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Help us defend this inheritance.
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. — Alexander Hamilton
It is an astonishing thing to consider that the leaders of a colonial rebellion on the far side of the Atlantic were so rightly self-regarding. They acted, wrote, fought, agitated, and even deceived themselves and each other as if they were the main characters on the world stage. The marrow-deep conviction that the world would look to American example could have seemed, in the generations hence, as the most insolent kind of arrogance: a bunch of jumped-up pelt traders, stockjobbers, merchant shippers, barristers, and tavern men pretending to overturn centuries of divinely ordained rule. And yet, history vindicated them.
At National Review, we honor their legacy by continuing to fight for and defend the audacious national project they made possible. If you can give as part of our ongoing webathon, please do so here.
The American revolutionaries’ freedom struggle has defined guerilla campaigns against imperial and crown power across South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our launch as a commercial republic has inspired other developing economies to look to Hamiltonian wisdom, even countries that were one-time rivals: Germany, Japan, South Korea. The idea, 250 years ago, that most of the world would call itself democratic was just a dream. Some countries do so today in name only — but even the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s calling itself that is a tribute to the virtue of democracy. And yet, we also have a tradition of well-wishing, of supporting the freedom of others, even when they fail to support it themselves. “America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity,” John Quincy Adams said in his famous 1821 address.
Thomas Jefferson called out our frontier character, describing “a rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry . . . advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye.” And even as the Western frontier closed, new ones opened, and are opening still. American industry leads on artificial intelligence and in the colonization of space. The American tradition is a treasury that grows and renews its value from one age to another.
This inheritance has in it the resources to solve today’s problems, and those we will encounter. National Review was founded to defend this inheritance — our constitutionalism, a republican culture — and to invigorate those artistic and entrepreneurial spirits that make our country so prosperous, attractive, and envied by the world, if often imperfectly imitated. If you would like to help us in that cause, please give to our webathon as we head into Fourth of July celebrations.
In the spirit of our shared history, those who give $250 or more will receive a copy of Rick Brookhiser’s new biography of Lafayette (to ship when it publishes on June 30), the French gentleman and hero of two revolutions who helped deliver us from British rule into independence.
Friends of liberty should take these days to rejoice.