Читать книгу THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY - Steve Zolno - Страница 19

During this period most of the world began to throw off old prejudices and beliefs that had slowed much of the progress of human knowledge, beginning with the West. This led to continual new insights based on observation and exploration. The theories of Copernicus, around 1514, and the examination of the cosmos by Galileo by telescope 100 years later, although suppressed by the Inquisition, broke the news that the earth – and thus humanity – no longer was the center of the universe.

Human dignity became a greater consideration in philosophy, religion, and the creation of governments. There was a trend toward more democratic principles that recognized the potential of people to self-govern, and treated them less as perpetual children incapable of governing themselves.

As Aristotle had speculated in his Politics (c 335 BCE): “The soul has naturally two elements, a ruling and a ruled; and each of these has a different virtue, one belonging to the rational and ruling element, the other to the irrational and subject element.”¹⁶⁸ As our rational minds slowly opened to gaining new insights about the world we still managed to keep our minds closed – for the most part – to people we decided were different from us in belief or background. This led to the greatest amount of persecutions and deaths by war and genocide in history, despite our increasing belief in ourselves as rational beings. During the last century of the Second Millennium, our rational self went to the moon and back, while our irrational self remained in the Dark Ages.

Advancing technologies pointed the way to a better life for the average person, yet technology also was used to create a new level of destructiveness that superseded the greatest cataclysms of the past. It provided a means for us to impose an unprecedented wave of inhumanity upon ourselves.

After the early 1500s there was a considerable increase in agricultural production in Europe due to clearing more land for production and the introduction of buckwheat and maize from Mexico, which created more reliable crops and lessened incidents of poor harvests that would cause mass starvation.¹⁶⁹

The Protestant Reformation began in Germany in 1517 with an attack on the corruptions of the Church by Martin Luther, whose pamphlets were aided by wide distribution resulting from the printing press. Afterwards there would be devastating wars between Catholics and Protestants throughout Europe for five hundred years. The gap between royalty and commoners also grew during this period exemplified by, for example, the Chateau of Chambord built on the Loire by Henri II and Catherine de Medici with 440 rooms. At the peak of the struggle between the Catholic monarchs and Protestants (called Huguenots in France), Catherine ordered the Saint Bartholomew’s Eve Massacre in 1572 in which 25,000 Protestants were killed throughout the country.

Catherine’s son Henri IV ruled France with a firm hand from 1589, but with an eye and ear for what would benefit all economic levels of the country’s population. He promoted religious tolerance, art, crafts, agriculture and manufacturing, constructed roads and bridges, and remodeled Paris for the enjoyment of his subjects by building public squares, such as the Place de Vosges.¹⁷⁰ He issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598 providing greater freedoms for Protestants.¹⁷¹

The Reformation that began under Luther spread throughout Northern Europe as more people could read what the Bible said for themselves. This contributed to a growing concept that people had a right to come to their own beliefs and no longer needed to depend on the Church for their religious ideas. Luther’s writings backed the doctrine of “justification by faith,” as opposed to “justification by works.”¹⁷²

In England, King Henry VIII, who desired a male heir, sought a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, which was denied by the Pope. Henry then attacked the Church and confiscated its property. The Act of Supremacy, passed in 1534, ended papal authority in England, making the King the head of the English Church. He executed any churchmen standing in his way, including Thomas More, author of Utopia, who eventually became a Catholic saint. Henry’s second wife, Ann Boleyn, had already given birth to Elizabeth, the future Queen, in 1533, but Henry divorced and executed her as he continued to seek a male heir, working his way through six wives, including Jane Seymour, who died soon after bearing the son he so greatly wanted.¹⁷³ Edward VI assumed the throne at age seven but died at fifteen.

What many consider the “Golden Age” of England began under Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, who was crowned Queen of England in 1558, at the age of 25. The Catholic bishops claimed that Elizabeth was not qualified to rule due to being a Protestant, and of questionable birth. Nonetheless, she sought to walk the fine line of religious tolerance and became perhaps the most popular of all British monarchs. She never married, but had four successive “favorites.”

