THE REVOLUTIONS OF JULY

David Stokes


On July 14, 1789, Thomas Jefferson was
serving as America’s Ambassador to France.
The author of the Declaration of Independence
in another July, thirteen-years earlier, was an
eyewitness to the political unrest leading to
the storming of a political prison called The
Bastille . Though the fortress housed only
seven inmates at the moment, including four
forgers, it remains the iconic symbol of the
beginning of The French Revolution.
Our Constitution had been ratified a year
earlier, and George Washington had recently
been inaugurated as our first President, so
there was great interest in America about
what was going on in France 225 years ago.
After all, the French had been extremely
helpful to us during our successful struggle to,
as Jefferson phrased it, “dissolve the political
bands” that connected us to the British
monarchy. Americans were therefore
understandably sympathetic with a movement
against monarchial tyranny in France.
The American and French Revolutions are
linked in history largely because of
chronology, but they were vastly different
affairs. One led to a new birth of freedom—the
other to terror and tyranny, becoming the
prototype for unspeakable horrors to come.
Most Americans are familiar with a phrase
from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address on
January 20, 1961—that whole “Ask not…”
thing. But I think the most important thing JFK
said that day was this: “And yet the same
revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears
fought are still at issue around the globe—the
belief that the rights of man come not from the
generosity of the state, but from the hand of
God. We dare not forget today that we are the
heirs of that first revolution.” [Emphasis
added]
But what is happening in our nation right now
may resemble what happened in France in
1789 more than what happened in
Philadelphia in 1776. For many Americans,
especially those on the left, the cry of “Liberty
– Equality – Fraternity” is much more resonant
than the one about “Life – Liberty – and the
Pursuit of Happiness.”
It is in the parsing of those vitally important
words that we find the keys to understanding
where we came from, where we are, and
where we are going. One revolution was about
individual rights and dreams. The other was
about “the people” as a group and the highest
virtue being “the greater good.”
When Thomas Jefferson wrote about “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the
Declaration of Independence, he was
borrowing from 17th century English
philosopher John Locke who wrote about “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of property.” Jefferson’s
use of this language was clearly designed to
describe the rights of individual people to live
free, be free, and pursue their dreams in a free
marketplace. Those thoughts were very much
present in that Philadelphia birthing room.
The French Revolution, on the other hand—
though similar to what happened here in
America, in the sense of changing things and
breaking free from an old order—had little to
do with individual rights.
It was all about collectivism .
And in many ways, the French Revolution is
the ancestor of all totalitarian systems to
follow. Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Lenin, and
all other political gangsters were heirs of
Robespierre, and later Napoleon. Those
tyrannical manifestations were not misguided
aberrations—distortions of something that
started out good (as in, “Lenin was cool, too
bad Stalin messed it all up”)—the seeds of the
horror were present at the beginning. Jean-
Jacques Rousseau, 18th century Enlightenment
philosopher, wrote about volonté générale or
“general will,” and the Jacobins, followed by
others, ran with it. In their thinking, “the will
of the people” could only be expressed by
enlightened leaders.
Yes, our revolution indeed drew a measure of
strength from the Enlightenment, but it was of
the earlier Lockean variety. America’s use of
Enlightenment concepts was tempered by
something else; something that set it apart
from what happened in France—a spiritual
foundation.
Vive la revolution - Vive la difference .
The French not only declared war on the
monarchy, they also attacked Christianity,
replacing it with a religion of the state and
introducing the worship of secularism. Sound
familiar?
In America, it was very different. I am not one
of those who spends a lot of time trying to
prove the Christian bona fides of every
founding father, but I do believe that the
influence of what was called The Great
Awakening, which ended about twenty years
before the shot heard around the world was
fired, was still very much a part of our
national fabric.
And another such movement, often referred to
as the Second Great Awakening, began while
the French were unsuccessfully trying to
figure out how to be free. To ignore those
religious and cultural movements in America is
to miss an important piece of the puzzle. The
very concepts of liberty, equality, and
fraternity sound nice and make for great
propaganda. But in the end, without virtue
born of something deeper and greater, even
the best rhetoric is mocked by what actually
happens when human nature runs amuck. This
is why all totalitarian regimes like to call their
realms things like The People’s Republic of
China , or Democratic People's Republic of
Korea, or The People’s Commonwealth of
Massachusetts .
We need to beware of those who share our
vocabulary but use a different dictionary.
The reason it has all worked and endured so
well in this land is because we are a nation
“under God.” There, I said it. There is no real
liberty without that. All attempts at actual
freedom end up moving toward tyranny
without some sense of higher purpose and
power. I believe firmly in the separation of
church and state. But minus positive religious
influence, a nation cannot long remain free.
C. S. Lewis said it very well in The Screwtape
Letters 70 years ago: “Hidden in the heart of
this striving for Liberty there was also a deep
hatred of personal freedom. That invaluable
man Rousseau first revealed it. In his perfect
democracy, only the state religion is permitted,
slavery is restored, and the individual is told
that he has really willed (though he didn't
know it) whatever the Government tells him to
do. From that starting point, via Hegel
(another indispensable propagandist on our
side), we easily contrived both the Nazi and
the Communist state. Even in England we
were pretty successful. I heard the other day
that in that country a man could not, without
a permit, cut down his own tree with his own
axe, make it into planks with his own saw,
and use the planks to build a tool shed in his
own garden.”
Sound familiar?