{"id":2018263,"date":"2023-08-31T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-heroes-from-american-history-were-conspiracy-theorists\/"},"modified":"2023-08-31T15:27:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:27:58","slug":"these-heroes-from-american-history-were-conspiracy-theorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-heroes-from-american-history-were-conspiracy-theorists\/","title":{"rendered":"American history&#8217;s &#8216;conspiracy theorists&#8217; were true heroes."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthese-heroes-from-american-history-were-conspiracy-theorists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2018263&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>These Heroes \u200bfrom American History\u2062 Were &#8216;Conspiracy\u200c Theorists&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-heroes-from-american-history-were-conspiracy-theorists\/\" title=\"American history's 'conspiracy theorists' were true heroes.\">establishment media marginalizes dissenting voices<\/a> \u2064by dismissing them as \u201cconspiracy theorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tucker Carlson \u200bhas received this treatment. So has Democratic presidential candidate Robert\u200b F.\u200d Kennedy Jr. They are crazy, the establishment media assures us. Ignore them.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, we all know the template. Nonconformists, \u2062the establishment scribes and talking heads will\u2063 say, peddle \u201cdebunked\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d theories\u200c based on \u201cdisinformation.\u201d Often, the \u201cdisinformation\u201d\u200b originates in \u200dRussia. The\u2063 stories write themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Those who understand U.S. history, however, should wear the \u200c\u201cconspiracy theorist\u201d label as a badge of \u200bhonor.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed,\u2062 three of \u200cAmerica\u2019s Pantheon-level icons \u2014 John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and \u2062Abraham Lincoln \u2014 described\u200d the\u2064 political events of their day \u200din conspiratorial terms.<\/p>\n<h3>John Adams and \u2064Thomas Jefferson<\/h3>\n<p>Each year, schoolchildren learn \u200cthat the American Revolution began as a dispute\u200d over \u201ctaxation \u200cwithout\u2063 representation.\u201d Like most partial truths, this dry phrase strips the matter of its \u2064vibrancy and urgency.<\/p>\n<p>Adams and Jefferson did \u2062not regard the Revolution as the \u200cresult of \u200da dispute over government\u200d representation. They considered it \u2063a consequence of\u200d a \u200cdecade-long \u2062British conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, in 1765, the British Parliament tried to impose the infamous Stamp Act \u2063on the American colonies. \u200dThis \u2063ill-conceived measure would have taxed printed materials such as newspapers, almanacs and college \u2062diplomas.<\/p>\n<p>Here, the cry \u201ctaxation without representation\u201d did indeed rally many Americans in opposition to the tax. Adams, however, saw the tax\u2062 in\u200c a different light.<\/p>\n<p>In\u2063 response to the Stamp Act, Adams penned a \u2062lengthy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masshist.org\/publications\/adams-papers\/index.php\/view\/PJA01dg2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">essay<\/a> entitled \u201cA Dissertation on \u2063the Canon and the Feudal Law,\u201d which appeared in the Boston Gazette in \u200dfour parts. The final paragraph of the fourth installment, published\u2062 on Oct.\u200c 21, 1765, featured an \u200bastonishing accusation\u200c against England.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThere seems \u200bto be a direct and formal design on \u200cfoot, to enslave\u200c all America,\u201d Adams wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems very manifest from the \u200c [Stamp Act] \u2063 itself, that\u2063 a design \u2064is form\u2019d to strip us in a great measure of the means of knowledge, by loading the Press, the Colleges, \u2064and even an Almanack \u200dand a \u2064News-Paper, with restraints and duties; and to\u200d introduce the inequalities and dependances of the feudal system, by taking from the poorer\u2064 sort of \u200cpeople all their little subsistance, and conferring it on a set of stamp officers, distributors and their deputies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus, according to Adams, the Stamp Act was more than a tax. Sinister British officials, he\u200b argued, hoped\u2063 to keep Americans \u2062ignorant, \u200dall while funneling wealth upward into the pockets\u2062 of \u2063government agents.<\/p>\n<p>Nine years later,\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/austin-washington-jefferson-actually-anti-slavery-heroes-dont-let-left-smear-names\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a> described the Anglo-American crisis in similar terms.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2062\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/jeffsumm.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Summary View of the Rights of British America<\/a>,\u201d a pamphlet written in\u2064 1774 as a\u2062 set of informal instructions for delegates \u2063to the First Continental Congress, Jefferson argued that the events\u2062 of the previous \u200cdecade \u200brevealed a\u2062 vast \u2064British conspiracy. \u2063Adams had perceived only its beginnings.