WEBVTT NOTE 1. The Stage Is Set 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.400 Conceived in Liberty, Volume 3, Advanced to Revolution, 1760-1775, by Murray N. Rothbard 2 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:17.140 Part 1, The British Army and the Western Lands 3 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:24.100 Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that 4 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:29.700 could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we have 5 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:36.620 have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the throne 6 00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:45.620 and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. 7 00:00:45.620 --> 00:00:54.680 Our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult, 8 00:00:54.680 --> 00:01:01.320 Our supplications have been disregarded, and we have been spurned with contempt from the 9 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:03.880 foot of the throne. 10 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:10.360 In vain after these things may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. 11 00:01:10.360 --> 00:01:13.520 There is no longer any room for hope. 12 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:21.920 If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve in violet those inestimable privileges for 13 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:29.540 for which we have been so long contending. If we mean not basely to abandon the noble 14 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:35.660 struggle in which we have been so long engaged, in which we have pledged ourselves never to 15 00:01:35.660 --> 00:01:44.920 abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight. I repeat 16 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:54.560 Sir, we must fight. An appeal to arms and to the God of Host is all that is left us. 17 00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:03.360 Patrick Henry. Preface. What? Another American history book? The reader may be pardoned for 18 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:09.640 wondering about the point of another addition to the seemingly inexhaustible flow of books 19 00:02:09.640 --> 00:02:28.640 One problem, as pointed out in the bibliographical essay at the end of Volume 1, is that the survey studies of American history have squeezed out the actual stuff of history, the narrative facts of the important events of the past. 20 00:02:28.640 --> 00:02:35.600 With the true data of history squeezed out, what we have left are compressed summaries 21 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:40.240 and the historians' interpretations and judgments of the data. 22 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.080 There is nothing wrong with the historians having such judgments. 23 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:50.920 Indeed, without them, history would be a meaningless and giant almanac, listing dates and events 24 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:53.800 with no causal links. 25 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:59.680 But without the narrative facts, the reader is deprived of the data from which he can 26 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:07.480 himself judge the historian's interpretations and evolve interpretations of his own. 27 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:14.840 A major point of this and the other volumes is to put back the historical narrative into 28 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.800 American history. 29 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:24.200 Judgments of course must be selected and ordered in accordance with judgments of importance, 30 00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:30.560 and such judgments are necessarily tied into the historian's basic world outlook. 31 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:36.440 My own basic perspective on the history of man, and an a fortiori on the history of the 32 00:03:36.440 --> 00:03:43.080 United States, is to place central importance on the great conflict, which is eternally 33 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:50.080 I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself, or with Lord Acton as the highest political good, but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes. 34 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:21.080 Moral Virtue, Civilization, The Arts and Sciences, Economic Prosperity 35 00:04:21.080 --> 00:04:26.080 Out of liberty, then, stem the glories of civilized life. 36 00:04:26.080 --> 00:04:31.080 But liberty has always been threatened by the encroachments of power, 37 00:04:31.080 --> 00:04:40.080 power which seeks to suppress, control, cripple, tax, and exploit the fruits of liberty in production. 38 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:48.320 Power, then, the enemy of liberty, is consequently the enemy of all the other goods and fruits 39 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:55.760 of civilization that mankind holds dear, and power is almost always centered in and focused 40 00:04:55.760 --> 00:05:02.080 on that central repository of power and violence, the state. 41 00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:08.480 With Albert J. Nock, the 20th century American political philosopher, I see history as centrally 42 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:15.960 A Race in Conflict Between Social Power, The Productive Consequence of Voluntary Interactions 43 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:19.620 Among Men, and State Power. 44 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:25.400 In those eras of history when liberty, social power, has managed to race ahead of state 45 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:30.960 power and control, the country and even mankind have flourished. 