How our rebellion gave birth to American federalism
First, I want to thank The Wall Street Journal for publishing my Independence Day opinion piece.
Beyond the nod to state pride, one of the key ideas I wanted to highlight was how our armed rebellion against the British Crown helped lay the foundation for American federalism. What’s often overlooked in popular commentary is that the uprisings leading up to the Declaration of Independence were not a single, unified movement. They were distinct and rooted in the unique circumstances of each colony.
Of course, the larger point is that self-government was already long being practiced in the colonies for generations before 1776. In the WSJ, I wrote that, “The revolutionary belief that people need not be ruled by a sovereign took root in county courthouses, churches and local assemblies—long before it was declared in Philadelphia in 1776.” Remember Jefferson himself later said of the Declaration, “It was intended to be an expression of the American mind” and noted that its “authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day.” I think this pushes back on the progressive impulse that the document can primarily be viewed as a statement of radical enlightenment thought that is detached from order and tradition.
There is a great book that I found on the Acton Institute book shelf when I worked there titled, “They Preached Liberty: An anthology of timely quotations from New England ministers of the American Revolution on the subject of liberty, its source, nature, obigations, types, and blessings.” Sadly, it looks to be out of print now and I don’t own a copy. But in many ways, the book served as an inspiration for this piece. While it clearly highlights the strong religious influence on America’s founding, what stood out too is how deeply the idea of liberty was ingrained in the colonies long before the Declaration of Independence was drafted. The ideas of self-government and liberty were literally being shouted out from the pulpits. The people had long been practicing self-government, and by the time independence was declared, the habits of liberty were so deeply rooted that it made perfect sense that the Founders would craft a federalist model that trusted the states, local communities, and citizens to govern themselves.
As Captain Levi Parker, a veteran of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, put it decades later: “Young man, what we meant in going after those Redcoats was this—we had always been free, and we meant to stay free. They didn’t mean for us to be.”
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat