favor of independence, a third of the people were opposed to it, and one third indefinite, it is evident that two thirds could not have been counted upon to sustain the Patriots' (revolutionists, those against the government) side with any ardor."
Force and Violence.
American workers have been sent to jail for defending themselves against the terrorism of the existing Tory government in the United States. Many states have passed laws which provide fer severe jail penalties, and years of imprisonment to be visited upon any worker who dares even insinuate in the most indirect manner that the workers and poor farmers have a right to defend themselves against the brutalities of their exploiters.
In this light it is interesting to recall the declaration of the Continental Congress of 1774, which so forcefully declared:
"We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated masters, or RESISTANCE BY FORCE. THE LATTER IS OUR CHOICE. We have counted the cost of the contest, and nothing is so dreadful as voluntary slavery."
No more inspiring words have been uttered for American workers by any Communist section of the world.
Let us go on to listen to one of the leaders of the American Revolution, Tom Paine. Incidentally, we should remark that Tom Paine has been much underestimated by the bourgeois historians and has been much neglected. These classic words of Tom Paine mean very much to American workers today. We should think very seriously of what Tom Paine meant when he said:
"By referring the matter (the grievances against the British ruling class) from arguments to arms, a new point for politics is struck. All plans, preparations, etc., prior to the 19th of April (the battle of Lexington), are like almanacs of last year."
Let the American workers think of Ludlow, Calumet, the Bisbee deportations, the slavery in the mining sections, the tyranny in the steel regions, in the light of thsee meaningful words of Paine.
The Form of Government
We can understand why the American capitalists today are shuddering at the word dictatorship. When they hear the word dictatorship uttered by workers they know that it means the dictatorship of the workers to supplant the present dictatorship of exploiters. When the bourgeois apologists speak of the holiness of the present form of government they try to make us believe that the people living in America have always had the same form of government, that this present form of government is immutable, that it has eternal blessings for the masses.
Our revolutionary forefathers, when they decided to destroy the domination of the British ruling class, did not put much faith in the then existing governmental institutions under which they were living. Our forefathers decided to set up their own governmental apparatus. The first thing they did was to clean out the courts, which then, as now, were the bulwark of the reactionaries, the Tories (those who were loyal to the existing government).
In a letter which Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, wrote to Lord Dartmouth, dated December 24, 1774, he gave a description of the governmental apparatus set up by the revolutionists to displace the existing government. He said:
The American revolutionists set up a very effective dictatorship to uproot all those loyal to the government of the exploiters and oppressors at that time. Anybody who did not declare himself on the side of the revolution was treated roughly. Even before the Declaration of Independence was issued, Connecticut declared that there should be no more freedom of speech for those who were loyal to the government and against the revolution. Those loyal to the government were not allowed to get together. Such privileges were accorded to them in cases where they were attending funerals, and then they were watched carefully by the committees of safety which were set up by the revolutionists. ‘Those loyal to the government were completely disarmed.
The first American revolution also set up a very effective "cheka" for weeding out Tory elements. Let us see how this "cheka" of 1776 worked in Massachusetts, the state which has given us that flower of all Americans—Coolidge.
"In Massachusetts It was provided that a meeting of the inhabitants of each town might be called, at which a strong patriot should be chosen as chairman. Any citizen present at the meeting might give him the name of anyone suspected of Tory sympathies and, if a majority present voted affirmatively, the person named was arrested and tried at the next session of court. If convicted, he was shipped as soon as possible, AT HIS OWN EXPENSE, to Europe or the West Indies."
Those refusing to accept allegiance to the revolutionary government and continuing their loyalty to the overthrown government were put into jail, kept there forty days and later deported, in many cases to some part of the British dominions. And if any of those loyal to the government returned the penalty awaiting them was: "Death without benefit of clergy."
"Foreigners" Help American Revolution.
