Jay Lovestone

“ On this day marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from those who exploited our forefathers in 1776 it is time for us to think very seriously of the necessary steps to be taken for signing a new Declaration of Independence—a Declaration of Independence from our exploiters to-day.
We can proudly tread the paths beaten by our revolutionary forefathers. They can teach us much. ”

“ Since the continuation of the Civil War the American capitalists have been consolidating their hold on the resources, industries and government of the United States. But since then there has also been developing a definite proletariat. The proletarianization of the United States has been increasing at an accelerating pace since 1893—the time marking roughly the disappearance of free land and the establishment of the basis for capitalist monopolist control of the basic resources of the country. The struggle waged in the first revolution must be continued by the American workers to-day. ”

“ Let us examine these "eternal truths" that are hurled so gratuitously by the exploiters at the workingman.
It ill becomes the defenders of the bourgeois class which is a small minority of our population to speak of the sanctity, of the inviolability of majority rule. American democracy to-day is the most crass, tho in spots well camouflaged, expression of minority rule in the interests of a minority, at the costly expense of the vast majority of the population, in the world. ”

“ It has been said by no less an authority than Admiral Mahan that the American revolution was really won on the high seas in the naval battles between the fleets of Spain and France on one side and Great Britain on the other. ”

“ Professor Edgerton has well summed up the role of foreign governments in helping bring the first American revolution to a successful conclusion when he said: "The war had lasted long enough for clear-headed Americans to recognize the extreme difficulty of bringing it to a successful conclusion without foreign allies." ”

“ We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated masters, or RESISTANCE BY FORCE. THE LATTER IS OUR CHOICE. We have counted the cost of the contest, and nothing is so dreadful as voluntary slavery. ”

“ The American workers have splendid traditions to live up to. Comrade Lenin has well pointed that out some time ago. Our traditions of struggle in the first American Civil War in 1776, in the second American Civil War in 1861, in the subsequent heroic battles against the railroad capitalists, the coal kings, and the oil barons affords plenty of inspiration. ”

“ In the bourgeois sense of the word, Americanization is a very dangerous thing. In the bolshevik sense of the word, Americanization at once affords a hope for the future and practical results in the present. ”

“ The workers took seriously the slogan of the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. While the wealthy stayed at home, or often hired substitutes to fight for them, the workers, the mechanics, the poor farmers had to go to the front. ”

“ More than that, what is most valuable for us is to compare the tactics, the practices and activities of the American masses and their leaders in 1776 with the advice now being given to the American workers by those whom they still, unfortunately in the main, recognize as leaders to-day. ”

“ The people had been under the delusion that they had fought an eight years' war for the rights of man and at the time of the formation of the constitution many towns objected strenuously to this further limitation of the franchise, Dorchester claimed that men might be 'useful and respectable members of society' even if they did not possess £50. ”

“ Much ink is being spilled by the robed, untitled and well-paid defenders of the present system in their attacks on the opponents of the capitalist order. These apologists of the exploiting class are shouting against the revolutionists. ”

“ To speak of Americanizing our Party in the bolshevik sense of the word, means to speak of the Party adopting tactics based on the objective conditions in America, Examination of these objective conditions will indicate that historical traditions much as they appear to the superficial observer as abstract forces, are in reality very concrete elements, very substantial phases of the objective conditions at hand and transmitted. ”

“ Many of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in 1776 preached radical doctrines to the workers, but these leaders failed to put these doctrines into practice except against the British ruling class. ”

“ They were tarred and feathered and they were treated much more roughly in many respects than the Czarists who were for maintaining the old reactionary government in Russia were by the Bolsheviks. The Communists of to-day can learn many lessons from the American Revolutionists of 1776 in treatment of counter revolutionists, of Loyalists, of Tories. ”

“ They inspect the trade and correspondence of every merchant; watch the conduct of any inhabitant; may send for, catechise and stigmatize him if he does not appear to follow the Instructions of their Congress. ”