In the early 1600s the Stuarts pushed the rule of law in England back precipitously. The country became more authoritarian and corrupt as these monarchs insisted on the divine right of kings. The purchase of offices – which was common on the continent – threatened to overthrow the democratic direction of the country. Charles I used the court system to go after his own enemies. He tried to impose English religious liturgy on Scotland in 1637 which led to war.¹⁷⁴ He dissolved Parliament in 1629 in a dispute over religious issues and the raising of taxes. This led to a decade-long civil war that resulted in Charles’ beheading. Abuses of power under the “Protectorate” of Oliver Cromwell that followed led to the Restoration under Charles II in 1660. But his pro-Catholic sympathies – in a land that was primarily Protestant – resulted in the Glorious Revolution and the installment of William of Orange as king in 1689.¹⁷⁵

An equitable system for taxes was established under the Glorious Revolution. Although taxes increased, they were seen by the English public as being required to fund two expensive wars with France and Spain. But the increase in taxes did not stifle the English economy, instead war may have contributed to an expansion. Wars required taxation and organization and therefore tended to make the state stronger. By the nineteenth century a few of England’s neighbors in Northern Europe also created similar tax systems that stimulated their economies.¹⁷⁶ Thus taxes, even in those times, became a way to enable the government to make purchases that create employment and benefit all levels of society.

One possible reason for the relative stability of England was that, in comparison with its neighbors, it was somewhat isolated. Although it was vulnerable to attacks from the Continent and Scandinavian tribes through much of its history, the fact that it is an island encouraged the English to think of themselves as a unified whole earlier than the rest of Europe.

The essays of Michel de Montaigne had a humanizing influence on science and education in France.¹⁷⁷ In his “Essay on the Education of Children” he proposed that learning the skills most needed in life should precede training in specific disciplines: “After having taught him what will make him more wise and good, you may then entertain him with the elements of logic, physics, geometry, rhetoric, and the science which he shall then himself most incline to, his judgment being beforehand formed and fit to choose, he will quickly make his own.” Rene Descartes brought about a revolution in thought by emphasizing the responsibility of the individual in determining her or his views, rather than depending on the Church to define one’s role. His famous statement: “I think, therefore I am,” first appeared in 1637 in his Discourse on Method.¹⁷⁸

In 1513, Niccolo Machiavelli published The Prince. Despite Machiavelli’s reputation as a backer of tyranny, his advice often was positive. For example, his recommendations include: “A prince should also demonstrate that he supports talent by supporting men of ability and by honoring those who excel in each craft.”¹⁷⁹

In the early 1500s Spain, under Charles V, had the largest empire in the world. Despite a considerable influx of gold from the New World, expenses greatly outstripped income due to wars with countries throughout Europe. Charles forced tax increases through the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament. An uprising ensued which further weakened the government.¹⁸⁰ Under Philip II, who became King in 1556, and his successors, Spain’s dominance faded during the remainder of the century, punctuated by the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by England, which ruled the seas and trade routes thereafter. His persecution of minority regions and religions and his backing of the Inquisition caused rebellion and general discontent.¹⁸¹

Spain expanded its influence into the New World with Cortes destroying the Aztec empire in Mexico in 1521 and Pizarro devastating the Incas in Peru in 1533. In Bolivia and Mexico, Spanish rulers lived off the extracts from the mines which were worked by indigenous tribes that essentially were slaves.¹⁸² Upon the death from smallpox of thousands of natives who were expected to be used as forced laborers, the colonial economy collapsed and the Spaniards began importing slaves from Africa.¹⁸³ After the settlement of Mexico, Spain continued exploring and settling northward into what is now California, Arizona, and Colorado. The Portuguese overcame the Dutch to settle Brazil. Russia established settlements in Alaska and as far south as Fort Ross in California¹⁸⁴

The World of Wine

Mexico was the first country in Latin America to produce wine after Cortes sent for grape cuttings from Spain in 1522. The biggest Latin American producer now is Argentina, followed by Chile and Brazil. Wine also is produced in Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Argentina’s Mendoza region may be the most famous wine producing area in South America. It also is a popular tourist destination, with the snow-capped mountain chain of the Andes in the background. It is known for its Malbec wine, well-priced and popular throughout the world and its Cabernet Sauvignon, both of which have their origins in Southwest France. Argentine wines are generally attractive and usually ready to drink when relatively young. Wine, Pages 840-42.