A lot of talk is now going the rounds about "Bolshevik money," about money from other countries, to help finance the revolution in America. This is sheer nonsense. The only ones in America who have seen Bolshevik gold or gotten any money from the Soviet government are such capitalists of the type of Henry Ford. Revolutions are not created artificially. Revolutions must grow out of the objective conditions in the country. Still it is very instructive to note the role foreign money played in insuring the success of the first American revolution. The French government spent at least 25,000,000 francs in financing the American revolution, to overthrow the government existing in America in 1776. It has been said by no less an authority than Admiral Mahan that the American revolution was really won on the high seas in the naval battles between the fleets of Spain and France on one side and Great Britain on the other.
Professor Edgerton has well summed up the role of foreign governments in helping bring the first American revolution to a successful conclusion when he said: "The war had lasted long enough for clear-headed Americans to recognize the extreme difficulty of bringing it to a successful conclusion without foreign allies."
The French fleet and French soldiers had much to do with the surrender of Cornwallis (defending the existing government) to Washington, champion of the revolutionary government.
Yes, our American bourgeoisie to-day would not like to confess to the workers that it was largely thru the alliance of our American forefathers with "foreigners," largely thru the use of "foreign" money that the first revolution was a success and that a goodly portion of the foundation for the development of capitalism in the United States to its present heights was thus laid.
Cheating the Workers
The workers paid for and fought the revolutionary war.
The workers took seriously the slogan of the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. While the wealthy stayed at home, or often hired substitutes to fight for them, the workers, the mechanics, the poor farmers had to go to the front. The suffering of the soldiers at Valley Forge defies description. At the same time the rich were waxing fat on fabulous war profits. Many of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in 1776 preached radical doctrines to the workers, but these leaders failed to put these doctrines into practice except against the British ruling class. Adams summed up the situation very well when he said:
"The people had been under the delusion that they had fought an eight years' war for the rights of man and at the time of the formation of the constitution many towns objected strenuously to this further limitation of the franchise, Dorchester claimed that men might be 'useful and respectable members of society' even if they did not possess £50."
The Washingtons and the Hamiltons tried their hardest to stop the revolutionary movement from proceeding further and from altering the relationship of classes, yet it was an alteration of the class relationships in favor of the common people which was the outstanding feature of the revolutionary war propaganda.
Since the first American revolution the history of the United States has been a history of the struggles of the masses for an alteration in the class relationships.
The first phase of the American revolution was not really complete until the election of Jefferson. Jefferson, it must be remembered, was the spokesman of the workers and the poorer farmers. Hamilton, his chief opponent, was the leader of the Federalists, the big commercial interests which desired the establishment of a strongly centralized government, a national bank, higher tariff, an army, a navy, and even talked for some time of establishing an American titled aristocracy. For weeks the first senate was debating as to the title that should be given to the president and how the senators should be addressed.
The decisive vote for Jefferson in the college of electors was cast by one who served a four-month jail term for violating the sedition law passed by the Federalists against the working and farming masses.
With the victory of the North over the South in the Civil War the hegemony of the American bourgeoisie over all other classes was complete. Since the continuation of the Civil War the American capitalists have been consolidating their hold on the resources, industries and government of the United States. But since then there has also been developing a definite proletariat. The proletarianization of the United States has been increasing at an accelerating pace since 1893—the time marking roughly the disappearance of free land and the establishment of the basis for capitalist monopolist control of the basic resources of the country. The struggle waged in the first revolution must be continued by the American workers to-day. The American workers have splendid traditions to live up to. Comrade Lenin has well pointed that out some time ago. Our traditions of struggle in the first American Civil War in 1776, in the second American Civil War in 1861, in the subsequent heroic battles against the railroad capitalists, the coal kings, and the oil barons affords plenty of inspiration.
On this day marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from those who exploited our forefathers in 1776 it is time for us to think very seriously of the necessary steps to be taken for signing a new Declaration of Independence—a Declaration of Independence from our exploiters to-day.
We can proudly tread the paths beaten by our revolutionary forefathers. They can teach us much. Let us learn from them.
(Reprinted from "The Daily Worker")