46 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:37.280 In those eras when state power has managed to catch up with or surpass social power, 47 00:05:37.280 --> 00:05:44.800 and Kind suffers and declines. For decades, American historians have quarreled about conflict 48 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:53.680 or consensus as the guiding leitmotif of the American past. Clearly, I belong in the conflict 49 00:05:53.680 --> 00:06:00.560 rather than the consensus camp with the proviso that I see the central conflict as not between 50 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:10.480 between classes, social or economic, or between ideologies, but between power and liberty, 51 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.160 state and society. 52 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:20.520 The social or ideological conflicts have been ancillary to the central one, which concerns 53 00:06:20.520 --> 00:06:28.280 who will control the state, and what power will the state exercise over the citizenry. 54 00:06:28.280 --> 00:06:34.660 To take a common example from American history, there are, in my view, no inherent conflicts 55 00:06:34.660 --> 00:06:39.300 between merchants and farmers in the free market. 56 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:44.640 On the contrary, in the market, the sphere of liberty, the interests of merchants and 57 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:51.620 farmers are harmonious, with each buying and selling the products of the other. 58 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:56.200 Conflicts arise only through the attempts of various groups of merchants or farmers 59 00:06:56.200 --> 00:07:01.880 to seize control over the machinery of government and to use it to privilege themselves at the 60 00:07:01.880 --> 00:07:08.440 expense of others. It is only through and by state action that class conflicts can ever arise. 61 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:16.600 This volume deals with the stormy and fateful period from the end of the French and Indian War 62 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:24.600 until the outbreak of war at Lexington and Concord in 1775, the period that incubated 63 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:30.800 the American Revolution. With France driven from the North American continent and with 64 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:36.920 the classical liberal Whigs out of power, the British government moved quickly to impose 65 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:43.920 a system of imperial control over the fractious and hitherto virtually independent colonies. 66 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:51.040 These fifteen years are a record of mounting American resistance to such efforts by the 67 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:58.040 The Mother Country, a resistance that finally erupted into full-scale war at Lexington and 68 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:00.040 Concord. 69 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:06.480 Inspired by libertarian ideals, the colonists increasingly forged a unity that was to result 70 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:14.040 in the first successful national revolution against Western imperialism in the modern 71 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.280 world. 72 00:08:16.280 --> 00:08:23.360 Although other largely unrelated armed rebellions also erupted in this period in North Carolina, 73 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:30.620 South Carolina, New York and Vermont, these years are essentially the story of the development 74 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:36.880 of the American Revolution up to the outbreak of actual armed conflict. 75 00:08:36.880 --> 00:08:41.640 My intellectual debts for this volume are simply too numerous to mention, especially 76 00:08:41.640 --> 00:09:01.920 Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, Friedrich Hayek, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, Carl Menger, Jean-Baptiste Say, Frederic Bastiat, Israel Kirzner, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Roger Garrison, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, 77 00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:10.400 is much neglected volume, theory and history, and Lord Acton for his emphasis on the grievously 78 00:09:10.400 --> 00:09:17.160 overlooked moral dimension, for his political philosophy and general outlook on American 79 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:23.560 history Albert J. Nock, particularly his Our Enemy the State. 80 00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:27.860 As for my personal debts, I am happy to be more specific. 81 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:33.300 This series of volumes would never have been attempted, much less seen the light of day, 82 00:09:33.300 --> 00:09:40.420 without the inspiration, encouragement and support provided by Kenneth S. Templeton Jr., 83 00:09:40.420 --> 00:09:46.460 now of the Institute for Humane Studies, Menlo Park, California. I hope that he won't be 84 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:51.980 overly disappointed with these volumes. I am grateful to the Foundation for Foreign 85 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:58.100 and Affairs Chicago for enabling me to work full-time on the volumes, and to Dr. David 86 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:04.300 S. Collier of the Foundation for his help and efficient administration. 87 00:10:04.300 --> 00:10:09.620 Others who have helped with ideas and aid in various stages of the manuscript are Charles 88 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:17.580 G. Koch and George Pearson of Wichita, Kansas, and Robert D. Kephart of Libertarian Review, 89 00:10:17.580 --> 00:10:19.940 Washington, D.C. 90 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:25.840 To my first mentor in the field of American history, Joseph Dorfman, now Professor Emeritus 91 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:31.460 at Columbia University, I owe in particular the rigorous training that is typical of that 92 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:34.700 keen and thorough scholar. 