[SOAPBOX]
But there was this little thing we needed to fight out on
our
side of the pond, aka the first American Revolution.
And it was the position
of the Federalists who came to power
in the early years of the Constitution
that criticizing
their administration was sedition.
So the point of the
second American Revolution (1800) was
not that it was the first time a
government came to power by
an election, but rather that this experiment on our
side of
the pond survived, narrowly escaping a descent into a new
tyranny of
federalism.
Bear in mind that the French Revolution had at this point
turned into a bloody reign of terror. Jefferson's second
term was troubled
(inter alia) by a slave rebellion in
Haiti, raising fears that something of the
kind might ignite
in slave-holding Southern states. And of course, toward the
end of that term you Brits saw the chance to repudiate the
loss of colonies,
igniting the War of 1812 as we call it.
The triumph of ballots over bullets
was never a one shot
deal (no pun intended). That we swung in that direction
at
a time when the US was so overshadowed by the world powers
is a remarkable
achievement by our Founding Fathers.. one
that we must endeavor to relearn and
reinforce every time it
becomes more convenient to achieve by force of arms
that
which should properly be done by reasoned
persuasion.
[/SOAPBOX]
--- Recursion is the opprobrium of the
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