The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 FREEING THE INDIVIDUAL 551revolutionary and "social" revolutionarycategories, categoriesdrawn from other revolutions andother circumstances. It is a journalistichabit into which manyhistorians have fallen to attributean absoluteness to the views andthrusts of men which violates bothwhat they intend and do. Debates,even great historical debates, canbe quite misleading. Men often advancepositions with more certaintythan they feel, appear to be unalterablein their determination,yet may shortly yield to the otherside with good humor when theyhave lost. Some historians appearto have no difficulty whatever indiscovering men's motives, butthe fact is that we are not privyto their motives.The subject to be treated belowis the reforms and innovationsmade by Americans mostly in thedecade after the declaring of in.:.dependence. The above prelude wasmade necessary because the presentwriter both wishes to makeknown the fact that he is familiarwith the cross currents of interpretationofthese years by twentiethcentury historians and to disavowmany of the categories thathave been used. After the Americansbroke from England they didmake some changes; they didsometimes differ among themselvesas to what the direction ofchange should be; but there is noneed to question their motives orany solid basis for saying for certainwhat they were. Above all,there is no need to push this oneinto that category and that oneinto this, with the category beingexcessively large for the matter atissue and much too confining forthe man over any period of time.More rubbish has been writtenabout the class positions and interestsof the men of these timesthan any other in American history,so far as I can make out. Thepresent writer has neither thespace· nor inclination to spend energyupon trying to refute whathas not been well established, inany case.The Main Thrust of ChangesWhat is established is that therewere some changes made duringthese years. The main thrust ofthese changes is the freeing of theindividual: freeing him from foreigndomination, from variousgovernment compulsions, fromclass prescriptions, and for greatercontrol of his own affairs. And,in conjunction with these, therewas an effort to erect safeguardsaround him that would protecthim in the exercise of his rights.The thrust to do these things wasmade along several differentpaths, and each of these is worthsome attention.A primary aim of the Ameri-