Origin and Essence of the U.S.A.
The United States of America
A Social Experiment for the Pursuit of Happiness
by Larry Pisoni
| This essay is a work of love toward my adopted country, the United States of America, which is so frequently misunderstood, mostly due to ignorance of the facts and, occasionally, envy or bad faith. To understand the essence of the United States one should start with its unique birth. Unlike other nations, the US is a product of ideas. The Vikings and Columbus were the discoverers of the new continent, America, but the founder of the concept of the United States was William Penn, who landed on the shores of the Delaware River in 1682. This virgin land gave him the opportunity to put into practice the ideas of liberty, equality, brotherhood and tolerance, which he was prevented from implementing in Europe. His "Experiment" in Pennsylvania, with its capital, Philadelphia (brotherly love) established the first large communities since the Roman Empire to allow different nationalities and religious sects to live under the same government on terms of equality. Pennsylvania, as a successful experiment in the Age of Reason, deeply interested the intellectual circles of eighteenth-century Europe. They considered the province an illustration of their belief that man could lead a better life without monarchy, feudalism, or religious uniformity. Although the American colonists considered themselves British subjects , their ruler was far away and communications were slow. This fact, together with the ideas and ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, which were becoming very popular, contributed to a growing feeling of independence from the mother country. The ancient Greek and Roman classics were read avidly on both sides of the Atlantic. Starting with the beginning of the 18th century, the Masonic brotherhood with its moral commitment of improving the lot of humanity was spreading very effectively among the inhabitants of both Europe and America. The American colonies were gradually becoming ready to go on their own and the Revolution of 1776 matured and exploded as an overdue human rebellion. Very few people at the time could have imagined that the success of the American Revolution would have turned the world upside down. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson predicted: "May it be to the world what I believe it will be…the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government….(Amazing how these concepts could be applied to the situation in the Middle East nowadays). Ben Franklin was considered by the British "the most dangerous man in America" for his revolutionary ideas. To serve as US ambassador to France, he made a daring crossing of the Atlantic infested with British warships in the fall of 1776. He was able to convince the French government and wealthy idealists to send troops, money and naval forces to provide decisive help to the fledgling American republic. Franklin was so admired by the French that they elected him Venerable Master of their most prestigious Lodge (The Nine Sisters), whose members included Voltaire, D'Alambert, Diderot, Lavoisier, Helvetius, La Fayette and the finest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. These men were to lay the intellectual foundations for the French Revolution, based on the same principles that the American Revolution had already implemented. It is a little known fact that the French revolutionaries sent the keys to the Bastille to George Washington, as a tribute to the Americans who had led the way thirteen years before. These keys have been on display at his home in Mount Vernon ever since. During the summer of 1787 the Constitution of the United States was written by the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson, who was now ambassador to France and could not be present, sent James Madison many of the over 2,000 books, which he had bought in Paris. They included thirty-seven volumes on the new Encyclopédie Methodique, books on political theory and the law of nations, histories, works by Voltaire, Diderot, Mably, Necker, Mirabeau, Montesquieu, Milton, Locke, Hume, Hobbes, Plato, Aristotle etc. Jefferson would later comment that the U.S. Constitution, a miracle of compromise and wisdom, was the work of demigods. And, in 1887, on the one hundred year anniversary, British Prime Minister William Gladstone made the following declaration: " I have always regarded that Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect". An illustration of this "most remarkable work" is the system of checks and balances in which the three branches of government control one another as follows: (1)the States v. the Central Government, (2) the House v. the Senate, (3) the President v. Congress, (4) the Courts v. Congress, (5) the Senate v. the President (with regard to appointments and treaties), (6) the People and their Representatives, (7) the State Legislatures v. the Senate (in the original election of senators), and (8) the Electoral College v. the People. Winston Churchill made the following comments: "The great men who founded the American Constitution embodied this separation of authority in the strongest and most durable form. A system of law and liberty under which Americans have thrived and reached the leadership of the world. No constitution was ever written in better English." The USA and Europe went along their separate ways for the most part until WWI, when the U.S. decided to intervene. But already in 1915, while the US was still neutral, Herbert Hoover, as a private citizen, organized the C.R.B. (Commission for the Relief of Belgium) to feed German- occupied Belgium and northern France. In the next four years the commission fed and cared for some 10 million civilians. After WWI, President Wilson appointed Hoover US food administrator. Under his management, the US had fed and clothed over 200 million people by 1920. And, during the famine that swept the Ukraine from 1921 to 1923, the American Relief Administration fed millions of Russians, adults as well as children. However, the decisive impact on continental Europe was felt after WWII. The defeat of the Nazis and the Fascists gave the US the opportunity to diffuse its social experiment. With the help of the Marshall plan and NATO, Western Europe began an unprecedented era of freedom, democracy and prosperity. The years from 1945 to 1989 were characterized by a balance of terror, but during that same period the fortunate European countries under the wing of the United States enjoyed the longest period of peace since the famous "Pax Romana" of 2,000 years before. Growing up in Italy just after W.W.II, I was personally able to witness America's benevolence. It started with the care packages that the American families sent to us, followed by the Marshall plan and the constant presence of NATO, which prevented the communists from starting, and easily winning a civil war, which would have transformed the country into a "Soviet Paradise". As an act of gratefulness, in March 1995, I dedicated a memorial plaque to two B-24 Air Corp American Officers who had been captured and murdered by the Nazis near my home town toward the end of WWII. I called the ceremony "Thank you, America". We had over 1,000 participants, including the three surviving members of the B-24 bomber. There was ample recognition both in Italy and the U.S., including a page in the Congressional Records. Here are the words that I had cast in bronze for perennial memory: At this spot, on Feb. 28, 1945 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in |
| Larry Pisoni gi-one@gourmet-italia.com PS. This essay has received a letter of commendation from the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice |
