People: American identity
was not founded on the GOP Lie that white British Subjects living in the
American Colonies were “taxed enough already” and rose up and dumped tea in
Boston Harbor and crafted a Declaration of Independence and a U.S. Constitution
in support of vulture capitalism.
It makes me sick to watch the GOP co-opt Real American
Patriots while espousing their hatred for their democratic experiment. The real Tea Party, The Sons of Liberty,
estimated to be founded in 1765, was not protesting against paying taxes or against
paying too much in taxes ~ they were protesting against being taxed without representation!
Quite a different story than what the haters spew.
Real American Patriots were a mix of public statesmen and private
managers of the rank and file fighting to create a more perfect union ~ not government haters fighting to deny the existence of it as sovereign citizen-like
talking Clive Bundy and his minions are … declaring U.S. Federal Courts foreign,
declaring Nevada a sovereign state and declaring a range war against the nation.
In fact, Real American Patriots drew on the diversity of
their time and place to craft that literary piece of work The Declaration of
Independence and that masterful piece of work The U.S. Constitution. And, the
Iroquois, primarily through their relationship with Ben Franklin, played a key
role in the creation of the United States as a federal union guaranteeing its
citizens a voice and well-being…
“The Iroquoian system, expressed through its constitution,
"The Great Law of Peace," rested on assumptions foreign to the
monarchies of Europe: it regarded leaders as servants of the people, rather
than their masters... The Iroquois’ law and custom upheld freedom of expression
in political and religious matter... It provided for political participation by
women and the relatively equitable distribution of wealth. These distinctly democratic
tendencies sound familiar in light of subsequent American political history –
yet few people today (other than American Indians and students of their heritage)
know that a republic existed on our soil before anyone here had ever heard of
John Locke, or Cato, the Magna Charta, Rousseau, Franklin, or Jefferson…To
Jefferson, as well as Franklin, the Indians had what the colonists wanted:
societies free of oppression and class stratification.”
Ironically, the Iroquois (non-angry-non-whites) demanded the
Colonies (non-angry-whites) form a union so they could work together. They
found 13 separate entities (sovereign entities) too complicated to work with
efficiently and trade regulation. Quite amusing
when one thinks about all of that angry, white, sovereign testosterone flying
around Clive’s place as if they are just so damn superior…
A little background…
The Crown wanted the Iroquoian confederation in their camp
to fight French creep.
“In order to cement the alliance, the British sent Colonial
envoys, one of whom was Benjamin Franklin, to the frontier and beyond. This
decision helped win North America for the British -- but only for a time. In
the end, it still cost them as the Colonial delegates passed more than wampum
over the council fires of the treaty summits. They also came home with an
appetite for natural rights --life, liberty, and happiness -- that they saw
operating on the other side of the frontier. These observations would help mold
the political life of the colonies…
By the early 1750s, Franklin was an Indian
commissioner. His attention to Indian
affairs grew in tandem with his advocacy of a federal union of the colonies.
Franklin’s writings indicate that as he became more deeply involved with the Iroquois
and other Indian peoples, he picked up ideas from them concerning not only federalism,
but concepts of natural rights, the nature of society and man’s place in it,
the role of property in society, and other intellectual constructs that would
be called into service by Franklin as he and other American revolutionaries
shaped an official ideology for the new United States.
As early as 1750, Franklin recognized that the economic and
political interests of the British colonies were diverging from those of
England and he began to think of forms of political confederation that might
suit a dozen distinct, often mutually suspicious, political entities. A federal
structure such as the Iroquois Confederacy, which left each state in the union
to manage its own internal affairs and charged the confederate government with
prosecuting common, external matters, must have served as an expedient, as well
as appealing, example. As Franklin began to express his thoughts on political
and military union of the colonies, he was already attempting to tie them
together culturally, through the establishment of a postal system and the
American Philosophical Society, which drew to Philadelphia the premier
Euro-American scholars of his day.
The London Board of Trade wrote to the New York provincial
government September 18, 1753, directing all the colonies that had dealings
with the Iroquois to join in "one general Treaty to be made in his
Majesty’s name." It was a move that began, in effect, to bring about the
unified management of Indian affairs that Colden, Kennedy, Franklin, and the
Iroquois had requested. Franklin was
appointed to represent Pennsylvania at the Albany congress in 1754.
Franklin had drawn up a draft of "Short Hints Toward a
Scheme for Uniting the Northern Colonies.” His final draft was commissioned two
weeks to the day after his newspaper published the "Join or Die"
cartoon, a forceful statement in favor of Colonial union.
The Albany Plan of Union gained Franklin general recognition
in the colonies as an advocate of Colonial union. The plan also earned Franklin
a position among the originators of the federalist system of government that
came to characterize the United States political system. According to Clinton
Rossiter, "Franklin made rich contributions to the theory and practice of
federalism . . . he was far ahead of the men around him in abandoning
provincialism.
While the Iroquois and Franklin were ready for a Colonial
union, the legislatures of the colonies were not. Following its passage by the
Albany congress on July 10, 1754, Franklin’s plan died in the Colonial
legislatures … Franklin showed his dismay at the inability of the colonies to
act together when he said that ‘the councils of the savages proceeded with
better order than the British Parliament.’
Franklin’s plan was also rejected by the Crown, but for
reasons different from those of the Colonial legislatures. To the British, the
plan was too democratic. … The separate
Colonial governments and the Crown had, in effect, vetoed the plan of the
Albany commissioners -- a veto beyond which there could be no appeal.
Nonetheless, the work of the congress was not in vain.”
Approximately 20 years later, the colonists took Franklin’s advice
~ hang together or hang separately! (Paraphrased) He brought the Albany plan to
the table and the process of negotiations and compromises began behind closed
doors. It would end in the formation of the United States of America, per a
federal confederation of Native American Nations.
The rest is history,
as someone once said, and as we forever strive to create a more perfect union a
wise People would disregard the government haters twisted claims of Patriotism and
take the time to read some of our founding history, much of the basis of which can
be found in the “Great Law of Peace,” and proceed from there to vote the haters
out in November!
Let me leave you with a highly relevant snippet of a quote from Forgotten Fathers:
…America can be revived, rejuvenated, by recognizing a Native School of
thought.
-- Chief Luther
Standing Bear ~ Lakota (Sioux) ~ Land of the Spotted Eagle
G. aka Partisan Democrat
Special thanks is extended to Bruce E. Johansen , author of Forgotten Fathers for his dissertation work on the topic and for
his offering of the book for free online! http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FF.html
and to Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net-aa300) Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NTN for his preparation of the Iroquois Constitution.
Others sources of information include:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/15/Standoff-at-Nevada-Ranch-Americas-Ready-to-Resist
Brava! Thank you, for this article on the United States history. Sharing it across social media platforms.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Laurel. Your opinion means a lot to me! And, of course, I appreciate the sharing...
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