The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-22

teDellOn against the rule OF Britain
because of their love of equality and
liberty and their hatred of tyranny
and oppression. Nothing is farther
from the truth.
In the first place, only small per-
ton of the settlers in the Colonies
took an active part in and for the
revolution. Large sections remained
1 passive thruout all the years of
struggle, or sided with whichever
group had the upper hand for the
moment. Fully $4,000 colonists were
enlisted and fought against the revo-
luton under the banner Of King
George.
John Adams, one Of the outstand-
ing figures from the very start on
the side of those fighting for indie
pcndence, wrote that New York and
Pennsylvania were so nearly divided,
I if their propensity was not against
us, that if New England on the one
side and Virginia on the other had
not kept them in awe, they would
have joined the British" On another
occasion he wlote, "On nature delib-
GRAFTON conclude that more than
cne-third of the influential charac-
ters were against it (the revolu-
tion}."
Large Numbers Of co,cnists were
forced into the war much against
their own desires. Our intrepid
fathers" If the revolution knew how
/ to apply pressure and resort to force
full means in order to gam support
ers for their cause when oral and
written arguments and persuasion
failed. Fisher, IN MS "True History
of the American Rev olution" says:
"Mcn we ridden and tossed on fence
rails; were gagged and bound for
days at time; pelted with stones;
fastened in rooms where there was
fire with the chimney stopped on
top. advertised as public enemies, so
that they would be cut off from all
/ dealing with their neighbors. They
had bullets shot into their bedrooms;
money or valuable plate extorted to
save them from violence Their
houses and ships were burned they
wer compelled to paw the guards who
watched them in their houses; and
when carted about for the mob to
stare at and abuse they were COM
PEELED to pay something at every
town"
Truly, the Ku Kluxers and 100%eers
of TODAY. with their methods of VIC
lence and intimidation live true to
the forms exhibited by their fore
fathers of $50 years ago.
The revolutionary army was a
ragged lot. True, the rank and file
fought and suffered with dauntless
courage, but many Of them became
discouraged with the corruption
which existed among officers and the
shopkeeping elements which supplied
/ them with the necessities for carry
ing on the struggle. Desertions grew
at an alarming pace. Hart, the well
known historian, tells us that one of
the methods used to keep discipline
among the troops was to give the
offending soldiers 100 lashes or more
on the naked back. The whip, which
was usually formed of several knot
ted cords, cut thru the skin at every
stroke. Sometimes they were pun
ished at several different times,
certain number Of stripes repeated
at intervals of two or three days, in
which case the wounds are in state
of inflammation, and the skin rem
dered more sessibly tender; and the
terror of the punished is greatly ag-
gravated."
The chief enterprises in Puritanical
New England of pre-revolutionary
days We're smuggling, the trade in
rum. and bringing slaves from Africa
or the West Indies to the Colonies.
Business never feared adverse COM
ment from religion. Even the preach
ers who were loudest in their damna-
ton of sinners would invest their
savings in these lucrative undertake
ings whenever they could do so.
We need not wonder that smugglers,
rum and slave traders, were strong
for independence from the mother
country, which sought to stamp out
the smuggling, and imposed heavy
taxes upon the rum and slave traders.
McMaster, one of the ablest Ameri-
can historians, says, eff the infamy
of holding slaves belongs to the
South, the greater infamy of supply
ing slaves must be shared by Eng
land and the North. While the states
were yet colonies, to buy Negroes
and sell them into slavery became
source of profit to the inhabitants
Of many New England towns !. :.
Molasses brought from Jamaica was
turned to rum; the rum dispatched
to Africa bought Negroes; the Ne
groes, carried to Jamaica or the
Southern ports, were exchanged for
molasses, which, in turn, taken back
to New England, was quickly made
into rum"
That the business was profitable
cannot be doubted. "The distilleries
/ y n A