When Peter, who became known as “the Great,” assumed the Russian throne in 1672, he moved the capitol to Saint Petersburg and imposed modern innovations. He also drafted the entire aristocracy into lifelong service in the army. In exchange for military service, the nobles were exempted from taxes and given land grants. Peter also was known for his enthusiastic torture of his enemies.¹⁸⁵ Many Russian nobles owned large numbers of serfs, thousands in some cases. Peter’s autocratic methods, however, made it impossible for Russia to operate effectively after his death due to a lack of trained administrators who could make independent decisions.¹⁸⁶

Catherine, also known as “the Great,” assumed the Russian throne in 1762. A friend and correspondent of Voltaire, she expanded Peter’s building program but brought further suppression on the serfs, particularly after the French Revolution of 1789.¹⁸⁷ She continued the Russian expansion in the direction of Sweden-Finland and Poland-Lithuania.¹⁸⁸ Her grandson, Alexander I, flirted with the idea of a constitutional monarchy and led Russia in its successful repulsion of Napoleon in 1812, which left 600,000 men to die in the snow after the unsuccessful siege of Moscow.¹⁸⁹ Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs, but was assassinated in 1881, which drove the Russian monarchy to establish yet greater repressions.¹⁹⁰

The first settlements in North America were in Montreal under Jacques Cartier of France in 1536, and Saint Augustine by Pedro Menendez of Spain in 1565, following the destruction of a colony of Huguenots. Menendez’s settlement was destroyed in turn by a larger group of Huguenots a few years later. Thus the enmities of the Continent were transferred to the New World from the beginning.¹⁹¹

The trade routes to the Americas expanded exponentially in a little over 100 years. By 1600, 200 ships per year sailed between Spain and New Amsterdam, which became New York in 1664. Many products from the New World quickly became popular such as pepper, coffee, cocoa, sugar and tobacco. This trade had a profound impact on the wealth and health of Western Europe.¹⁹² The English became dominant in the New World after they settled Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, followed by settlements in Maryland, the Carolinas, New York and New Jersey.¹⁹³

The Pilgrims, a group of about 100 Protestants, sailed for what is now Massachusetts in 1620. They claimed to follow the teachings of John Winthrop, who spoke of a “city upon a hill” with equality for all under a God who loves his creation. However, the actual model that they perpetrated was the opposite of democracy: strict rules and punishments were imposed by those who claimed to represent Christian love.¹⁹⁴ They imposed the same religious intolerance they had left Europe to escape.

The French soon got in on the game in the future United States. In 1682 they established Louisiana, named after Louis XIV, which eventually was sold under financial stress by Napoleon to the US under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803.¹⁹⁵ The Louisiana Purchase included areas from the Gulf of Mexico north to Canada, which nearly doubled the territory of the United States.¹⁹⁶

In the early 1700s a coalition of six northeast tribes formed an alliance to work together for their mutual benefit. They created an oral constitution called the Great Law of Peace by which they all were bound. The tribes – which were headed by women – agreed that all major decisions would be made by consensus, which in many cases took a long time, but avoided war. When matters of the greatest importance were being decided the will of the people was sought. For the most part, individuals in native societies valued their freedom. They did not understand or see the need for the strict laws and customs of the Europeans who soon moved in. Because of the egalitarian nature of their society, they were unable to get used to the idea that any person was superior to any other as the Europeans tried to teach them.¹⁹⁷

In 1648 The Treaty of Westphalia created an agreement between European countries that had been struggling against each other for over thirty years. Much of Europe had been devastated – in Germany villages and farms were in ruins and the population was substantially reduced. The treaty established an uneasy peace between France, Germany, Austria, the Swiss, the Dutch, Spanish and Italians, and attempted to guarantee religious toleration between Catholics and Protestants. This treaty laid the foundation for the resumption of trade that started Europe on a path to greater prosperity.¹⁹⁸

Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” consolidated the monarchy in France as it never was before or afterwards. After assuming the throne in 1638, he made the aristocracy totally dependent on himself at Versailles, the largest palace in France. His rigorous routine included long days of meetings with ministers to plan the details of administering his kingdom. Despite his absolute hand, he believed himself a father to his country and usually endeavored to treat all his subjects fairly. Louis expanded the country’s influence abroad, increased trade, and promoted art and music in a way that had not previously been done. He also engaged in wars that left the treasury broke by his death. When he revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, he drove out 200,000 Protestants who had been an essential part of the economic backbone of the country.¹⁹⁹

Under Louis, there were divisions between aristocracy, bourgeoisie, and peasants who barely considered themselves a part of the same country. Government offices were sold to the highest bidder by an administration that continually was strapped for cash. Enforcement of government tax policies was rigged for the elite who thought it beneath them to pay taxes that therefore fell on the peasants. The king was not dependent on the Parliament to make laws – he could force through any laws he considered important.²⁰⁰

During the reign of Louis XV there was a general increase in prosperity due to improvements in industries such as coal-mining, metalworking, and textiles, and a new network of roads was begun. Trade with colonies such as Guadeloupe and Martinique brought a degree of success from sugar and the slave trade. But France already was functioning under weakened economic conditions – including war with an England that dominated the seas – that were to place a burden on the next monarch, Louis XVI, and contribute to his downfall.

In 1651 Thomas Hobbes wrote that human life in the state of nature is filled with chaos and anxiety – it is “nasty, brutal and short.” He claimed that states exist to bring greater stability to human existence.²⁰¹ In the late 1600s and 1700s, John Locke,²⁰² Jean-Jacques Rousseau,²⁰³ and Voltaire²⁰⁴ – members of the European “Enlightenment” – declared that freedom is our natural condition, but we sacrifice much of it to enter into a “social contract” that provides mutual protections and allows us to live together in a more peaceful and stable society.²⁰⁵

According to these writers, governments and laws exist to provide better security than we would have in our natural condition where – as individuals, families and tribes – we would need to struggle continually for survival. They believed that when states achieve their purpose they create a system that provides us with more control over our lives than we would have without it. Locke and Rousseau also held that when a state becomes oppressive we have the right to replace it with another that is capable of providing more freedom and choice. At about the same time, the theories of Isaac Newton on the nature of the universe led to a new faith in science as a route to understanding.²⁰⁶

Throughout Europe in the early 1700s, there was a growing wealthy professional and commercial class, as well as an artisan class, but also an increase of poverty in the cities. In England, the Enclosure Movement took land that had been worked by peasants.²⁰⁷

In 1707, the Act of Union was signed by England and Scotland, creating a united Parliament and free trade between the two countries, while England assumed Scotland’s debts. But the birth of Great Britain did not end the rebellions of the highlanders who wanted an independent Scotland. This culminated in the Battle of Culloden Moor in 1746, in which over 1,000 were killed. After this the Gaelic language was forbidden as well as Highland dress, followed by the Clearances over the next 100 years which decimated the Highland culture.²⁰⁸ Ireland had periodic religious wars between native Catholics and Protestant English settlers from the time of Henry VIII. It remained a nation apart which did not participate in England’s legislative or industrial progress until forced into the United Kingdom through the second Act of Union in 1801.²⁰⁹

The Industrial Revolution, roughly corresponding to the period 1700-1850, saw greatly increased production on farm land from inventions such as horse-drawn plows and reapers. This led to an improved food supply and population gains. The need for fewer people to work the land resulted in an enlarged labor pool, which eventually migrated to the cities to participate in increasingly mechanized manufacturing, made possible at first by steam engines and later by coal. The appearance of factories to produce cloth and clothing contributed to a grim landscape saturated with grit. Factory workers were numbed by long hours and repetitive work.²¹⁰

1776 saw the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, a turning point in the history of economics, and his famous summary of the “theory of capital,” later known as capitalism. Smith believed that the “invisible hand” of the economic market would function best to provide general prosperity if left largely untouched. The division of labor, Smith argued, would create more efficient manufacturing and farming, and thus greater prosperity for all.²¹¹ Yet he also was concerned with justice. In the days before the great revolutions of America and France, he held that it was up to the monarchs to maintain justice for all in their realm. He describes: “The second duty of the sovereign, that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of society from the oppression of every other member.”²¹²

The World of Wine

In April 1663, the famous London diarist Samuel Pepys tasted a wine that inspired him to write a long description in his diary. He had drunk “a sort of French wine called Ho-Bryan” that had a “good and most particular taste.” He was referring to Chateau Haut-Brion in Bordeaux, later recognized as one of the Grand Cru (great vineyards) in the Classification of 1855.