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cScarcely have our minds been able to emerge from the astonishment into which\u2064 one stroke of parliamentary thunder has involved us, before another more heavy, and more alarming, is fallen\u200b on\u200d us,\u201d Jefferson wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSingle acts of tyranny may be ascribed \u2063to the accidental opinion of\u200c a day; but a series of oppressions, \u2062begun at a distinguished period, and \u200dpursued unalterably through\u2062 every change of ministers, too\u2064 plainly prove\u200d a deliberate and\u200c systematical plan of reducing us to slavery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Two years later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/providence-jefferson-adams-died-50th-anniversary-declaration-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jefferson and Adams<\/a> sat on the five-man committee charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, of course, wrote the first draft. \u2062Adams contributed edits.<\/p>\n<p>One famous line reflecting the Adams\u200b and Jefferson conspiracy theory appears in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/founding-docs\/declaration-transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">final version<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBut when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a \u2062design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,\u200c to \u2063throw off such Government, and to provide new \u200dGuards for their future security.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In short, only \u201ca long \u2062train\u2062 of abuses and usurpations\u201d as part of a \u201cdesign\u201d to \u200bimpose \u201cabsolute Despotism\u201d could justify independence.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, a conspiracy theory gave birth \u2064to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>This pattern \u2062of viewing political developments in conspiratorial terms did not end with\u200b the American Revolution.<\/p>\n<h3>Abraham Lincoln<\/h3>\n<p>In the 1850s, Southern\u200d Democrats wanted \u2064to expand slavery into the Western territories. Meanwhile, Northern Democrats aided their \u2064Southern allies by arguing that the\u2064 people of the territories should decide on the\u200b slavery question. In other words, slavery \u200dshould \u2063be subject to \u200ca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-how-the-gops-stimulus-package-compares-to-bidens\/\" title=\"Here\u2019s How the GOP\u2019s Stimulus Package Compares to Biden\u2019s\">democratic vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 1854, \u2063the \u2062Republican Party \u2063was formed for\u200b the sole\u200c purpose of \u200dpreventing this expansion. Abraham Lincoln soon emerged as\u200d a leader of the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/2nd-debate-gop-debate-hosted-fox-business-will-different-moderators\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Republican Party<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During \u2062the 1858 campaign\u2064 for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, which\u2063 featured his celebrated debates with\u2063 incumbent \u2063Democrat Stephen \u2063A.\u2063 Douglas, \u2062Lincoln \u200cdelivered an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abrahamlincolnonline.org\/lincoln\/speeches\/house.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">address<\/a> that became known\u200b as his \u201cHouse Divided\u201d speech.<\/p>\n<p>Here, Lincoln accused Northern \u2062Democrats of secretly favoring slavery while only pretending to care about democracy. \u200bFurthermore, he argued that Northern\u2063 Democrats \u200bactually conspired with their Southern counterparts\u2063 to expand slavery regardless of the popular\u200c will.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe can not absolutely\u2063 know that all these exact\u200b adaptations are the result\u2064 of preconcert,\u201d \u200cLincoln \u200cwrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when we \u2064see a lot of \u2063framed timbers, different portions of which\u2062 we know have been \u2062gotten out at \u200cdifferent times and places and by different workmen \u2014 Stephen, Franklin, Roger, \u200dand James, for instance \u2014\u2062 and when we see these timbers\u2064 joined together, and \u200dsee they exactly \u200dmake the frame of \u2062a house or a mill \u2026 we \u200dfind it impossible not \u2064to believe that Stephen and Franklin and \u200dRoger\u200d and James all understood one\u2064 another from the beginning, and all worked upon \u200da \u200dcommon <strong>plan<\/strong> or <strong>draft<\/strong> drawn up \u200bbefore the first lick was struck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The italicized words \u201cplan\u201d and \u200c\u201cdraft\u201d \u200donly emphasize Lincoln\u2019s conspiratorial argument.<\/p>\n<p>In short, according to Lincoln, the Democrats\u2064 were conspiring \u2064to expand slavery. They had to\u200c be stopped.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln pushed \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d \u2064in the service\u2064 of freedom. History proved them correct.<\/p>\n<p>In\u2063 light of all this, if the\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fox-news-sees-huge-win-with-new-prime-time-lineup-after-getting-rid-of-tucker-carlson\/\" title=\"Fox News' new prime-time lineup proves successful after Tucker Carlson's departure.\">establishment \u200dmedia<\/a> \u200dor anyone labels you a \u201cconspiracy theorist,\u201d \u2063the proper \u200cresponse is confident \u2063gratitude.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/heroes-american-history-conspiracy-theorists\/\">These\u2062 Heroes from American History Were &#8216;Conspiracy \u2062Theorists&#8217;<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The media sidelines dissenting voices as &#8220;conspiracy theorists,&#8221; including Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They are labeled as crazy, but we&#8217;re familiar with this pattern. Nonconformists, according to the establishment, spread &#8220;debunked&#8221; ideas. Let&#8217;s not pay attention to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2056,"featured_media":2018264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2018264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}