Seven Years’ War – The Intelligent Collector Magazine

History littered with leaders who underestimated the power of the people

A Silver Medal for Gallantry, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, from King George III to Captain Peter Ewing of the Royal Marines, dated June 17, 1775, realized $32,000 at a June 2012 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

It is fascinating to watch the mass demonstrations in Hong Kong and speculate how the central government in Beijing will quell the unrest. It could end up badly if President Xi Jinping decides to ensure there is no uncertainty over the ultimate authority that still rests comfortably on the mainland … and resorts to force.

Hong Kong (Island) became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839-42), then expanded to include the Kowloon Peninsula after the Second Opium War in 1860. Finally, Britain obtained a 99-year lease in 1898. After the lease expired in 1997, Hong Kong has exploded into one of the major financial centers of the world. It is home to many of the world’s ultra-rich and has managed to squeeze 7 million to 8 million residents into its 317 skyscrapers, the most of any city in the world. It has a first class, 21th century economic model that is widely admired.

The protesters’ beef is over governance, since HK has an autonomous system with executive, legislative and judicial powers devolved from the mainland (two systems, one country). They are resisting a proposal that would dilute the judiciary by moving criminal indictments and trials to Beijing. Small wonder since the conviction rate is almost 100 percent. If President Xi does move forward (at least now), it would be a classic mistake that many others have made. History is littered with leaders who underestimated the power of the people they govern.

Eight hundred years ago, King John of England experienced a similar revolt by English nobility against his rule. The king met with the barons and affixed the Royal Seal to a peace agreement that became known as the Magna Carta (Great Charter). The implications of the Magna Carta were quite modest with respect to what the king agreed to.

He guaranteed to respect feudal rights and privileges, to uphold the freedom of the church and maintain the nation’s laws. However, later generations have come to view it as the cornerstone of a democratic England.

King John inherited the crown after the death of his brother, Richard the Lionheart, when he was on crusade in 1199. By 1215, he was viewed as a failure after raising taxes on the nobility to compensate for losing Normandy to the French. He also frequently quarreled with Pope Innocent III and even sold church properties to replenish the royal coffers. In return, he was formally excommunicated.

But importantly, just by signing the Magna Carta, it implied that the king was obliged to follow certain laws and avoid any future claim of absolutism. Several earlier monarchs had talked about the king having some sort of “divine immunity.” Then there was also clause 39 (of 63) that stated “no freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned … or outlawed or exiled … except by the lawful judgment of his peers.” This clause has been celebrated as our own guarantee of a jury trial and habeas corpus.

In one aspect, all of this was actually moot since another civil war erupted almost immediately and both King John and the barons disregarded their commitments after the pope annulled the Magna Carta. Fortunately, King John died the following year (1216) and his 9-year-old son, Henry III, inherited the crown. Under the auspices of his guardian William Marshall, the Magna Carta was revived and eventually it formally entered English statute law.

Closer to home, it’s safe to assume that when 22-year-old King George III succeeded to the British Crown in 1760, most American Colonists considered themselves Britons and subjects of the king (but not Parliament). However, this system started to unravel after the Seven Years’ War of 1756-63 when Great Britain started imposing higher taxes on the Colonies. One glaring example was the large British garrisons established after the war; Colonists were required to pay all costs to maintain them.

This was followed by the Sugar Act of 1764 and the pervasive Stamp Act in 1765. Next was the Declaratory Act of 1776, when it became obvious that the Parliament of Great Britain was intent on extending its sovereign power into every nook and cranny of daily colonial life. Loyalty to the king was one thing, but to allow Parliament to impose new taxes at will and without any representation or discussion was quite another. It proved a bridge too far, but no one in England was sympathetic to the whinges from across the ocean.

Enter a man named Thomas Paine, who believed that arguments over equality, excessive taxes, or lack of representation or divided loyalty were wrong. He helped shift the focus to one of separation and unrestricted independence. Gaining support for his views was difficult due to slow communications in the Colonies and the subtle complications to men of little education. Newspapers were notoriously inadequate due to erratic distribution and lack of coherence.

What distinguished Paine was his remarkable ability to synthesize the issues and offer ideas that the general population could grasp. Further, he was a pamphleteer extraordinaire and authored “Common Sense,” which was perfect for the masses to understand. It was an immediate success – the equivalent of 18^th century social media (which spawned the “Arab Spring” we witnessed in the Middle East). Suddenly, the momentum shifted to “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” instead of untimely complaints.