References in documents referring to Haut-Brion go back to 1435. Haut-Brion, and Bordeaux wines in general, had their origins in the Middle Ages when it was discovered that the gravelly/clay soils of the region produced, in good years, magnificent long-lived wines made of the blends best suited to the region: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. At that time there was not the same concept of France that we have today. The Bordeaux region, in the Southwest, was part of Aquitaine and ruled by English kings. The main “road” between Bordeaux and Britain was the sea route; overland travel was much more difficult and likely to result in spoilage. Haut-Brion, Pages 2-4

The American Revolution, which started in 1775, was instigated by the British colonies on the East Coast of North America that considered themselves overtaxed and underrepresented as British citizens. No betting person would have considered the rebelling thirteen colonies to have a chance against the most powerful empire of the time. Many in Parliament spoke out against the oppression they saw as being foisted upon the Americans.²¹³

George Washington, who previously fought for the British in the Indian Wars, took charge of the disorganized revolutionary forces, perhaps 20,000 in total, eventually called the Continental Army. At first, the colonists expressed the view that they only were fighting to maintain their rights as English citizens.²¹⁴ Because of a shortage of enlistees, Washington was glad to lead a mixed army that included blacks, Indians, young and old.²¹⁵ Washington always was aware that his authority derived from the Continental Congress, a group of representatives of the thirteen colonies that met in Philadelphia.

In January of 1776, the British under General William Howe were besieged in Boston by Washington’s troops. The British were short of supplies, but the Continental Army was suffering through a cold winter with low morale and little money; perhaps 9,000 troops went home at the end of their enlistment on January 1, and not all were replaced. After collecting and securing cannons from upper New York, Washington began the bombardment of the entrenched British troops on March 2 from Dorchester Heights in Cambridge, and the British, along with thousands of Loyalists, were forced to evacuate. For not only the Continental soldiers, but for much of the population of New England, this was a turning point in morale.²¹⁶

From there Washington’s troops made haste for New York, which was essential to defend, politically and strategically, and they plunged into constructing fortifications.²¹⁷ Washington had about 7,000 troops in comparison to 30,000 for the British including mercenaries, more than the city of New York, when their armada arrived on June 29.

On July 2, the Congress in Philadelphia voted to terminate ties with Britain. The Declaration of Independence, completed on July 4 after many drafts by Thomas Jefferson, contains the most famous words in the annals of democracy:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.²¹⁸

In February of that year, an English immigrant named Thomas Paine, who had failed at business to that point, published a fiery booklet, Common Sense. In the spirit of other Enlightenment authors, he wrote that government, when poorly managed, brings suffering to those who are governed. By implication, the British government incited rebellion in the Colonies by ignoring their needs:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even at its best is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.²¹⁹

With the onset of winter, Howe decided to rest his exhausted men in northern New Jersey and New York, as was typical for “civilized” armies. 1,550 Hessian mercenaries and some British troops were encamped across the river in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington had about 6,000 men left who could fight; about 1500 were incapacitated due to the cold. Nevertheless, Washington planned an attack which would cross the Delaware on Christmas night and then march north to attack the enemy force. All night, boats were loaded with cannons and horses, but a major storm struck while they were waiting to cross. Two men froze to death on the march. The attack, which was planned to begin before dawn, was not able to begin until 8AM, which eliminated the element of surprise. But the Hessian force and the British soldiers were defeated. This was the beginning of the reversal of the course of the war that lasted for another six and a half years, but as news of the rebellion’s success spread, help came in from France, Spain and the Netherlands.²²⁰

