56 Winning the Peace EIR November 1, 2019 Oct. 28—There exists a pervasive view among those who have studied the American Revolution, that prior to 1775- 1776, very few among the American colonists sought in- dependence from Great Britain. They had grievances, as- suredly, yet the overwhelming majority were loath to break the link to the mother country. There is certainly a great deal of empirical evidence to support that view, including copies of letters, speeches and other utterances from some who are remembered today as the founding fathers of the nation. It is asserted that only the intransi- gence of George III and the wild incompetence of Lord North, Charles Townshend and other British leaders drove the desper- ate colonists to the steps they ul- timately took, and this only at a very late date—a “last ditch” re- sistance to tyranny, so to speak. But is this really true? Or was there another process, an- other dynamic, underlying and catalyzing events? Did the col- onists revolt simply against acts of oppression—as the saying goes, “No Taxation without Representation”—or was there a higher principled motivation which guided the ac- tions of the leaders and a majority of the participants in that struggle? The answer to that question is of great signifcance in determining the quality of the fght which we must wage today. At the same time, a careful examination of the ideas and morality which motived the leaders of that era will pose a challenge to each of us to rise to that same standard. The 1620 Plymouth Colony and the 1630 settle- ment of Boston had established communities which were already semi-independent. Legally they were bound to Britain, but those pioneers had fed to the New World precisely to escape the chains of oligarchi- cal rule which existed in Europe, and they were pledged to create a new type of society, governed by the principle of the equality and nobility of the human individual. This is ex- plicit in both the Mayfower Compact and John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity. From the very unfolding of the colonization of North America, there existed a determination to create a society that was self- governing and guided by the agapic principle of “doing good.” This beacon—of the in- trinsic value of every human individual; of the promise of a new culture within which all participants might be free from the chains of oligarchical rule and liberated to both advance their own conditions and con- tribute to the betterment of so- ciety as a whole—is the vis viva of the American Republic. In this report we shall be discussing certain individ- uals—great individuals who have been written out of most history books—who played a determining role in the creation of America. These include, most emphati- cally, William Livingston and Alexander McDougall. We shall also examine specifc topics, including the Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Lib- AMERICA AWAKENS IN A TIME OF CRISIS William Livingston, Alexander McDougall and the Committees of Correspondence by Robert Ingraham Portrait by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, 1785 Benjamin Franklin