Read What they Said!!!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Freedom! self reliance : One Thread

Our Public Schooling system has insisted that in order to learn about history, we should all read what some college professor says about history and accept it as fact. Please visit this site and read at least the first chapter of Thomas Paine's book "The American Crisis". This book which he wrote about the Revolutionary War, in which he fought, will tell you more about the roots of America than fifty college textbooks. I will be discussing portions of this writing soon. Please also take some time to read the other historical writings here. Much is available for learning, if we only realize that our education merely began with school. You can find this wonderful book here: http://www.dit.is/usa/ If it doesn't take you to the right page look under documents. So much information pertinent to this society we live in is in this simple document. See if you don't see today's America in Thomas Paine's.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littleBit@compworldnet.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

Here is another place to read what they said. http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/19th/docs.html

God Bless you all and God bless America

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littleBit@compworldnet.com), August 22, 2001.


Hey Lil Bit, I know that when I was in school I was taught revisionist History. It really irks me. I can only imagine how much worse it has become.

Read the Federalist Papers, and some of the founding fathers diaries and you will have a very thourough understanding of the fraud that has been committed in the guise of the "general welfare" clause. There are also some diaries of less famous folks that are out there and it gives a really good overview of the mindset, and desires of the time.

In all seriousness, it's really over. All that remains to happen is a last stand by those inclined to do so. The courts are so corrupt, the leaders are more corrupt, it has become worse than what the original Revolution was spawned by. It's now almost routine for police to raid houses and kill people and then go "oops", it was the wrong house, and the courts have ruled that you can be stopped for just being on the road (that you pay for) and detained and searched without due process..at the officers discretion, don't ya know. Juries, the most powerful group in the nation, have no idea what their position holds and allow the judge to tell them how to interpret the law and in essence determine the outcome. And on and on and on and on ad infinitum.

I'm afraid that nothing will wake people from their sleep. If you aren't awake now.....the ceiling will fall on your head before you realize the house is a raging inferno.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), August 23, 2001.


Although I agree that our in our time many are deceived, they were in Thomas' time too. And here we have our first paragraphs for discussion. Let us see if in these words of history we can ferret out the truth.

From Thomas Paine's "The American Crisis" [ THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own[1]; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he. ]

Do you see America here, Folks? Are we not under such a system ourselves? Tyranny is not easily conquered. Are we not bound in a way that should be God's and God's alone? I, like Thomas believe that God does still govern the affairs of men. The problem with the US today is the slaves of today refuse to see their slavery much like the Tories of Paine's old time. Britain didn't use the right methods of pacification on the colonies. They weren't convincing enough in their promises of chicken on every table, and an ox on every farm. Or is it possible that there was a tangible difference between the man of Paines time and the "men" of our time? Is it possible that there are even more Tories today than there ever were in Paine's time? Here is what Paine thought of the traitors living in fear in his day:

[I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.]

Ahh yes we live in an age where fear governs the Man. We live in a time when the Tories have replaced the real men of our time. I ask, At what price, peace? Where are the guardians of our republic???

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littleBit@compworldnet.com), August 23, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