Originally posted by The Old American
reply to post by Misoir

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The point of this thread is not the American Revolution per se. While we can, 230 years later and sitting at our computer desk drinking Dr. Thunder, think it was just, good, self-serving, or greedy, all of that is irrelevant. The tone of your post can be compared to the treatment of soldiers returning from Vietnam. The Vietnam war was self-serving and evil. But the soldiers were following orders. Even men returning that had never fired a shot were called "baby killer" and "warmonger". People couldn't separate the man from the war.

But the men that fought in the Revolution thought it was worth leaving their family and homesteads to fight for. The men themselves should be held up as examples of ultimate sacrifice. They either win independence from tyrannical rule, or die. There was no middle ground here, they knew it, and stood in the fire anyway. These men can be held above the cause. Their motive was not greed, fame, or personal prosperity. Every man that took up arms against England in that greatest of wars did it for nothing more than an idea, an idea of a new nation not ruled by a tyrant, but ruled by man and law. And, in gaining that, earning freedom and liberty.

How many Americans today are taking up arms against a tyrant? Myself, ashamedly included, have not stepped forth to "water the tree of liberty". These men did, and they are heroes for it.

/TOA

Originally posted by Misoir
I do not want to come off as the cold cynic here but unfortunately that is what I must. While these men deserve the utmost respect for fighting ferociously towards a cause they believed was just, moral, and righteous and since I would never dream of trying to take anything away from heroes of war please do not let my following post be categorized as any sort of attack on these men personally.

For all those here who look back on the American Revolution in awe as though it was the ultimate triumph of good over evil there is something you really must see. While most of us (I hope) had read at least most of the Declaration of Independence only a handful of us actually read the counter-argument provided by the Governor of Massachusetts during this period. He witnessed the Revolution as he lived through it and did not have positive things to say. In his attack on the Declaration of Independence he pointed out step-by-step what he saw as the absolute hypocrisy, deceit, and power-grab by these men who met in Philadelphia.

I’m only going to give you the information and let you decide for yourself how to interpret it.

oll.libertyfund.org...