America?s greatness grew from liberty, low taxes and education
By Seth Grossman, Political Columnist
In 1776, ?our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty.? They did it to preserve their special government and way of life that had evolved slowly in British North America during the previous 169 years.
Very few people enjoyed these things for only short periods of time during the last 6,000 years of human history. They came about through events so rare and so lucky that even non-religious skeptics like Benjamin Franklin often remarked that God must have blessed America.
The process started in the 1600s when the kings of England set up colonies in North America, after the kings of Spain became rich and powerful from their colonies in Mexico and South America during the 1500s.
But the English came late and were stuck with leftovers. They found no gold, silver, or trade routes. In desperation, the English kings tried to make some money by offering liberty to anyone who voluntarily settled here. They did this with written contracts like the Mayflower Compact of 1620 and the charters that created New Jersey in 1654. These documents limited government power and guaranteed individual rights. Nobody could be punished or lose their property to the government unless a jury convicted them of a crime. Everyone was free to buy, sell, own, and improve land; build and farm on it; make and enforce contracts; and keep whatever wages or profits they earned.
All Americans were free to worship however they pleased, build their own churches, and choose their own clergy. And they could not be forced to pay any taxes unless the representatives they elected approved them.
?Progressive? historians remind us that only property owners could vote back then. But they fail to mention that only property owners paid taxes. This guaranteed that taxes were very low, and paid for only those few things that almost everyone agreed were necessary.
Most people who came to America were Protestants who believed every Christian man and woman had to read and write well enough to understand the Bible, and know enough bookkeeping and arithmetic to build and operate a church. But even Catholics ran their churches in America like Protestants, since a treaty barred the Pope from appointing priests or funding churches in the English colonies of America.
For 169 years, American men and women used their education and their liberty to buy land, make contracts, design and build ships and buildings, and run farms, businesses, and local governments ? all without lawyers and accountants.
This ?accidental? combination of liberty, low taxes, and good education paid for by voluntary contributions made Americans the wealthiest people in the world by 1776.
If the English kings knew this right away, they would have immediately controlled and taxed their American colonies. But we Americans were lucky again.
For nearly 150 years, the kings of England were too busy fighting wars against Spain, France, Ireland, and Scotland, plus their own Parliament in the English Civil War.
The King of England did not find out how rich Americans were until 1763, when his top officials came to America to drive the French out of Canada. King George then acted quickly to tax and control his American colonies the way as the Spanish taxed and controlled Mexico and South America. But he was too late. The Americans were too strong and pushed back. We fought for eight years to win our independence.
Some ?four score and seven? (87) years later, roughly 500,000 Americans died in the Civil War to apply the words of the Declaration of Independence to black Americans.
For the next hundred years, from 1863 to 1963, Americans continued to enjoy more liberty, more prosperity, more justice, more scientific progress, and more peace than any other people in the world.
But during that time, while most Americans were busy raising families, building businesses, and pursuing careers, ?progressives? in our public schools and colleges deliberately did not tell young people this story of how we Americans developed our government and culture of liberty ? or how liberty gave us 300 years of more wealth, opportunity, justice, better health, and less poverty than any other people on earth.
They instead falsely taught young people that America was a selfish, ignorant, racist, violent, and unjust nation that needed to be changed.
Now nearly half of Americans believe this, and we can lose nearly 400 years of liberty in one election just two months away. Do your part. Do more than vote.
(Reprinted from August 22, 2012 Current-Gazette Newspapers of Atlantic and Cape May Counties, http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/news/index.php/politics/28697-americas-greatness-grew-from-liberty-low-taxes-and-education.html)
Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman appears on 92.1FM 8-9 a.m. Saturday. For information see www.libertyandprosperity.org, email sethgrossman49@gmail.com or call (609) 927-7333. Breakfast discussions are held 9:30-10:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Shore Diner on Fire and Tilton roads in Egg Harbor Township.
(Image Source – http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/1205/for-all-liberty-justice-harsh-true-demotivational-posters-1336970795.jpg)
