by Pilgrim's Pride | November 19th, 2012
What if …
Those poor schlubs from ancient times, exiled to the frozen tundra of Northern Europe from their hearthlands in warmer climes, were exiled because they “couldn’t play well with others”?
What if …
Their independence streak was strong enough to force exile because it was innate – they were born that way and could not change who they were?
What if …
Living in physical, social and most importantly, genetic isolation for a very, very long time produced families of stubbornly independent people in scattered isolation throughout and across northern Europe and, perhaps, in other pockets of resistance to conformity in the hearthland itself?
What if …
The self-same, innate trait of independence evolved over the ages, through countless, forgotten episodes of conflict and reconciliation, trial and prosperity leading to a state of Liberty in which individuals were respected as their own sovereign, free to ally or oppose each other as befit the circumstances?
What if …
This sense of ordered, cooperative Liberty became the hallmark trait of these northern peoples notable for their success in producing robust, enjoyable societies and, almost inconsequentially but vitally, such a proprietary interest in one’s family and the land they called home that, when challenged, leads inexorably to an indomitable fighting spirit?
What if …
Because of its splendid isolation, the inhabitants of the British Isles became the shining exemplar of this remarkable, undoubtedly recessive, Liberty Gene purified by the test of time?
What if …
The most independent of those already purified strains of the Liberty Gene seized the unique, one-time-only, historic opportunity presented by the discovery of America and migrated there, by the family, to conquer and colonize the New World making it in their image, with their birthright of ordered Liberty, with painstakingly developed institutions to preserve and propagate themselves there as a “New Jerusalem” for their people?
No “What if?” about it.
This is the story of the discovery and conquest of America, of the people whose blood, sweat, toil and tears made it happen, and how their activity in the New World grabbed the attention of their former compatriots of the Old World, gripping their imagination with the news of those remarkable personalities, the Americans and their Liberty Gene.
The Liberty Gene, inherited from our fathers who themselves claimed it for themselves over the course of millenia. Tested, challenged, beaten, nurtured, purified by the fires of time.
The Liberty Gene gave a means of cooperation to aggressive, ambitious, stubborn, often violent people.
The Liberty Gene compels each man to be the king of his own castle, to submit to no man save his consent be earned. To live at peace with neighbors not enemies, to respect mutual sovereignty in the gaining of mutual benefit.
The Liberty Gene is the basis of British civilization and thereby the basis of American civilization. It is the basis of Protestantism. It is the basis of our political organization be it the Confederation of 1776 or the united Federation of 1789. It is the basis of the governments of our American Commonwealth states such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Virginia in which the smallest municipality has authority over all higher levels of government as the closest form of government to the citizenry itself.
The Liberty Gene historically was found in that part of Europe that resisted Roman occupation and later identified with the Protestant Reformation. It was expressed in Europe’s free cities of Athens, Sparta, Venice, Geneva, and Basel, expressed by the Hanseatic League, by the Swiss Confederation, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and by European “resistance” forces everywhere tyranny was imposed.
But mainly and most importantly to us, the Liberty Gene is a gift to the American nation.
We must do all in our power to see the Liberty Gene is transmitted intact to the next generation. Without it, man’s natural state of affairs is our lot, as we shall see in “The Peasant Theory of American Politics.”
Humbly submitted by your observant scribe and caretaker of,
The Pilgrims Pride.
In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.
Signed:
John CarverWilliam BradfordEdward WinslowWilliam BrewsterIsaac AllertonMiles StandishJohn AldenSamuel FullerChristopher MartinWilliam MullinsWilliam WhiteJames ChiltonJohn CraxtonJohn BillingtonRichard WarrenJohn HowlandSteven HopkinsEdward TillyJohn TillyFrancis CookThomas RogersThomas TinkerJohn RigdaleEdward FullerJohn TurnerFrancis EatonMoses FletcherDigery PriestThomas WilliamsGilbert WinslowEdmond MargesonPeter BrownRichard BitteridgeRichard ClarkRichard GardinerJohn AllertonThomas EnglishEdward DotenEdward LiesterJohn GoodmanGeorge Soule
Great piece
Thank you and posted
Hoorah! We have not yet begun to fight – as one of our ancestors described it.
Booyah and thanks for the pingback. For the Republic!