British ships commonly attacked New England towns during the war just to incite fear. In the summer of 1777, Benedict Arnold, a popular leader, led his troops to a victory over General John Burgoyne at Saratoga. This began turning the tide and brought the French more fully into the war. Arnold later became a British spy. Captain John Paul Jones, an American of Scottish descent supported by the French, attacked the British mainland and engaged in battles with British ships in their own waters. In 1778 the British offered the Americans a reconciliation agreement, but lacking full recognition of American independence, it was turned down.²²¹

In 1781, Louis XVI committed much of his navy to aid the American cause, which allowed the conflict to end in two more years. A combined American and French force, led by Washington and Lafayette, descended on Chesapeake Bay by land and sea in the Battle of Yorktown in October. General Cornwallis surrendered, and the fate of America was in its own hands after that point.²²²

According to Joseph Ellis, “Based on what we now know about the military history of the American Revolution, if the British commanders had prosecuted the war more vigorously in its earliest stages, the Continental Army might well have been destroyed at the start and the movement for American independence nipped in the bud. The signers of the Declaration of Independence would then have been hunted down, tried, and executed for treason, and American history would have flowed forward in a wholly different direction.”²²³

The Articles of Confederation, written by Congress in the early stages of the war and later confirmed by the states, allowed states autonomy without central taxing power. The results were distressing to founders such as John Adams and James Madison, who realized that thirteen sets of laws and customs that often were incompatible created an ungovernable entity.

In 1787 a committee was assembled to create an acceptable replacement for the Articles. The most prominent members were Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. They agreed that sovereignty did not reside with the government or states; the founding principle was that the authority for government was “We the People.” Beyond that, nearly everything else was decided after a long-argued process, with continual reference to that same founding principle. Yet they did work out a compromise that lasted, known as the US Constitution, that was certified by the states in 1789 and has been amended only twenty-seven times to date. The first ten amendments were added in 1791 as the Bill of Rights.²²⁴

Blacks and Indians had served nobly in the Revolutionary War and there were nearly 700,000 slaves. So were blacks or Indians to be included in the definition of “The People,” and if so, how? Many of the leading authors of the eventual Constitution were slaveholders, including Washington and Madison.²²⁵ One “compromise” that was reached, but later changed, was to not count Indians toward congressional representation and to count just “three fifths of all other Persons.” (US Constitution, Article I, Section 2) Thus slave ownership actually increased the representational power of the southern states in Congress. Another compromise was the continuation of the slave trade until 1808, which put off this contentious issue for twenty years. (Article I, Section 9)²²⁶

As Joseph Ellis states, “the debate was not resolved so much as built into the fabric of our national identity.”²²⁷ America’s oldest tradition is to work together in good faith toward a common understanding and course of action so that its institutions can continue to thrive. An example was a compromise in which the southern states allowed the Federal Government to assume the states’ war debt in exchange for locating the Capitol in the South.²²⁸

George Washington, who had become US President by unanimous choice in 1789 and continued for two terms to 1796, declined a third term for fear of turning the office of President into a monarchy. In his Farewell Address, Washington warned of the dangers of allegiance to political parties rather than to the principles of the US founding, advice we might well heed today:

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.²²⁹

Slavery dominated debate in Congress and the rest of the young country. The assumption that the United States was founded on egalitarian principles ensured that the debate would continue. The economy of the South was based on cotton, and the economy of the North based on industry, so a slavery based economy was harder for some to give up than others. In 1782, Virginia passed a law allowing slave owners to free their slaves if they decided to, which resulted in 12,000 being freed. Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, suggested a proposal that would free all slaves after the year 1800. Gouverneur Morris of New York, a signer of the Constitution, stated that slavery was a curse, and that slave owners should be compensated by Congress for its dissolution. The issue was not resolved until the country broke apart in 1861.²³⁰

Edmund Burke, known as the founder of conservatism in England, supported the American Revolution due to British incursions on the liberty of the colonists, such as the imposition of the Stamp Act.²³¹ But he opposed the excesses of the French Revolution.²³² He saw change as being essential to the continuation of society: “ ‘A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.’ ”²³³

In France, political opposition came from the nobles who had a hold on Parliament. While there was much agreement about what was wrong with their society, there was little agreement about what system should replace it, a problem that led to instability in France for long after its revolution.²³⁴

