The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-07-02

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Lafayette a Naughty Aristocrat.
Similar mental reservations must
also be made in regard to the for
eign gentlemen who were so filled
with enthusiasm for American lib
erty," according to the historians, that
they gave up honors and wealth in
Europe and fastened across the ocean
to spill their genteel blood for the
! liberation of the American people,
without any assurance of reward. La
| fayette, the French lover of liberty
and democracy" was a naughty arts
tocrat of the most exclusive preten-
sions, and cared so little for the lib
erty of the people that he was one Of
the first to shoot them down when
they rose in the French revolution a
| few years later. Steuben, another sup
posed lover of liberty, was one Of the
despotic and overbearing drillmasters
of Frederick the Great, and was en-
gagged by Washington for the purpose
of instilling more discipline and re-
spect for superiors" into the refrac-
tory heads of the American soldiers.
Do you suppose for a moment that
such men as these had any sympathy
with a popular revolution? No. The
phrases of liberty in their mouths
were simply inspired by their hatred
of the English business gentlemen.
This hatred was shared by the Amer
lean business gentlemen, and this
was the secret source of their mutual
protestations of love for the liberty
of the American people.
Masses Not Interested in Revolution.
The great mass of the inhabitants
of the American colonies had no con-
Germ in the wrongs which drove this
gentry to revolt against England.
The American colonists were not
at all enthusiastic to chase one set of
masters out of the country in order
to install a homegrown set. At no
time during the revolution was there
any such widespread enthusiasm for
war as the historians would have us
believe. The fact is. the various
states were never able to get their
full quota of volunteers, and congress
was more than once considering the
advisability of ordering a forced
draft While the American army was
starving at Valley Forge, the farmers
of Pennsylvania refused to furnish
them provisions, because the English
army in Philadelphia paid better
prices. Congress was furious about
this. and it was urged by several
members to compel farmers to fur
nish provisions for the army of the
revolution. Martial law was actually
declared in Pennsylvania for the pur-
pose Of securing supplies. They pro-
ceeded on exactly the same principles
toward the revolutionary gentlemen
that these gentlemen observed
against the farmers and the rest of
the working people.
Feared an American Revolution.
It is fact which all the historians
have persistently suppressed that the
revolutionary gentlemen were con-
stantly afraid that their revolution
might suddenly become an "Ameri-
can revolution" in the sense that the
American working people might at
any time turn against all gentlemen,
whether English or American, and
chase them all out of the country.
That is one OF the reasons why the
colonial army was permeated with
foreign gentlemen. And when the
American people really rose in rebel
lion against the American gentlemen.
as they did in Shay's rebellion in 1856,
or in the whisky rebellion in 1894.
they were promptly suppressed by
those soldiers Of the revolution who
attempted to frighten the members of
congress into paying them their long
due wages. Washington joined in
calling them an "insolent, and icenti-
Gus soldiery, banditti, a disgrace to
the army" etc, and sent a strong de.
tachment Of soldiers to capture and
court-martial them. And the alien
and sedition laws, although protested
ly aimed at foreigners, were practi-
caily an attempt to suppress free
speech and free press, which might
oppose the aristocratic tendencies of
the majority Of congress.
Workers Get Short End.
In all this struggle of the classes
in colonial days, the workers. those
who made up the fighting forces, got