In the Days of Johnny Tremain

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thought to have been the first man in America who believed that thethirteen weak little colonies could exist independent of the BritishEmpire. John Adams (his second cousin) was, as you know, thesecond President of the United States. The young lawyer JosiahQuincy, the orator James Otis, Dr. Church (later found to be atraitor), Dr. Warren (who died at Bunker Hill), and Billy Dawes(who rode with Paul Revere) all really lived. Most of them wereknown by every man, woman, and child in Boston. Everyone knewThomas Hutchinson, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts, agood and honest man who happened to be on the wrong side. Afterthe Boston Tea Party, when the British troops occupied Boston,their commanding officer was General Gage. Colonel Smith, whomJohnny knew and did not like, was one of his top officers. The hardswearing,popular Major Pitcairn and gallant young Earl Percy werealso actual men.In the story Johnny and most of his friends are "Whigs." Thiswas the political party which believed England had no right to tax usunless we could help choose the men who voted the taxes. If wecould not, we were little better than slaves. Free men obey only therulers of their own choice, they said then, and we say now. Most ofthe Whigs did not, at the beginning of hostilities, wish to separatefrom England. They felt that without the protection of the Britishfleet we would be too weak and divided to survive. All they wantedwas reform within the British Empire. But a year after the storyends, the Declaration of Independence formally broke us free fromEngland. You know those great words "We hold these truths to beself-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they areendowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . ." andthat cheerful line that among these rights are "life, liberty, and thepursuit of happiness."Opposed to the Whigs were the Tories who believed (asmany more recent governments have, or do now believe) that theaverage man is too ignorant or indifferent to know what is good forhim. The Tory thought government should be in the hands of thefew who would do the thinking and planning for everybody. He alsobelieved in a strong central government and that for the BritishEmpire this center should be London. The matter of taxationwithout representation he was apt to accept as a necessary evil.In England, as in the American colonies, there were Whigson one side and Tories on the other. No other nation had evergiven such freedom to her colonies as had England to her Americanpossessions. No other colonies could have revolted, because theother home governments never let them have a taste of theforbidden fruit of freedom. It was from England that the veryconceptions of freedom and individual liberty had come. Forhundreds of years, ever since the days of King John and MagnaCarta, Englishmen had been fighting for a government based on law- not on the whims of the ruler. It was a long and magnificent fight,and one of the greatest chapters in this struggle for "Englishliberties," as they called it, was the American Revolution.Many things have changed in the world and in the way welive, how we play, what we eat, the time it takes to go from place toplace, the ease with which we get an education. Today we makethings so inexpensively that even poor people can have what wereonce considered great luxuries. But one thing does not seem to havechanged at all, and that is human nature. Then as now people weregood and bad -- and most people a mixture of both. Some peoplewere generous, others stingy. Some children were bright and (thenas now) some as stupid and lazy as Dove. We still have girls asbeautiful as Lavinia, and little show-offs like Isannah, and kind,gentle girls who make as cutting remarks as Cilla. And boys who,until they learn better, are as cocky as Johnny Tremain.
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