Louis XVI assumed the throne in 1754. He was a timid man easily influenced by his ministers. At first his popularity was boosted by his support of the American Revolution, but the ideals of the Declaration of Independence did not encourage his subjects to support him. Due to a need for funds partly brought on by a poor harvest, and after the land-holding clergy refused his request to raise taxes, the king was forced to convene the Estates General for the first time in 175 years in May 1789. At this meeting the Third Estate (those others than the nobles and clergy) made demands for equality inspired by the new American nation. When the king locked them out, some took over a tennis court and made an oath not to leave until a new constitution was put in place. On July 14 the crowd stormed the Bastille, a small prison, to obtain arms in a battle against the king’s troops, and the French Revolution had begun. When Louis fled in 1791, he was brought back to face trial, and the fate of the French monarchy was sealed.²³⁵

Since the French Revolution took place in the largest and most powerful European nation, it immediately aroused the monarchies of surrounding countries to suppress it. Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly worked for the next two years to set up a constitutional monarchy on the order of Britain. Lafayette had just returned from aiding the American Revolution – he was joined by the likes of Danton, Robespierre and Marat. They wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which later would become a model for the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.They abolished the Three Estates and replaced them with the American model of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government. France introduced suffrage for all men in 1792 – still excluding women – and the number of eligible voters jumped from 250,000 to about nine million. The working day was reduced to ten hours and slavery was abolished in the colonies. The lands of the Church – about eight percent of the country – were sold off.²³⁶ Despite the promises of universal freedom contained in the Declaration, the terror that followed, and the despotism that followed that, deprived many not only of their liberties but their lives.

After the trial and execution of Louis in 1792, an alarmed coalition of powers including England, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Austria, Sardinia, and Naples united against the Revolution while a civil war raged within the country. At this point the leaders of the new Republic began executing revolutionary leaders and established a dictatorship. A conscription of 600,000 men was called which successfully challenged the invading armies. Robespierre, who had come to represent the absolutism that he had worked to overcome, met the guillotine in July of 1794.²³⁷

Despite a promising beginning that was supported by advocates of democracy in Britain and the US, the French Revolution devolved into a terror that devoured itself. It had been largely inspired by the Enlightenment writers that spurred the American insurrection, but like many revolutions it became obsessed with tearing out its disease without prescribing a cure. There was no generally agreed way forward – no commitment to creating a vision for the country to replace its dysfunction. And so the dysfunction changed from one form to another and yet to another with no end in sight.

Napoleon Bonaparte impressed his officers with his skills as a member of the artillery in the battle against Italy. He initiated a coup and had himself declared Emperor of France in 1804. Over the next ten years his empire was to include present-day Austria, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, but when he tried to replace the king of Spain a rebellion weakened him. He then lost a half million soldiers in his invasion of Russia in 1812. He was forced to abdicate in 1814, was exiled, then returned, and then was defeated once again by the British at Waterloo in 1815, after which we was exiled again and died at age fifty-two on the remote island of Saint Helena. A dichotomy between populism and autocracy has remained France’s legacy ever since.²³⁸

The revolution of 1830 was caused by the autocratic policies of Charles X, who was forced to flee, and who was succeeded by Louis-Philippe, an ex-revolutionary. He, in turn, was forced out by the 1848 revolution which featured the student barricades described by Victor Hugo in Les Miserables:

The barricade St. Antoine was monstrous; it was three stories high and seven hundred feet long. It barred from one corner to the other the vast mouth of the Fauborg, that is to say, three streets. . . . Merely from seeing it, you felt an immense agonizing suffering that had reached that extreme moment when distress rushes to catastrophe.

