Wisdom of the 90's (Part ONE)

You may remember George Burns’ book entitled “Wisdom of the 90s.”  It was a great book.  This is not about that book.  This is about America during the time of the administration of President George Washington, 1789-1797.  Now on to 1792, or thereabouts...

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Wisdom of the 90’s - Part ONE

This is an examination of a historical instance in which the demands of obligation, precedent, and logic all failed, and in which an American President demonstrated intuitive wisdom to make the right choice in a very serious and difficult matter.

It is a story little known, even in U.S. History classes.  It is a story that explains much of how our American political parties came to be.  It is a case study in how logic and precedent (or obligation) can fail to predict the best course of action.  It contains hints about how that most elusive of human traits, wisdom, can be accessed to illuminate the truly wise course of action.  It is a story that demonstrates how, in the right circumstances and when employed by the right person, intuition can release an inner wisdom. 

The story is complicated.  In part, this is because allegiances were shifting and persons and groups were acting in ways that seem to contradict their stated ethics.  It is also because the wisdom we will look at does not involve the French Revolution itself, but the response in America to that revolution.  Because it is necessary to understand the situation before we can understand the response, I will write this in two parts.  Part ONE will address the historical background and the French Revolution itself.  Part TWO will be all about the American reaction. 

The Storming of the Bastille, July 1789

Welcome to Part ONE,

“The Situation and the Dilemma”

In 1781 the nation of France, under the authority of the French king Louis XVI, helped the new American nation come into being by providing military assistance.  Without the help of France, the Americans likely would not have succeeded in their attempted revolution.  This was particularly true at the final battle of the revolution, the Battle of Yorktown, in which the French Navy prevented reinforcements from reaching British forces.  Thus, the British Army was forced to surrender to American General George Washington. 

In 1789, the first President of the United States, George Washington, was inaugurated. 

In 1789, a revolution began in France.  The Revolutionaries in France admired the way the Americans had rejected the government of the British monarchy, how they had established a new government of their own dedicated to liberty.  The French Revolution was fueled by many of the same ideas and dedicated to many of the same goals as the American Revolution. 

The French Revolution, unlike the American Revolution, was fought in the homeland.  In the end the King and his government could not simply be rejected and left to continue their rule in the ancestral homeland.  In France the revolutionaries had to destroy King and government.  The result was a bloodbath which appalled even those who supported the stated goals of the French Revolution. 

In 1793, the French revolutionaries put their former king to the guillotine, and began the “Reign of Terror,” in which tens of thousands of French aristocracy and monarchists were executed in the streets.

In the wake of the French Revolution, France began conquering surrounding nations including Italy and the Netherlands.  The other established governments of Europe, including Britain, naturally opposed this.

Since the end of the fighting of the American Revolution in 1781, the United States of America had been at peace with Britain.  The people of America were closely affiliated with Britain by language, culture, a common history, and even family ties.

Britain wanted American help to oppose France.  The British were the forefathers and kinsmen of most Americans.  According to supporters, America’s natural allegiance was with Britain.

France wanted American help.  France had helped America win independence.  According to supporters, America shared the democratic values of the French Revolution, and owed loyalty because of the way France had supported Americans in their struggle for liberty.

The question facing the American people and government:  What to do about France?  Not an easy question to answer. 

What would you have done?  No matter how you answer that question, there was undoubtedly someone in the new United States who would’ve agreed with you, someone who would’ve violently disagreed with you, and someone who had an entirely different idea.

[To be continued in the next post…]