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==Founding Fathers==

==Founding Fathers==

As Bailyn (1968) demonstrated, fear of corruption by the conservative forces in Britain and America was the single most important impulse for the [[Founding Fathers]] to distrust the royal government, embrace [[republicanism]] and insist on civic virtue for all citizens. Threats to free government, most Americans (and some British "country party" critics ) believed, lurked everywhere, but nowhere more dangerously than in the designs of ministers in office to aggrandize power by the corrupt use of influence, and by this means ultimately to destroy the balance of the constitution. "Corruption!" was as universal a cry in the colonies as it was in England, and with it came the same belief that [[tyranny]], already dominant over most of the earth, was continuing to spread its menace and was threatening even that greatest bastion of [[liberty]], England itself. In the colonies the executive was legally far stronger than in England, but circumstances - such as inflexible royal instructions, encroachments on the governor's patronage, the more democratic nature of colonial politics, the impermanence of the governor's tenure, and the possibility of going over the governor's heads and appealing directly to authorities in England - worked to reduce radically the influence of the colonial governors. With an indeterminate leadership, an unstable economic structure, and the exertion by colonial governments of creative power unknown to 18th-century England, the colonial political system was troubled, contentious, even explosive, evoking, as it did, both the belief that faction was seditious and the fear that the government was corrupt and threatened the survival of liberty. English constitutional theory offered a mode of comprehension of such an inflamed, anomalous politics; and it is this mode of understanding that forms the background of the American Revolution.<ref> Bernard Bailyn, ''The Origin of American Politics'' (1968)</ref>  

As Bailyn (1968) demonstrated, fear of corruption by the conservative forces in Britain and America was the single most important impulse for the [[Founding Fathers]] to distrust the royal government, embrace [[republicanism]] and insist on civic virtue for all citizens. Threats to free government, most Americans (and some British "country party" critics ) believed, lurked everywhere, but nowhere more dangerously than in the designs of ministers in office to aggrandize power by the corrupt use [[lobbyist|influence]], and by this means ultimately to destroy the balance of the [[Constitution]]. "Corruption!" was as universal a cry in the colonies as it was in England, and with it came the same belief that [[tyranny]], already dominant over most of the earth, was continuing to spread its menace and was threatening even that greatest bastion of [[liberty]], England itself. In the colonies the executive was legally far stronger than in England, but circumstances - such as inflexible royal instructions, encroachments on the governor's patronage, the more democratic nature of colonial politics, the impermanence of the governor's tenure, and the possibility of going over the governor's heads and appealing directly to authorities in England - worked to reduce radically the influence of the colonial governors. With an indeterminate leadership, an unstable economic structure, and the exertion by colonial governments of creative power unknown to 18th-century England, the colonial political system was troubled, contentious, even explosive, evoking, as it did, both the belief that faction was seditious and the fear that the government was corrupt and threatened the survival of liberty. English constitutional theory offered a mode of comprehension of such an inflamed, anomalous politics; and it is this mode of understanding that forms the background of the American Revolution.<ref> Bernard Bailyn, ''The Origin of American Politics'' (1968)</ref>  

Corruption was thus the great evil the Founding Fathers confronted. When Britain escalated its defense of corruption in 1773-75, it was time to break free with the [[American Revolution]].   

Corruption was thus the great evil the Founding Fathers confronted. When Britain escalated its defense of corruption in 1773-75, it was time to break free with the [[American Revolution]].