93 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:40.740 The last chapter in this volume was included at the suggestion of Roy A. Childs, Jr. of 94 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:42.820 New York City. 95 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:51.300 But my greatest debt is to Leonard P. Ligio of S.O.N.Y., old Westbury, whose truly phenomenal 96 00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:57.780 breadth of knowledge and insight into numerous fields and areas of history are an inspiration 97 00:10:57.780 --> 00:11:04.500 to all who know him. Ligio's help was indispensable in the writing of this volume, in particular 98 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:09.640 his knowledge of the European background. Over the years in which this manuscript took 99 00:11:09.640 --> 00:11:28.640 I was fortunate in having several congenial typists, in particular, Willette Murphy Klausner of Los Angeles, and the now distinguished intellectual historian and social philosopher, Dr. Ronald Hammowy of the University of Alberta. 100 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:34.600 I would particularly like to thank Louise Williams of New York City for her heroic service of 101 00:11:34.600 --> 00:11:40.880 typing the entire manuscript in its final form. The responsibility for the final product 102 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:51.880 is, of course, wholly my own. Murray N. Rothbard, February, 1976, Vol. 3, Chapter 1, The Stage 103 00:11:51.880 --> 00:12:01.800 By 1760, the Great French and Indian War in America between Britain and France was over, 104 00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:08.360 with Britain the absolute master of Canada and of all the land east of the Mississippi. 105 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:16.440 The peace treaty of 1763 between the belligerents in the World War, Britain, France and Spain, 106 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:22.700 Known in Europe as the Seven Years' War, completed the ouster of France from the North American 107 00:12:22.700 --> 00:12:24.200 continent. 108 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:31.220 For Spain acquired France's domain in Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, in compensation for 109 00:12:31.220 --> 00:12:35.960 Britain's acquisition of Florida from Spain. 110 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:42.300 The mighty British Empire now stood master of all it surveyed, in no place more so than 111 00:12:42.300 --> 00:12:44.040 in North America. 112 00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:50.200 Furthermore, the war had driven from power the peaceful Pelhamite Whigs, led by the Duke 113 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:56.520 of Newcastle, who along with his brother, Henry Pelham, and the previously ousted Robert 114 00:12:56.520 --> 00:13:03.680 Walpole, had managed to keep England on a course of minimal government and international 115 00:13:03.680 --> 00:13:09.960 peace, and of salutary neglect of the American colonies. 116 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:17.040 These men had accomplished this feat against the reluctant opposition of Crown and Parliament. 117 00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:23.120 Salutary neglect had meant the conscience thwarting of Britain's grand mercantilist 118 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:30.440 design for controlling and restricting American commerce and industry for the benefit of British 119 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:32.720 merchants and manufacturers. 120 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:39.600 Furthermore, the wall-pole Newcastle policy of laissez-faire toward the colonies had allowed 121 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:45.800 It allowed the representative colonial assemblies to wrest effective power from royally appointed 122 00:13:45.800 --> 00:13:53.640 governors by wielding the power of the purse over colonial taxes and appropriations, notably 123 00:13:53.640 --> 00:13:56.520 including the governor's own salaries. 124 00:13:56.520 --> 00:14:06.440 Thus, from 1720 through the 1750s, the American colonies were virtually de facto independent 125 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:14.200 of British Imperial Control, an independence bolstered by libertarian spirit and ideology 126 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:21.400 eagerly imbibed from the radical libertarian English writers and journalists of the period. 127 00:14:21.400 --> 00:14:27.080 The hostility of these writers to government in general and to the existing English government 128 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:33.560 in particular, especially to its designs for power, keenly alerted the American colonists 129 00:14:33.560 --> 00:14:41.020 to the slightest signs of aggression by the mother country against their liberties. 130 00:14:41.020 --> 00:14:48.280 For its part, the British government, seemingly all-powerful, was now freed both of the distractions 131 00:14:48.280 --> 00:14:55.760 of a two-decades-long conflict with France and of the salutary neglect policies of the 132 00:14:55.760 --> 00:14:58.100 Pelhamite Whigs. 133 00:14:58.100 --> 00:15:05.180 The British were now free to bring the fractious American colonists to heel, to impose a comprehensive 134 00:15:05.180 --> 00:15:12.580 system of imperial British political and mercantilist control over the colonies. 135 00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:19.420 To her surprise, the mother country was to find that the Americans would not sit still 136 00:15:19.420 --> 00:15:24.740 while she imposed her grand design that would unleash her imperial power.