The Second Republic of 1848 gave way, by 1852, to the Second Empire under Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who ruled as Napoleon III. The French economy grew during his reign: he encouraged more industry to develop and stayed in power longer than any French leader after the Revolution. He also was responsible for a modernization of Parisian boulevards by Baron Haussmann and major parks. He attacked Prussia (Germany) in an attempt to match the glory of his uncle with an outmoded and undertrained army, which led to defeat and the end of the Second Empire in 1870.²³⁹

Nationalism spread, starting in Europe, and then to America, but it took a long time for individuals to learn to identify with a nation rather than their local interests. The French began to think of themselves as one country as they went to war with the rest of Europe under Napoleon. Britain was forged from England and Scotland. Nationalism also took hold in those countries they fought. Americans, who were about one-half originally opposed to their Revolution, gradually began to think of themselves as united. National anthems and holidays strengthened that process. Ideas of racial identify – including those of an Aryan, Caucasian or Slavic race, were introduced in Europe in the late 1800s which increased national unity. This led to movements to expel minorities. Separatist movements by those who preferred to identify with their region rather than a country ran counter to nationalism.²⁴⁰

The census of 1790 shows a total of just under four million inhabitants of the United States. About twenty percent were slaves, with only two New England states having none. Acts for the gradual abolition of slavery were in place in many northern states and some countries. Slavery was abolished in Russia in 1723, in England 1807, and in France 1815. Russia abolished serfdom in 1861.

John Adams, Vice President under Washington, was elected the second US President in 1796 after competing with Jefferson. It took months for the Electoral College results to come in. Adams, an aggressive personality, once was close friends with Jefferson, but criticized his endorsement of the French Revolution (Jefferson later changed his mind) as well as his elaborate lifestyle and debt. Jefferson refused a spot on the new cabinet. Political parties already had formed, with Adams at the head of the Federalists and Jefferson leading the opposing Democratic-Republicans (later the Democrats).²⁴¹

Jefferson then defeated Adams in the election of 1800. Trust had eroded between the two former friends to the point that they stopped speaking after 1797 and only began corresponding again in 1813.²⁴² They both died on the 50^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826. Adam’s last words were “Jefferson still lives,” but Jefferson actually just had died.

In the early 1800s the expanding white population and westward migration increased the pressure on indigenous Americans, forcing them into a smaller area of land. For most of them even the idea of land ownership was foreign. Andrew Jackson, a notorious Indian fighter, was elected US President in 1828. He ignored the order of the US Supreme Court under John Marshall that the Cherokees could not be removed from their lands in Georgia. Nearly all Native tribes east of the Mississippi were made to leave. The Cherokees were submitted to a forced march, the “Trail of Tears,” from their ancestral home in Georgia to Oklahoma. Out of the 16,000 who were forced to take that march in the middle of winter, about half died.²⁴³

The early 1800’s saw the birth of Romanticism in Europe and the US which put aside the rationalism of the Enlightenment and evoked identification with a spiritual side of humanity outside the influence of religion.²⁴⁴ Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason disputed the idea that reason can necessarily lead to truth, showing that both sides of any argument can be made to seem valid. Thus there must be an a priori knowledge, or understanding that precedes logic. Kant claimed that this essential knowledge is the understanding with which every human being is born.²⁴⁵ Kant still is influential, often referred to by scientists and philosophers to this day.

The World of Wine

In 1774, Thomas Jefferson had wine grapes planted on his estate in Monticello, Virginia. This didn’t work out well due to poor weather and the distraction of the upcoming Revolutionary war.

He served as America’s Foreign Minister to Paris from 1784-89. Always the entertainer and bon vivant, Jefferson took two tours of European wine country beginning in 1785. He visited all major wine areas in France, plus some in Northern Italy and Germany. He sent back cases of great Bordeaux chateaux, such as Lafite and Yquem, which he later used for entertainment at the White House and his Virginia estate. At that time wines that now sell for hundreds of dollars per bottle sold for about one dollar, a lot of money for a drink at the time.

Jefferson died $10,000 in debt, over one million of today’s wine dollars, which made it impossible for his slaves to be freed at his death as was his wish. Perhaps there’s a cautionary tale here for those who like to collect wine. See Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson

A movement toward independence in Mexico was sparked in 1810 by a priest, Miguel Hidalgo, when he joined wealthy revolutionaries to overthrow their Spanish rulers. The desperately hungry peasants erupted in favor of the revolution, which moved quickly from Guanajuato to Mexico City. The royalists eventually were able to crush the revolutionary forces. Resistance resumed about one year later under another priest, Jose Maria Morelos, who had greater leadership skills. After a two year struggle independence was declared on November 6, 1813, but this rebellion also was crushed.²⁴⁶