The famous and great leaders during the Revolution of America, had more than the interests of the common man at heart. Among others, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John Adams, were highly educated men who also had much to gain by controlling the less educated masses beneath them. The methods of control used by the Revolutionary elite sometimes worked, and other times did not.
Edmond Morgan refers to the Revolution and the elite, “The fact that the lower ranks were involved in the contest itself was generally a struggle for office and power between members of an upper class: the new against the established.”1 Author Howard Zinn adds, ”When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries. They created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command.”2
During these years, there were many riots and uprisings against the Revolutionary elite. From 1776 to 1771, white farmers organized a “Regulator Movement” against corrupt and wealthy officials. The Regulators sought to prevent collection of taxes and confiscation of property of those who were late paying their taxes. The Governor’s response was to defeat them in military battle; six of them were hung.”3
The Continental Congress, who governed the colonies throughout the war, demonstrated another method of control by Revolutionary leaders. The Congress granted half-pay for officers who fought to the end, while ignoring the common soldier, who was not paid. When the soldiers rebelled, George Washington responded by giving half the men furloughs, and discharging the other half.4 Another mutiny in New Jersey, where two hundred men ignored their officers, was met again with military force, and resulted in two of the dissenters being shot by firing squads consisting of their friends.5 George Washington also turned down the desires of the black slaves seeking freedom to fight in the Revolutionary army. This resulted in many black slaves joining the forces of the British allies to eventually gain their freedom.6
American Indians were also greatly manipulated by the political leaders, who pushed them off their lands, and killed them if they resisted. “Under orders from the British general Jeffrey Amherst, the commander of Fort Pitts gave the attacking Indian chiefs, with whom he was negotiating, blankets from the smallpox hospital. It was a pioneering effort at what is now called biological warfare.”7
Next we see abuse of power in the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it a crime to write or say anything “false, scandalous and malicious” against the President, Congress or the government. The Sedition Act seemed to be in direct violation of the First Amendment, but ten dissenters were imprisoned for disagreeing with the government.8
The methods of control used by the leaders of Revolutionary America, were real and can be best summed up in the words of leader Alexander Hamilton, ”All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people….The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct permanent share in the government….Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy….”9
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