Putting Trump’s Conviction in Historical Perspective

For many conservatives in the United States and some abroad, the reaction to Donald Trump’s conviction in NYC has been some variant of the phrase, ‘This is unprecedented in US history.’  To which we must reply that this simply is not the case.

But citizens of the States are notoriously illiterate of history.  There is a reason for this, which we will touch on later.  But for the moment it is necessary to recite some of the precedents in US history for the weaponized court conviction of Donald Trump.

First up is the Whiskey Rebellion, which occurred in western Pennsylvania.  It was more or less a replay of the colonists’ rebellion against the British tax on tea, except this time it was small farmers and producers rebelling against a federal tax on whiskey, implemented in 1791.

Pres. Jefferson helped repeal the hated taxes in 1802, but the hypocrisy of the whole affair is palpable:  The very people who used a tea tax to agitate a war for independence from Great Britain were quick to squelch a similar maneuver from being used by the poor working-class folk of western Pennsylvania via the new federal government’s overwhelming military force.  That was an ominous beginning for the plain folk of the States (i.e., the same type of people who are now ardent Trump supporters, who are facing the same type of punitive measures by their elite) under their new federal constitution, written and ratified just a few years earlier in 1787-8.  But more disturbing actions were to come. 

The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed during the Adams administration in 1798, and bear an incredibly strong resemblance to what Mr. Trump is undergoing in NYC.  Under these Acts, criticism of the federal government became a treasonous crime that could be punished by fines or a jail sentence.  Benjamin Franklin’s grandson was charged under the act, dying before his trial, but the case of Rep. Matthew Lyon is so similar to Mr. Trump’s that it deserves special notice:

A sitting member of Congress even found himself caught up in the web spun by the Sedition Act. Matthew Lyon represented Vermont in Congress and also served as the editor of the Republican paper The Scourge of Aristocracy. During his re-election campaign, Lyon wrote a reply to his Federalist opponents, accusing President Adams of engaging in a “continual grasp for power” and of having “an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice.” He also blasted the president for using religion to drum up war against France, writing he could not support the executive, “when I shall see the sacred name of religion employed as a state engine to make mankind hate.”

Lyon was indicted on sedition charges on Oct. 5, 1798, and arrested the next day. A federal judge fined Lyon $1,000 and sentenced him to four months in prison. (4) He served time in a 16′ x 12′ cell used for felons, counterfeiters, thieves, and runaway slaves. Judge William Paterson – an avid nationalist and supporter of the Federalist Party – lamented the fact he couldn’t impose a harsher sentence.

Lyon won reelection while in jail by a landslide.

Will Trump also win re-election ‘by a landslide?’  Leftists ought to pause to reflect on what their actions may bring about.

Nevertheless, the Alien and Sedition Acts also expired under Jefferson’s administration.  One might think by these acts that Jefferson’s years as president would be bright with the light of liberty, but he also abused federal power.  His embargo measures during the Napoleonic wars in Europe were a cause of much hardship in New England, bringing the commerce of her great shipping fleet to a standstill.  State governments rebelled, refusing to cooperate with federal officials tasked with enforcing them, and smuggling became widespread (full details are provided in J. J. Kilpatrick’s The Sovereign States).

These embargo acts would eventually be repealed, but other federal embargo laws would continue to stir up strife in New England through the War of 1812, culminating in the pro-secession Hartford Convention of 1814.

It is telling that callous, repressive measures by the political elite were committed even by Pres. Jefferson, one of the presidents most friendly towards the ideals of the Enlightenment/classical liberalism.  This makes the actions of Pres. Lincoln, who was the opposite of Mr. Jefferson – a Cromwellian figure, in fact, per Prof. Mel Bradford – all the more predictable.  Pres. Lincoln launched a war to prevent peaceful Southern secession (the falsely named ‘Civil War’ of 1861-5), and his actions during that war are amongst some of the worst by a government of the US against its citizens.  Some of the most egregious include the jailing of upwards of 30,000 citizens of the Northern States, deporting Ohio’s Rep. Vallandigham for opposing an income tax, silencing hundreds of newspapers, and intimidating voters.

