I got a lot of very nice, flattering, email from readers about my post this morning disagreeing with Conrad Black on the American Revolution. But my favorite email is from a reader (my Voegellin Guy to be exact) who sides with Black:
Dear Mr. Goldberg,
I’m with Conrad Black on this one. I see our revolutionaries as the sophisticated, urbanite, limousine liberals of the day. The fact that they had a lot more fiber than today’s limo libs does not change the fact. They were the ones enthralled by liberal enlightenment, revolutionary ideas, whereas the yeomenry, the true conservatives if you will, were loyalists who had little to do with the commercial interests of Charleston, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Had I been in South Carolina in 1776 I would have been fighting with the loyalists. History proves the fallacies and deceit behind every revolution, and ours is no exception. 100,000 loyalists were persecuted after the war was over, their property confiscated, and if they weren’t killed, they were forced to leave the country. Had there been no revolution, slavery would likely have been abolished peacefully in the 1830’s. And the revolutionary slogans used then in defense of individualism is being used today in defense of statism.
I don’t really buy it but, man, there’s something to noodle.