Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-02-19

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Involved in every college course, and thus
was created that kind of unrest and longing
which induced Puritans and Pilgrim Faith.
ers to seek the shores of America.
Milton and Edmund Burke received their
bovhood education from the plain sect call
ed Quakers, and thus betray the fact that
there were 100 years of English history in
which the educational processes lay largely
with the hands of the common people Ed
muud Burke was an Irish boy, and it is
probable that he absorbed from his home
life more love of freedom than he extracted
from the textbooks of the old classics.
OF every political question of his day
Edmund Burke espoused the side which Of
fered the most of the divine rights of man.
He was by nature republican, and long
before Washington became visible Burke
became the champion of the colonies of
England and argued for one law and one
right under the English flag, wave where it
might. He opposed ardently the special
taxation of the American colonies. He was
consistent and irrepressible.
The constitutional law of England had
made the King more of a president than a
monarch. Edmund Burke addressed long
public letter to the King aud argued against
him upon American affairs just as though
the King were only an attorney of the otb-
er side. The letter is respectful, but it is
the letter of man to man. One sentence
from the long address to the King will re-
veal the bearing of each word and argument
of the whole.
"The grievance (of the colonies) is as
simple in its nature and as level to the most
ordinary understanding as it is werful 10
affecting the most lapguid passions-it IS
an attempt made to dispose of the uhole
property of the people aOithout their consent.
Your Msjesty's English subjects in the
colonies possessing the ordinary faculties of
aDhood know that to live under such q
plan of government is not to live in a state
of freedom. Your English subjects in the
colonies, still impressed with the feelings
of the people from whom they are derived,
can not live under government which does
not establish freedom as it's basis -
This long letter is but feeble picture of
that eloquence which Burke hurled at tho
King aud Parliament for many years.
This English political thought extended
through the Seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries as far as 1776, had deeply effected
France, and thus before Washington came
into public life triangle of liberty had been
formed, with England, France and America
triangle, the largest and most wonderful in
history. Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine,
Thomas Jefferson and others were con-
tinually moving along some one of the sides
or were declaming wisdom at some one of
the points of this figure. The whole figure
was full of one kind of contents-the rights
of man.
Whatever may have been the unpopular
ity at last of Thomas Paine because of his
opposition to Christianity, he was popular
and powerful among those who we're speak
ing and writing in the name of the common
people. Burke was born in 1880, Washing
ton in 1732, Paine in 1887, jefferson in 1743,
La Fayette ten years or more later. Thus
moved forward remarkable group of men
welded to the founding of more universal
rights.
Washington was lying in wait to become
the military leader after the orators had
made out their case before the public tri-
bunal. The first step toward revolution
is the finding and promulging of political
truth. The mind must perceive its rights
before it will draw sword. And then,
dra wing the sword is perilous resort, be-
cause the venerable institution of Kings is
often too great for young justice to over
throw. Washington was destined to bring
to his task OF fighting for what the orators
had found a temperament which made his
defeat almost impossible He was the em
bodiment of wisdom, of patience and of en-
durance-qualities which fitted him to lead
ragged troops against the soldiers of King
and to lead them for seven long years.
He had been student of freedom long
before he fought for it; but the public writ
ers had marked out the lesson which the
young Washington was to study, and the
philoso hers bad to tell the soldier when
the time had come for drawing the sword.
When Washington was called to take
charge of the Colonial troops independence
was not the prize to be won. Battles had
been fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill
to defy British taxation. 1t was hoped
that the King and his Parliament would re-
peal the special legislation which transferred
the hard earned money of America to the
banks of the old covntry. The motive of
Boston as she treated London and Manches.
ter The dream of independence had not
vet been cherished or at least announced.
An these patriots wanted liberty, but only
that quantity of liberty which belonged to
the citizens of London. In 1774 George
Washington said: enc such thing as indie
pendeDce is desired by any thinking man in
America" John Adams at the same time
wrote: "That there be any who pant after
Independence is the greatest slander +" But
in 1863 members of the Parliament had de-
clared that unless the King changed his
method of dealing with the colonies they
would revolt and be lost to the Crown
Colonel Bazze said in the House OF Com.
mons: 81 now warn Ministers that if they
persist in their wretched course of oppres
sion the whole continent of America will
rise in arms and these colonies will be lost
to England forever"
As in the recent civil war, the end was
greater than Mr.. Lincoln expected. and in.
finiiely beyond what was dreamed of by
MIR. Seward and other eminent men, SO in
the year 1775 political philosophy was a:
work whose future was hidden from all
those who have since become 80 immortal
as founders of the Republic. Each day
created it's own morrow. The revolution
came into being piece by piece, figure after
figure, like fabric woven in a loom
Thread after thread was carried across and
beaten in until at last came the figure OF
independence.
Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill John
Adams. Franklin, Rush and Washington
we're holding an informal council to confer
over a situation which seemed each day to
be growing more terrible. At this meeting
Franklin is said to have asked the question
which reappeared in 1861 on the lips OF
Horace Greeley: "What is to be the end Of
this waI?" sis it to obtain justice from
Eng land or is it to effect a change of Minis
try? or is it to soften a tax? Before the
inquiry had gone far Thomas Paine entered
the room, and, before he had been long in
the council, he said:
'These States Of America must be inde-
pendent of England"
The little group was amazed and alarm
ed, but rumor has it that Washington beg
ged Paine to publish those views to the
country. This event took place in the No
vember or December before the Declaration
of Independence.
Thus Washington, the soldier, was car
ried along by group of deep thinkers, and
if the "pen was mightier than the sword
it was 80 because 1t told the sword when and
where to strike. One thing is most GER
tain, that all those pens, from that of John
Milton to that of Burke and Jefferson. COM