Other notable parts of this pattern of precedents include the violent, corrupt federal Reconstruction of the South, which followed the War; the assassination of Pres. Kennedy (1963), likely at the behest of his Vice President Lyndon Johnson, among other characters; and the Ruby Ridge killings by the FBI (1992).

What conservatives saw in a NYC courtroom on May 30^th, 2024, shouldn’t have startled them so badly.  Things equally bad, and things much worse, have been done by their governmental elite in the past.  But, as we noted above, the historical amnesia of the peoples of the States precludes this.  And the cause of this forgetfulness transcends in importance the foolish and immoral acts of this or that administration or official.

That cause is the very thing upon which they pride themselves so highly:  American exceptionalism.  The freedom of the individual to chart his own destiny (the main aspect of American exceptionalism) necessarily means the severing of ties to the past and ties to community – for one to truly become ‘anything he wants to be,’ all restraints must be removed, however benevolent they may seem, including the most basic duties to one’s religion, family and neighborhood, history, class, culture, and even one’s own sex.

This hyper-individualism of theirs also leaves them vulnerable to the thing they dread the most:  a tyrannical, lawless government.  Because they are so busy pursuing their own individual dreams of happiness, they haven’t got enough solidarity either with their ancestors of the past or with their neighbors of the present, with whom they could potentially join to defend themselves against such a government.

Memories of forefathers would make a marked difference in conservative responses to the Trump trial trainwreck.  Instead of apocalyptic dread and furious anger, they would have a calmer, more sober demeanor as they placed this event in a broader context, remembering that great-grandfather, etc., also faced their share of difficulties, but were able to endure and overcome – and they would know that they could do likewise, with God’s help.

For Dixie, the exploits of their ancestors in their war against the Northern invaders would be especially powerful and uplifting if they would recall them.

With valiant deeds like these in mind, who would be overly vexed by a petty district attorney in NYC trying to stir up trouble?

The same is even more true of our fathers in the Christian Faith.  A holy patron like St. Sava for the Serbian people is a deep wellspring of inspiration, answering the cries of their fellow countrymen for help countless times over the years.

The ethnic groups of the cultural regions of the US have patrons of this sort – the southeastern English of Yankee New England have St. Botolph (+680), for whom Boston (Botolph’s Town) is named, and St. Edmund, the martyr-king of East Anglia (+869); the southwestern and northern English of Dixie have St. Alfred the Great (+899), king of Wessex, St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (+687), the Wonderworker of All England, and much more recently Blessed Dmitri of Dallas (+2011); the Africans of Dixie have St. Anthony the Great (+356) and St. Moses the Black (+400); the Germans and Scandinavians of the Great Plains have St. Ansgar of Bremen (+865), a wonderful missionary, and St. Olaf of Norway (+1030), another martyr-king; and so on.  But the disdain of the typical American toward the past prevents him from befriending any of them.

Treasuring their ties to their mother-countries would aid the peoples of the States in recovering a healthy attitude toward their ancestors.  It is more than a little reassuring, then, to see Louisiana, for instance, encouraging French language immersion in her public schools, along with other efforts to strengthen her ties to France and French culture.

The South more broadly, as the region most respectful of tradition in the union of States, has a strong history of doing this very thing.  Open a biography of a notable Southerner (Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Rev. Robert Lewis Dabney, and so on), and one will find more often than not a genealogy of his family, tracing his roots back to his home country across the Atlantic.  These are examples from which all the States could benefit.

Thus, conservatives of the US are faced with a choice:  They can continue down their ‘exceptional’ path of excessive individualism, which helps to empower the very tyranny they despise, or they can return to the ‘normal’ world of Christendom, their links to which were gravely weakened when they began their experiment in post-Christian, Enlightenment liberty in 1776.

They will find that tradition and historical knowledge empower and enrich; too much focus on the individual and his present wants and desires, enervates.  If they will combine a love for tradition and history with the valuable institutions and practices that they still retain (the Christian Church, the family, political power dispersed amongst many centers and levels, common law, private and public schools, etc.), they will reduce the number and severity of tyrannical outbursts of their elite, and, if any should arise, they will not be quite as discombobulated as they find themselves at present over the Alvin Bragg inquisition of Donald Trump, but will instead be better situated to mount a meaningful and coherent response.

-By Walt Garlington