Ever disdainful and out of touch, Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, pronounced to the House of Lords in March 1775: “Of the Colonies … they are raw, undisciplined cowardly men.” More famously, British Army officer James Grant proclaimed in the House of Commons that Americans could not fight because “they drink, they swear, they whore” and that he would “undertake to march from one end of the continent to the other with but 5,000 regular British soldiers.”

Pity King George (now 37), who had never been a soldier, had never been to America or even set foot in Scotland or Ireland. But, with absolute certainty, he believed his trust in providence and high sense of duty. Nagged by his mother – “George, be a king!” – America must be made to pay. Inevitably, war came on April 19 with the first blood at Lexington and Concord and then savagely at Bunker Hill. On June 3, General George Washington had taken command of the “American Rabble.”

Game on!

Intelligent Collector blogger JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is president and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as chair and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Floridians seem too busy enjoying the sun to worry about sea levels

Hermann Ottomar Herzog’s oil on canvas *Fishing on the Gulf Coast, Florida*, sold for $150,000 at a May 2017 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

Many people typically think of American colonization in terms of English exploration and the establishment of eastern settlements like Jamestown, Va. (1607), the first permanent colony. Or perhaps even the slightly more renowned Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-91) and Plymouth Colony (just south), which was founded by Separatist Pilgrims seeking freedom from the edicts of the Church of England.

However, the fact is Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León (1457-1521) was the first European to touch what is now the mainland of the United States. He accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493 as one of several hundred “gentlemen explorers.” This voyage landed in Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) as Columbus never actually set foot in North America.

Ponce de León leveraged his military prowess to win an appointment from King Ferdinand of Spain to become the first governor of Puerto Rico. This was followed by his maiden voyage to the mainland, where he discovered La Florida (Land of Flowers) in 1513. He would die eight years later, after a battle with native Calusa people, without establishing a permanent settlement. The mythical tale of his search for a magical “Fountain of Youth” began circulating after his death. He was interred in Puerto Rico and his tomb is in the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista. Some speculate that more than 30 percent of Puerto Ricans are in his lineage.

The arrival of Europeans, primarily from Spain and England, has been described as the “most astounding clash of civilizations in history.” Scottish philosopher Adam Smith called it the “greatest and most important event in the history of mankind.” Spain dominated world exploration from the 15th to 17th centuries and was the first to own the description of an “empire on which the sun never sets.” This title shifted to the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries as the British Navy became the world’s most powerful force.

The devastation these incursions into the Western Hemisphere had on native populations almost defies comprehension. In 1492, Hispaniola had 1 million inhabitants; 20 years later, it had dwindled to 46,000. America’s native population was estimated at up to 100 million. An average of 1 million perished annually for most of the 16th century. It has been labeled “the greatest genocide in human history.”

The first official voyage to Florida is a microcosm of the relentless force of conquest. Spain traded it to Great Britain in 1763 for control of Cuba. The United States claimed ownership after the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and it gained statehood (no. 27) on March 3, 1845, after the Indian Removal Act and Andrew Jackson defeated the Seminole. Florida became a slave state, seceded from the Union and became part of the Confederacy.

During the next century, Florida would suffer through killer hurricanes, tornadoes and severe freezes. Then came the Great Land Boom of the 1920s when the city of Miami turned itself into a real estate cornucopia; 100,000 people were getting rich selling lots to each other. Some land was sold 10 times a day and the bubble was getting bigger every hour. One cabdriver drove a couple down from New York, took the $1,300 fare and invested it. Within three days, he was a millionaire. Another man sold his place in an auction line, went to another location and parlayed his money into $5 million.

One day, the merry-go-round stopped and those still holding tickets were broke!

Today, Florida has recovered from the 2008 real estate bubble, has a $1 trillion economy (fourth in the U.S.), a population of over 20 million (third largest), and is home to more than 451,000 millionaires (a fact) … and property is hot again.

One Achilles’ heel is that the state is a long peninsula and 75 percent of its people live within 10 miles of the coastline. The state is very flat. The highest point is 345 feet above sea level, which is the lowest high point in any state. It is easy to visualize rising sea levels endangering a state already known for its swamps. But Floridians seem relaxed about the risk. They are too busy flipping houses and enjoying the sun, sand and nightlife.

Cheers!

