Posted on 03/30/2019 11:59:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I consider myself an amateur historian, though some of my readers might place more emphasis on the amateur than historian. One thing that has puzzled me is why different results sprang from the American and French Revolutions. It might have something to tell us for today.
On the surface reading, the American and French Revolutions seem to hold similar ideals. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness does not seem that far removed from Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité. And if one says the American slogan does not mention equality, the Declaration of Independence surely does.
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[.]
Many claim that the difference is that the French document is godless. However, both the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man invoke the deity.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence ... –Declaration of Independence, 1776
Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen: … –Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
There can be no doubt that there was an influence of Deism that motivated some of the intellectuals behind both revolutions. Indeed, Thomas Paine, the most influential deist of all time, was critical to both struggles. Paine wrote "Common Sense" for America — which cemented public opinion in favor of Revolution — and he would later be elected to Revolutionary France's National Convention. Thomas Jefferson wrote the American Declaration and was consulted on the French document.
So why did the revolutions veer so far apart in results?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
AUTHOR’s CONCLUSION:
The chief difference is that the American people appealed to the God of the Bible. As they did not reject Christianity, they put brakes on what was acceptable in their revolution.
The French leaders were disgusted with Christianity. Maybe this was due to the corruption of the Catholic clergy and the Church’s partnerships with the monarchy. Their solution was to ditch the Christian ethic, and they devolved into the Terror.
Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen …That is not necessarily an invocation of the true God. The results speak for themselves; it invoked the god of this world.
Thomas Paine actually passed away in disgrace due to agnosticism and religious skepticism he openly voiced in latter years. His peers refused him a proper burial.
Worth noting though that Paine, feeling somewhat suffocated by Christian America ended up going to France enthusiastic about their own revolutionary prospects...but then even he became disillusioned by what he witnessed. The French went too crazy even for him....
The Constitution of the United States......without it, the new nation would have foundered
Thing is when people take God out of the picture, they always go too far, too crazy. There’s nothing you can objectively appeal to, to say things have gone too far.
but then they rejected reason too, and started to use force in the reign of terror. Reason and terror are incompatible
*democratic: yes, I know the arguments between democracy and republic. I am referring to the more general idea of rule by the people.
Being an alcoholic didn’t help Thomas Paine, either. When he started attacking George Washington, many turned against him.
Correct. The colonies had, except for yhe brief period of the Dominion of New England experienced benign neglect. They took care of their politicsl needs with Assemblies elected by landowners or freemen. They did not grasp th as t the British people had much less input into their govt. Nor did the Btitish elite understand the extent of liberty colonists had enjoyed, passing their own laws and taxes.
In contrast the Jacobins and their supporters in France had first hand experience in suffering injustice and knew full well who to blame.
Colonial leaders sought to protect their rights and improve on them by separation. The Jacobins sought power and most importantly, revenge.
People in France saw that if you were on the right side, you lived. If you were on the wrong side, you died. We didn't want to chop the heads off of the British, we wanted to be free of their impositions on our personal and financial freedoms. Once they let us alone, we were open to living in the world with them.
In contrast, the French Revolution was a bloodthirsty, vindictive revolution perpetrated by leftists. They weren't interested in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. They were interested in power. And they were interested in wielding power. And most of all, they were interested in wielding power in a vindictive and absolute way against their enemies to utterly destroy them.
That is much the fight we face today from the Left, who are the ideological descendants of the French Revolution. The left of today doesn't want to disagree with conservatives or silence us, in Orwellian fashion, we must think like them or be destroyed by them.
Leftists would say:
Conservatism Delinda est!
Yep.
“The chief difference is that the American people appealed to the God of the Bible.”
I believe that. That’s why, in spite of everything horrendous going on here now, I believe God will help us. I know we pray for that to happen ALL THE TIME!
Thomas Sowell said that the French Revolution gave “power to the people” but the American Revolution gave absolute power to nobody - each branch and each level of government had its checks and balances.
Read
Because the moneyed elite class were willing to put it all on the line. They weren’t craven globalists and not loyalists to the status quo.
or because the French were incapable of learning from a successful example ...
“(I)t is very clear that in fundamental theory, socialism and democracy are almost, if not quite, one and the same. They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals.” …There are no “arguments” between democracy and republic; there are only the stark differences. Therefore, democracy is not rule by the people no matter how its proponents try to define it, while a republic (which the French erroneously called their revolutionary abomination; so did the USSR) is rule by constitutional law recognizing natural rights versus rights granted (and taken away) by government, and thus actual rule by the people whom the elected representatives remain accountable to.
— Woodrow Wilson, “Socialism and Democracy”, 1887
Bfl
He said, "Too soon to tell".
Chinese geopolitics operates on a completely different timescale than ours do.
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