The spirit of the Revolutionary War
was building in the hearts of Americans even before the shot was heard around
the world from Lexington on April 19, 1775. That spirit was a determination to
create a world free from tyranny and economic bondage controlled by a strong
central government. The war for freedom challenged the predominant ideals of
mercantilism. Adam Smith was a man who wrote a book that contained within its
pages, the philosophy of economic freedom that Americans were fighting for.
Adam Smith penned the work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations, which would later bring him the title of the father of
economics. Smith was motivated by the plight of the world, particularly the
poor found throughout the world, and asked the question, “How do we raise the
estates of the least among us?”[1]
Americans were asking themselves the same question; they asked the ruling
authorities, debated among themselves, and decided the only way to give
themselves the opportunity to raise their own estates was through independence
from Great Britain.
Americans discovered, as Adam Smith
was writing his book, that to truly be free and independent, they had to allow
for “commerce, free trade, free migration, limited government.”[2]
The many great founders of The United States of American were well studied and
learned men, who were coming to this same conclusion as Adam Smith. The
founding generation were individuals, who were being hindered by the old
economic way of doing things. Their human ingenuity was being stifled under the
British System.
A great awakening had occurred, and
individuals like Adam Smith understood that if any nation or people were to
succeed and grow up out of poverty, individual ingenuity had to be allowed for.
The people needed to be allowed “to investigate, entrepreneurially figure out
new ways to do things to satisfy their interests better.”[3]
This was the spirit behind the revolution and Adam Smith captured it with his
own words in his famous work.
Bibliography
Otteson, James. “Adam Smith:
The Invisible Hand.” Learn Liberty.
Accessed on February 20, 2015.
http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/adam-smith-the-invisible-hand/.
Otteson, James. “What Motivated
Adam Smith?” Learn Liberty.
Accessed on February 20, 2015. http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/what-motivated-adam-smith/.
[1]
James Otteson, “What Motivated Adam Smith?” Learn Liberty, accessed on February 20, 2015, http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/what-motivated-adam-smith/.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
James Otteson, “Adam Smith: The Invisible Hand,” Learn Liberty, accessed on February 20, 2015, http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/adam-smith-the-invisible-hand/.
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