The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #6
…In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance…

Of the many asseverations (earnest affirmations; positive declarations) posited by the founders of the American Republic, perhaps the most consanguineous (of the same blood or origin; descended from the same ancestor) to Alexander Hamilton’s thoughts on “the important question”, would certainly be Thomas Jefferson’s opinion on the efficacy (having the power to produce a desired effect; effective) of reason. With penetrating clarity, Mr. Jefferson assigned two principle criteria by which FREEDOM is sustained.

As a practical matter, Mr. Jefferson advocated the habitual and systematic use of reason and enlightened debate by a citizenry to secure FREEDOM and all our natural rights, by establishing a government that derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed”. Accordingly, we are enabled to prudently decide Mr. Hamilton’s “…important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force…”

Secondly, Mr. Jefferson implicitly affirmed the absolute necessity for the employment of the study and knowledge of history. Indeed, the “art of reasoning” becomes entirely ineffectual, nay impossible, if the citizen does not understand what a republican nation is, what historical events necessitated its establishment and how it is superior to other existing forms of government, to say nothing of possessing an historical grasp of the political precursors (one that precedes and indicates the approach of another; predecessor) of generations past.

For that matter, the “art of reasoning” itself becomes, in the first instance, utterly inapproachable to the citizen who is historically unaware of the qualitative superiority of empirical-rationalism (reason, properly understood) to other modes of thinking about things.

It is precisely this method of thinking about things, from our cosmology (that branch of astronomy that deals with the origin, structure and space-time relationships of the universe), to our political structures, to our public and private financial and economic arrangements, to our moral and ethical systems, that returns us repeatedly and unfailingly to a philosophical source- specifically, the study of Logic- and therefore makes this present discourse intimately relevant and essential to every citizen.

It is my opinion, reinforced by those of the Founders of the American Republic, our present national troubles, the current American Crisis, and the subsequent threat to FREEDOM were precipitated and presently are magnified to the extent WE THE PEOPLE and our leaders have failed to engage in this discussion; our disinclination, that is, to answer Alexander Hamilton’s “important question”.

The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #5
The American Republic has lost its way. My people suffer from lack of knowledge and the path of understanding they no longer search out. Virtue, Truth, Goodness and Beauty are the desired objects of an enlightened citizenry. Yet the recognition that the pursuit of Wisdom is essential to the furtherance of self government my people no longer grasp.

And so we toil in vain and labor in futility, and we raise-up children doomed to misfortune. We plant much but harvest little; the wealth entrusted to us we have placed in purses with holes; we have squandered our precious inheritance. My people clamor loudly for their rights, but seem to forget our responsibility, our obligation, our sacred trust to preserve FREEDOM and faithfully pass it along to our posterity. We should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

We once swore a solemn oath to trust neither Monarch nor Mob; our forefathers taught us to eschew Tyranny and Anarchy, yet we have yielded to both. We have dispelled the light of Reason and Truth, so we are no longer able to appraise the Darkness into which we have arrived. And we are exceedingly perplexed by the calamity that has befallen us.

Alexander Hamilton, writing in the Federalist #1, unerringly posed the central question that directed the debate over the proposed draft of the Constitution then, even as this same question bears heavily upon the continuation of the American Cause of FREEDOM today. Are we indeed, a society capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice? Or are we forever dependent upon chance and the coercion of the State for our political order?

To seriously propose that a distinct and real danger to our FREEDOM derives from our system of thought- our Western intellectual tradition- particularly as a result of the esteemed work of modern science, surely invites a range of responses, from bemused skepticism to the severest criticism. What after all, should we utilize in order to understand the world and advance knowledge, if not the most highly developed form of reasoning yet devised in all of human history?

And what are we to say of all the advancements gained thus far in human knowledge generally and in the physical sciences specifically? Surely the intellectual and material benefits we enjoy as a result of the growth of our knowledge and the activity of our science are no mere illusion? No, these benefits are no mere illusion but then, neither are its appalling failures. And I would never advise my fellow citizens to scrap our magnificent Western intellectual tradition in favor of, well, what else is there more effective than empirical-rationalism?

But it is essential I remember to remind America that our rational system of thought as it has matured since the Enlightenment has produced totalitarian as well as democratic government. Research universities and libraries as well as ministries of propaganda; the beneficent medical research of a Dr. Jonas Salk and the depraved activities of a Dr. Josef Mengele; a Franklin Delano Roosevelt and an Adolf Hitler; a Henry R. Luce and a Joseph Goebbels; and progressive and peaceful communities as well as the unmistakable stench of the Gulag and Concentration Camp.

In order to promote a proper understanding amongst my fellow citizens of the potential of our ideas- whether we shall henceforth enjoy FREEDOM or suffer Tyranny- I shall more closely investigate the nature and methods of our Western intellectual tradition, our system of thought and its assumptions, to fully understand how we’ve lost our way.

The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #4
…It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force…

My Dear & Most Excellent Publius:
How wonderfully, and with a felicitous economy of words, you have encapsulated the very kernel of the American Cause. In your essays you sought, despite various literary flaws (though I am personally hard pressed to find any), to “promote the cause of truth, and lead to a right judgment of the true interests of the community.”

