The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-07-02
Working-class History; Some Sup
pressed Facts.

ally declare themselves to be outlaws
and revolutionists on the eve of July
4th, 1875? Were not all semblances
of "law and order" thrown aside and
the property of their lawful king
destroyed by force and violence?
Henceforth the exploiting capitalists
of America were to exercise a monop-
oily on the wealth-producing forces of
the colonial wage-slaves, indentured
servants and chattel slaves, north
and south. English capitalists had
all along sought to appropriate sole
" for themselves the wealth created
by the workers of the new country.
But the manufacturing, trading and
plantation class of the Atlantic Coast
had mapped out America as a coun-
try to be exploited solely for their
own benefit, not for the enrichment
of capitalists of the old country.
This is how the trouble began which
led to the drafting of the high-sound-
ing document known as the "Declara-
ton of independence" 1t was not
written primarily for the purpose
of enunciating the lofty political idea
of the natural right of a people to say
how they shall be governed. The
very creditor class whose agents enun-
ciated this beautiful conception had
already and all along been trying to
the back country form of govern
ment which they did not and would
not consent to. The merchants and
smugglers of the coast did all in their
power to place restrictions on the sale
of land, and insisted on heavy taxa
ton and metal currency; while, on
the other hand, the useful and hard
working pioneers of the interior, the
real fathers" of the country, desired
free land, low taxes and paper money.
Sometimes" says Simons, this strug-
gle between the back country and the
'Bacon's REBELLION in Virginia, and
Leislers in New York. But the pow
ers of the government were in the
hands of the coast and these early
rebellions were soon crushed. The
commercial and plantation classes of
the sea-board reigned supreme"
Contest for Robbery of Workers.
The English ruling class was at
tempting to rob both of these Amer
lean classes of their opportunities,
by seeking to limit settlement to sea-
coast, since so long as the colonies
the Atlantic sea-board they must con-
tinue to depend upon the mother
country for the things whereof they
had need, and which the English
grafters would not allow them to
manufacture for themselves, More
over" to quote Simons again, set
Element interfered with the fur trade
in which English capitalists were
heavily interested. But a large por
ton of the Fathers of Our Country
were interested in western specula
ton Washington had used his posi-
ton as Royal surveyor to illegally
survey lands outside the royal grant;
while Benjamin Franklin, Alexander
Hamilton and Robert Morris were
land spectators on a large scale
"In spite of these causes for dis
satisfaction among the ruling class
it was difficult to arouse the great
masses of the people who, indeed,
had no particular reason for rebel
lion, since their condition was about
the same whether king or president
ruled over the country. Indeed, it
is agreed by the best authorities that
at the outbreak of the revolution only
a minority were in favor of rebellion,
and that at no time save at the very
close of the war was there a majority
which really cared about independ-
ence. But social progress demanded
Independence. The interests of this
minority accorded with the forces of
social evolution. Therefore they were
united, coherent, class-conscious, and
Won
Condition of the Working Glass Under
Independence"
when the war came on, however,
it was the laborers who did the fight
ing, as they have in all the wars be-
fore or since the revolution. When
they had at last gained the victory
after having shed their blood and suf
fered untold miseries from Lexington
and Valley Forge to Yorktown, they
found, as the fighters of all other
wars have found, that the triumphs
gained were not to be shared.