From “Realigning American Politics: Do We Still Hold These Truths?“ On Principle, Winter 2011, by Matthew Spaulding:
But let me begin by telling a story that I came across in writing my book, We Still Hold These Truths. It’s about a young man named Levi Preston who fought at the Battle of Concord. Now, we all know what happens there. The British want to capture munitions said to be held by the rebel colonists, so they send infantry out from Boston. To get to where they believe the weapons are stored, they must go through a small hamlet called Lexington in order to get to their target, which is Concord. The British are unaware that the patriots have been warned of their approach by, among others, a rider named Paul Revere. And so at the Concord Bridge a small number of untrained colonists armed with old muskets—fewer than the number of people in this room—confront the British and (as we know) force them to retreat all the way back to Boston.
Now, as I told that story, many of you were nodding because you were already familiar with it. With the gift of hindsight, we know what happened at Concord that day. We see Concord as a turning point in American history because we know what happened afterward. But those who were fighting at Concord did not know what was going to happen. So here is the question: not knowing the outcome, why go out and fight at Concord Bridge—against the strongest, best-armed, best-equipped, best trained and best-led military force the world had yet known?
That question was put several years later to Captain Levi Preston, now a veteran of the War for American Independence. Was it the intolerable oppressions of British colonial policy or the Stamp Act? “I never saw any stamps.” What about the tax on tea? “I never drank a drop of the stuff; the boys threw it all overboard.” It must have been all your reading of Harrington, Sidney, and Locke on the principles of liberty? “Never heard of’em. We read only the Bible, the Catechism, Watt’s Psalms and Hymns, and the Almanack.” Well, what was it? asked the interviewer. What made you take up arms against the British?
“Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.” End of interview.
It is often thought that American history is very complicated, and that you need several degrees and years of study to figure out what’s going on. Actually, our history revolves around some fairly simple (though profound) ideas. And sometimes those ideas come to the forefront of politics and, as we reconsider and debate their meaning, lead to great turning points of our history.
I believe this country is at a turning point right now, and that this moment may turn out to be just as decisive as the events at Lexington and Concord so many years ago, because of decisions being made by modernday Levi Prestons all over the country. But it will only happen if we are able to turn the sentiment of the moment into a new governing coalition intent on renewing constitutional government.
