America’s Founders — And Our Lockdown
America’s Founders — And Our Lockdown
How would they respond today?
By Jack Kerwick
For as long as anyone reading this has been alive, the Constitutional liberties that America’s Founders and Framers bequeathed to their posterity (i.e. you and me) have been continuously eroded.
But the events of 2020, the Internment of America and the rampant lawlessness and criminality in the streets, have expedited this erosive trend with lightning speed.
Recently, upon completing a training session with Art Reynolds, an instructor of the combat art of Warrior Flow, I conversed a bit with Art and some other students about current events. While doing so, we speculated among ourselves as to how America’s Founding Fathers—you know, the men who waged a war to secede from the most powerful empire in the world at that time and declare their independence as a sovereign, liberty-loving people—would respond had they been in our shoes today.
What would the Founders do?
That the Constitutional Republic that the Founders forged through the shedding of blood, both their own and that of those whom they regarded as their oppressors, is under incessant attack is a proposition to which no remotely honest conservative or libertarian can even think to take exception. The very existence of the so-called “alternative media,” i.e. conservative and libertarian media, depends almost exclusively upon account after horrifying account of largely left-wing violations of cherished American rights, duties, and prerogatives.
And most of these same conservative and libertarian commentators seem to agree that the Constitution’s enemies have upped their game in 2020:
The reduction of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to, essentially, an internment camp; the naked, unabashed power-grabbing of fiercely partisan, shamelessly dishonest governors and mayors at the cost of systematic violations of the Constitution; the mass creation and dissemination of lies and propaganda by self-proclaimed “journalists” for the sake of aiding and abetting their fellow ideologues in Congress and our intelligence agencies in their quest to achieve a coup of a duly elected president; the overt violence of anti-American radicals who have not only been permitted to run amok in the streets of numerous cities, but whose violence against innocents has been actively encouraged by Democrat politicians and their collaborators in the Fake News industry; the growing chorus to abolish police departments nationwide; and the persecution and prosecution of law-abiding citizens who dared to defend themselves against the predations of criminals—all of these outrages have been visited upon the American people, and visited by design.
What would the Founders do?
This is the question. Americans, particularly conservatives and libertarians, routinely express both appreciation and reverence for the country’s Founding generation. Yet to truly honor and conserve their legacy—the Constitutional Republic that they created—it is imperative that, regarding the specific challenges that it confronts, every generation ask itself this.
To get an idea as to how the Founders themselves may reply to this question, we need only turn to what they themselves said on the eve of and during their war with England.
George Washington:
“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war.”
“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.”
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”
“Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world…Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
What would the Founders do?
Thomas Jefferson:
“In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.”
“In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it. For the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.”
“A single good government becomes…a blessing to the whole earth…But should even this be counteracted by violence…the other branch of our example then presents itself for imitation: to rise on their rulers and do as we have done.”
“And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts…The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
What would the Founders do?
Patrick Henry:
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”
“Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who comes near that precious jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined.”
“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?”
“The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.”
What would the Founders do?
Thomas Paine:
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my children may have peace.”
“These are the times that try men’s souls…Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
What would the Founders do?
John Adams:
“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”
What would the Founders do?
Benjamin Franklin:
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
What would the Founders do?
John Paul Jones:
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
What would the Founders do?
John Parker:
“Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
What would the Founders do?
Joseph Warren:
“Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit—appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free.”
What would the Founders do?
Israel Putnam:
“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes! Then fire low!”
What would the Founders do?
We now have an answer to our question. Of course, it was there all along. The Founders speak to us today.
We need only marshal the will to listen to them.