In arguing for the adoption of the Constitution proposed by the Philadelphia Convention in 1787- no doubt a most rigorous struggle- you were aided by the prevailing sentiment held by citizens of goodwill: that Truth and Reason are real and indispensable standards by which legitimate and efficacious government should be conceived.

Today, the citizens of this great Republic you and your colleagues so tirelessly labored to establish, have come largely under the sway of a most dangerous sophistry. Advanced by the 18th century Enlightenment writers of the French Encyclopedie (1751-65), d’Holbach’s Systeme de la nature (1770), and the Positivism of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), these ideas combined to eradicate all notions of objective and absolute Truth, as well as Reason that went beyond the “testimony of observation and experience”.

Certainly, Thomas Paine’s celestial article of FREEDOM and such estimations of value as Heaven might render would- at the hands of the French philosophes- fall into disrepute, being exemplars of clericalism, a priori or metaphysical speculations and, therefore, hostile to the more progressive doctrines of naturalism and materialism. I shall continue to keep you informed of these events through the Committees of Correspondence.

I am, as always, Your Sincere Friend & Brother in the American Cause of FREEDOM-
Montag.

The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #3
One might understandably wonder what conceivable danger exists to America’s FREEDOM that, while threatening harm, nevertheless appears benign- even beneficial. If something is really noxious, wouldn’t its destructive character clearly be recognizable as it worked through, for example, the press, public education, internet media and public assemblies? Is it at all possible for something to be at once dangerous and harmful, while yielding benefit?

Furthermore, if this danger to our FREEDOM has a long history- going all the way back to the era of our founding- wouldn’t its destructive character have been detected some time ago? Wouldn’t this danger have elicited some telltale sign of its presence, over and above the usual problems that beset any society? In short, wouldn’t there be some fairly conspicuous indicator that FREEDOM is under siege?

Yes, most certainly there would be tell tale signs; there would very much be an indicator of impending danger, if one were willing to take stock of all the evidence. But again, this danger to our FREEDOM is most subtle and is often made to appear attractive by the benefit it otherwise conveys.

The source of this danger to our FREEDOM proceeds from our Western intellectual heritage, our system of thought, and the far-reaching assumptions about our universe it has come to produce. Particularly as a result of the work of that most esteemed and useful of Western intellectual activities: modern science.

I recall Professor Russell Kirk’s valuable insight, in his book The American Cause, about the “three great concepts [that] are the cement of American society…[that] make possible the ordered liberty that is among the chief justifications of the American Cause.” These concepts are justice, order and freedom, this last being defined as the “principle and process by which a man is made master of his own life. It implies the right of all members of adult society to make their own choices in most matters.”

He goes on to say, “A slave is a person whose actions, in all important respects, are directed by others…”. It stands to reason then, that a person is not free to make their own choices and direct their own actions to the extent that their thinking is controlled and determined by others, whatever the supposed benefit to society- or science- is claimed.

The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #2
As the Committees of Correspondence gain exposure throughout the various states of our Republic, I must remember to communicate to my fellow citizens three extremely important points about the American Crisis. First, the danger to our FREEDOM of which I speak should not be considered just one more national problem, to be added to an already long list that includes the current mortgage-financial meltdown, the energy crisis, immigration, the war on terror, etc., though this danger bears upon all of them. In fact, this danger actually generates these problems, as well as making each immeasurably worse.

Second, this danger to our FREEDOM has an extremely long history- going back to the era of our founding- though it has gained enormous momentum and force since World War Two. Third, the time grows very short to oppose and counteract this danger. Free and open elections, an unfettered press, widespread literacy through public education, the internet, public forums, freedom of assembly- and of worship, cannot by themselves ensure our FREEDOM. Indeed, these are all necessary, but not sufficient. In fact, this danger is so extremely insidious (subtle and seductive, while treacherous or harmful) that its force and vitality can be amplified through these institutions, yet one might say its appearance is benign, perhaps even benevolent.

The American Crisis

These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly:-'Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated...

I recall the eloquent words Thomas Paine composed to rally the American cause in the dark days of December 1776, as General Washington’s army faced near total military defeat. The American lamp of Liberty, lit in July of that same year by Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, was in peril and would soon go out.


Paine’s pamphlet galvanized the political and military resolve of the American colonies to continue the fight against Britain. The American Crisis was read to General Washington’s army, soon to emerge from Pennsylvania- greatly diminished but determined- for a winter attack across the Delaware at Trenton the day after Christmas, 1776. The pamphlet’s effect was electric: the battle was won, as was the ensuing war. And ultimately the American cause.

Today, America once again faces a crisis that goes well beyond economics and is more profound than any political dispute. Unlike the conspicuous threat Great Britain’s policies posed to the colonies, the current threat to our liberty has gone largely unnoticed. Ominously, this danger remains completely unaddressed by both presidential candidates in this campaign season, though it impinges upon all areas of our society, as well as menacing our FREEDOM. It has also escaped the attention of America’s greatest scholars, scientists and even the nation’s media.


Upon reflection, I think it wise to employ- as in the days leading up to the American Revolution- Committees of Correspondence in order to gain the attention of my fellow citizens to the immanent peril, and to coordinate a popular response to it. Absent this, free institutions, individual liberty and a stable society will increasingly become scarce.