Quote of the Day (Patriot Mercy Otis Warren, on American Liberty vs. ‘The Arts of Domestic Enemies’)

“The United States of America embrace too large a portion of the globe, to expect their isolated situation will forever secure them from the encroachments of foreign nations, and the attempts of potent Europeans to interrupt their peace. But if the education of youth, both public and private, is attended to, their industrious and economical habits maintained, their moral character and that assemblage of virtues supported, which is necessary for the happiness of individuals and of nations, there is not much danger that they will for a long time be subjugated by the arms of foreigners, or that their republican system will be subverted by the arts of domestic enemies. Yet, probably some distant day will exhibit the extensive continent of America, a portrait analogous to the other quarters of the globe, which have been laid waste by ambition, until misery has spread her sable veil over the inhabitants. But this will not be done, until ignorance, servility and vice, have led them to renounce their ideas of freedom, and reduced them to that grade of baseness which renders them unfit for the enjoyment of that rational liberty which is the natural inheritance of man. The expense of blood and treasure, lavished for the purchase of freedom, should teach Americans to estimate its real worth, nor ever suffer it to be depreciated by the vices of the human mind, which are seldom single.”—American playwright, poet, historian, and patriot Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814), History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations (1805)

Happy Independence Day! Remember, as Benjamin Franklin noted, that we have a republic—if we can keep it.

Oh, and while we’re at it—please don’t start with the notion that Mercy Otis Warren was some kind of DEI inclusion in the study of early American history (as some in the current Presidential administration undoubtedly believe). 

She was one of the first public intellectuals in the republic, frequently corresponding (and sometimes jousting) with John Adams—and, through her patriot husband James Warren, deeply familiar with many of the major players in the American Revolution and the foundation of the nation. 

Unable by law and custom of the time to serve either in the military or in politics, she wielded her pen to influence minds.

Her explanation for the rise of the Committees of Correspondence that sprang up throughout the American colonies against British misrule offers lessons in hope for those looking to resistance in a current time of dismay and trial:

“When afterwards all legislative authority was suspended, the courts of justice shut up and the last traits of British government annihilated in the colonies, this new institution became a kind of juridical tribunal. Its injunctions were influential beyond the hopes of its most sanguine friends, and the recommendations of the committees of correspondence had the force of law. Thus, as despotism frequently springs from anarchy, a regular democracy sometimes arises from the severe encroachments of despotism.”