In one of his more hyperbolic statements about liberty and freedom, which he was wont to say from time to time, Thomas Jefferson remarked that occasionally it was necessary for the tree of liberty to be fertilized with the blood of patriots and tyrants [1]. As someone who has been largely disinclined throughout my life to fertilize any trees with my blood, certainly not as a tyrant or bully, I feel it has been fortunate that through most of American history that such calls to martyrdom have been rare. In general, except at moments of extreme crisis, there has been such a wellspring of respect and honor for the rule of law and for the processes of republican government that those who exceeded their constitutional mandate in the eyes of the general population have been subtly rebuked at the ballot box, and most situations have found some sort of peaceful resolution by which everyone could be content, because it mattered more to be united together than it meant to win every single battle.

Yet we cannot forget that our nation was founded in rebellion. It is impossible to be a genuinely and knowledgeably patriotic American without conceding the legitimacy of rebellion, revolt, revolution, call it what you will, under certain circumstances. After all, we are the children of a successful revolution, heirs to those who fought and died to set us free from an empire which sought to rule us and which declared in a law passed less than a decade before revolt broke out that they had the right to pass any law they desired in governing us. Although I myself bear no ill will towards Great Britain, even if my family had somewhat of an ancestral grudge against them on account for their being monarchs and all, nevertheless we were founded in hostility to imperialism and the refusal of Great Britain to turn the United States into its first Dominion. Be that as it may, I think that even as we celebrate liberty and independence, we often forget that this independence was the result of a brutal and lengthy struggle in a deeply divided territory, and that its conduct and origin required justification.

What are the grounds that justify revolt, not only to ourselves, but to our neighbors, our potential allies, and to God above? There are times when the Bible specifically endorses rebellious actions, many of which can be read in books like Judges and 1 Samuel, where God heard the voice of Israel crying out over oppression and raised up a leader to free them from the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, or some other such oppressor. There are other times, most notably during the fall of Judah, where God specifically commanded Judah’s leaders to submit to the tyrannical rule of Nebuchadnezzar because that punishment was being brought upon Judah for its flagrant and repeated sins against God and others. The will of God is deeply mysterious, as some would-be revolutions die with a whimper, like the Whiskey Rebellion or Shay’s Rebellion, some end in an unsuccessful bloodbath, like the rebellion of 1861-1865, and some succeed, like the American Revolution. Not all calls to liberty are answered with success, and what we think of as the justice of our cause and the reality of God’s will are complex and hard to know in advance.

We cannot induce God or other people so that our own plans may succeed. Our own success requires the utmost of effort to do the best we can, to marshal the largest coalitions possible, and to rely on God to do the rest, as there are always contingencies that we cannot plan for and matters that do not go according to our plan or any human plan. Even successful efforts at revolt and revolution have consequences that are unforeseen by the people who lead and encourage them. The American Revolution, for example, far from being a simple and conservative revolt by local provincial elites, ended up prompting a lengthy and still unresolved conflict on the nature of American nationalism, and the way that federalism of some sort provides a necessary safety valve from pressures at unwanted uniformity. Likewise, by bringing in commoners as the necessary muscle behind the appeals of the elites for an independent republic, those commoners were rewarded, within a couple of generations, with a decisive voice in shaping the political landscape through their votes, and even if those common people were not always or often wise, the fact that revolution had appealed to the people of the United States meant that their voice was heard and their views were respected, at least eventually.

It is not an overstatement to say that I am deeply concerned for the fate of my beloved country. I am concerned not merely because its people are unwise and seem hellbent on self-destruction, although I mourn for that too. I mourn because we are demonstrating a lack of moral self-restraint of the kind that is the only sure defense of our freedoms. I mourn the fact that we are losing the ability to compromise gracefully because worldviews and belief systems are so wildly opposed that no honorable compromise appears possible, with a substantial part of our population deeply aggrieved to the point of civil (or uncivil) disobedience with every decision. I lament the fact that Congress passes laws it does not read, that the executive branch refuses to enforce laws that exist for our well-being, and that unelected judges make law from the bench, and that no one can be trusted to do their job and restrain themselves from mortal folly and error. I mourn the fact that our nation is beyond the point of being saved through elections, and yet has no stomach for national days of fasting and humiliation, to repent and seek God’s ways rather than mere self-justification and the silencing of any who would oppose our goals and our aims. Not only that, I am concerned that the mourning has yet to begin in earnest, and that there is much left to mourn before we see the light again, for our decadence can only have a tragic end, however it ends.

[1] http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/100