Texas Scorecard by Michael Quinn Sullivan June 19, 2020
Why We Must Fight
So we can govern ourselves, thank you very much.
We have forgotten just how extraordinary it is to be Americans. We have allowed the notion of being an American to be common, just like everyone else. But the fact is, America is anything but common – at least, in its origins.
In the early 1840s a young historian named Mellen Chamberlain sought out one of the last surviving participants from the Battle of Concord to ask him about that experience. The minuteman’s name was Levi Preston, who was 91 at the time of their meeting.
Chamberlain asked Preston why he had fought the British. The answers weren’t what the historian expected, for Preston did not speak of the oppressive British rule, the stamp tax, the tea tax or the writings of philosopher John Locke.
Preston’s answer still takes my breath away: “Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: We always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to and they meant that we shouldn’t.â€
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