Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1898-08-26
WHY AMERICA REBEIIen
Senator Lodges View of the Cana. Co.
the Revolution,

senator Lodges View of the Cause fo.
the Revolution.
Senator Lodges STORY of the Ravo
luton" Is now running in Scribper,s
America rebelled, he says, not becansa
the colonies We're oppressed. but ho,
cause their inhabitants were the fraos.
people then in the world, and did NOT
mean to suffer oppression. They did
not enter upon resistance to England
to redress intolerable grievances I'm,
because they saw policy adopted
which they rightly believed Threatened
the freedom they possessed. AS Burke
said, they judged 1.-The pressure of the
grievances by the badness of the nrin.
ciple," and "snuffed the approach ~
tyranny in every tainted breeze" Thew
were the most dangerous people in the
world to NEEDLE with, because thew
were ready to fight, not to ayenpe
wrongs which indeed they had not suf.
fered, but to maintain principles on
which their rights and liberty rested
The English Ministry had begun to as.
sail those principles; they were max.
ing clumsy and hesitating attempts to
take money from the colonies without
leave of the people; and George, in a
belated way, was trying to be king
and revive an image of the dead and
gone personal monarchy of Charles |.
Hence came resistance, very acute in
one colony, shared more or less by all.
Hence the Congress in PHILADELPHIA
and the great popular movement start
ing as il inevitably in that quiet colon.
! ial town among the freest portion OF
the liberty-loving English race. AS to
the profound significance of the first
colonial Congress he says: ITO the
courts of Europe, engaged at the mo-
ment in meaningless intrigues, either
foreign or domestic, and all alike
grown quite dim now, the colonial Con-
gress was not even obscure, it was not
visible at ALL Yet, thoughtfully re-
garded, it deserved consideration much
better than anything which just then
engaged the attention of Europe. Fiji.
teen years later its utterances were to
be quoted as authority and its exam.
pies emulated in Paris when an an
cient monarchy was tattering to its
IL was ellS Sldl vi IL great move
ment which was to sweep on until
checked at Waterloo. This same move
ment was to begin its march again in
1880 In the streets Of Paris and carry
the reform of the British Parliament
two years later. 1t was to break forth
once more in 1S4S and keep steadily on
advancing and conquering, although
It's work is still incomplete even among
the nations of Western civilization.
Yet. no one in Europe needed it at the
moment, and they failed to see that 1t
meant not simply colonial quarrel,
not merely the coming of new nation.
but the rising Of the people to take
their share in the governments of the
earth. 1t was in fact the first step in
the great democratic movement which
has made history ever since. The great
columns were even then beginning to
move, and the beat of the drums could
be heard family in the quiet Fhiladel-
phia streets. They were still distant.
but they were ever drawing nearer and
their roll was rising louder and louder,
until at last they sounded in the ears
of men from Concord bridge to Mos.
cow"