Notorious traitors? Let’s look at Benedict Arnold

A May 24, 1776, letter by Benedict Arnold, signed, to Gen. William Thompson, realized $23,750 at an April 2016 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

Vidkun Quisling is an obscure name from World War II. To those unfamiliar with some of the lesser-known details, “Quisling” has become a synonym for a traitor or collaborator. From 1942 to 1945, he was Prime Minister of Norway, heading a pro-Nazi puppet government after Germany invaded. For his role, Quisling was put on trial for high treason and executed by firing squad on Oct. 24, 1945.

Obviously better known are Judas Iscariot of Last Supper fame (30 pieces of silver); Guy Fawkes, who tried to assassinate King James I by blowing up Parliament (the Gunpowder Plot); and Marcus Junius Brutus, who stabbed Julius Caesar (“Et tu, Brute?”). In American history, it’s a close call between John Wilkes Booth and Benedict Arnold.

The irony concerning Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) is that his early wartime exploits had made him a legendary figure, but Arnold never forgot the sleight he received in February 1777 when Congress bypassed him while naming five new major generals … all of them junior to him. Afterward, George Washington pledged to help Arnold “with opportunities to regain the esteem of your country,” a promise he would live to regret.

Unknown to Washington, Arnold had already agreed to sell secret maps and plans of West Point to the British via British Maj. John André. There have always been honest debates over Arnold’s real motives for this treacherous act, but it seems clear that purely personal gain was the primary objective. Heavily in debt, Arnold had brokered a deal that included having the British pay him 6,000 pound sterling and award him a British Army commission for his treason. There is also little doubt that his wife Peggy was a full accomplice, despite a dramatic performance pretending to have lost her mind rather than her loyalty.

The history of West Point can be traced back to when it was occupied by the Continental Army after the Second Continental Congress (1775-1781) was designated to manage the Colonial war effort. West Point – first known as Fort Arnold and renamed Fort Clinton – was strategically located on high ground overlooking the Hudson River, with panoramic views extending all the way to New York City, ideal for military purposes. Later, in 1801, President Jefferson ordered plans to establish the U.S. Marine Corps there, and West Point has since churned out many distinguished military leaders … first for the Mexican-American War and then for the Civil War, including both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. It is the oldest continuously operating Army post in U.S. history.

To understand this period in American history, it helps to start at the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), which was really a global conflict that included every major European power and spanned five continents. Many historians consider it “World War Zero,” and on the same scale as the two 20th century wars. In North America, the skirmishes started two years earlier in the French and Indian War, with Great Britain an active participant.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the conflict, with the British winning a stunning series of battles, France surrendering its Canadian holdings, and the Spanish ceding its Florida territories in exchange for Cuba. Consequently, the British Empire emerged as the most powerful political force in the world. The only issue was that these conflicts had nearly doubled England’s debt from 75 million to 130 million sterling.

A young King George III and his Parliament quietly noted that the Colonies were nearly debt free and decided it was time for them to pay for the 8,000-10,000 Redcoat peacetime militia stationed in North America. In April 1864, they passed legislation via the Currency Act and the Sugar Act. This limited inflationary Colonial currency and cut the trade duty on foreign molasses. In 1765, they struck again. Twice. The Quartering Act forced the Colonists to pay for billeting the king’s troops. Then the infamous Stamp Act placed direct taxes on Americans for the first time.

This was one step too far and inevitably led to the Revolutionary War, with armed conflict that involved hot-blooded, tempestuous individuals like Benedict Arnold. A brilliant military leader of uncommon bravery, Arnold poured his life into the Revolutionary cause, sacrificing his family life, health and financial well-being for a conflict that left him physically crippled. Sullied with false accusations, he became profoundly alienated from the American cause for liberty. His bitterness unknown to Washington, on Aug. 3, 1780, the future first president announced Arnold would take command of the garrison at West Point.

The appointed commander calculated that turning West Point over to the British, perhaps along with Washington as well, would end the war in a single stroke by giving the British control over the Hudson River. The conspiracy failed when André was captured with incriminating documents. Arnold fled to a British warship and they refused to trade him for André, who was hanged as a spy after pleading to be shot by a firing squad. Arnold went on to lead British troops in Virginia, survived the war, and eventually settled in London. He quickly became the most vilified figure in American history and remains the symbol of treason yet today.

Gen. Nathanael Greene, often called Washington’s most gifted and dependable officer, summed it up after the war most succinctly: “Since the fall of Lucifer, nothing has equaled the fall of Arnold.”

JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is president and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as chair and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].