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« on: December 23, 2010, 09:10:14 AM »
The colonists blundered us into the French and Indian War? What a bunch of horseshit. The French and Indian War was part of a larger global conflict between France and Great Britain. That's why the British don't call it the "French and Indian" War, they call it the Seven Years War. The colonists were merely the Western Front of a Conflict that was fought in every major colonial territory in the world. A conflict that unwittingly and unwillingly involved thousands of natives and colonists in a battle they often didn't want and had no direct stake in. Saying the "founding fathers" are responsible is like saying the St. Lucians were responsible.
This guy's an apologist for Britain. Plain and simple. What he calls smuggling is free trade. The British, being misguided fools, believed in a mercantile system, and enforced a system of laws called the Navigation Acts which meant that all colonists were subject to a monopoly trade agreement with the crown and had to first sell their goods at a cut rate to the British and then the British would sell at a huge profit to the French and Spanish. The colonist "smugglers" were end running a gamed and completely unfair system by trading with the French directly. This is why a large majority of Northerners (many of whom later became radicals) opposed the French and Indian War. It led to the quartering of troops in their houses, a clamping down on the Navigation Acts and afterwords, imposed taxes to pay for an army that was neither needed, nor wanted.
The colonists grief wasn't about paying taxes at all. Has this stupid asshole READ the Declaration of independence? It was about the fact that they had no say in taxes that were imposed on them, despite the fact that they were full British citizens. The reason Franklin attempted to restore Royal Charter was because he, like many other colonists, felt that the King was the court of last resort for them. They felt that the Parliament was working to keep them voiceless and powerless, and that, with the King's direct intervention, their rights as citizens would be restored. Once the King passed the Intolerable Acts though, Franklin was a radical and revolutionary par excellence, and went to France immediately to drum up sizable military support. It's certain that without Franklin and French aid, the Americans would have lost the war.
As for religious bigotry, that was a problem both before and long, long after the Revolution. Hell anti-Catholic bigotry was an issue during the election of John F. Kennedy. This is why people like Thomas Jefferson, and Washington wrote extensively about the need to keep the state out of church business. After all, who was stirring up the bigotry? Why, it was the Anglican congregationalists. And who are they? THE CHURCH OF FUCKING ENGLAND! A state institution that enjoyed official mandate, especially during the restoration.
And what the hell does he mean by Founding Fathers anyway? He seems to be talking about everyone alive and living in the colonies during the late 1770s. That's the only possible way I can think that he could give deists and atheists like Paine, Jefferson, and Madison credit for stirring up religious hatred. He's so ham handed with the term that it's essentially lost all meaning. He might as well have just said Americans.
I can't tell if this person is intentionally being dishonest, or if they're really this stupid. Unfortunately, I have to go with both.