Sic Semper Tyrannis

Welcome, Instapundit readers!

I made a comment, which frankly I thought to be unexceptional, almost routine, that I would rather die than doff my cap to a king, since I am a Virginian.

To my infinite surprise, several readers wrote in expressing puzzlement, asking for clarification, wondering if I meant this as a general rule, or only for myself. Would I actually endanger my family by defying the sovereign person had I lived in the Middle Ages? Other readers said monarchy was a respectable form of government, or asked about living under King Arthur of Camelot or King Elessar Telcontar of Gondor, who were good kings, and so on.

I am happy to find so many monarchists here on my website: I would have thought that school of political philosophy deader than the Dodo bird.

My answer to you all is written beneath the great seal of my commonwealth: Sic Semper Tyrannis.

The difference between living under a republic, even a bad one, and living under a monarchy, even a good one, is the difference between being a citizen and being a subject.

A citizen owns his own life and wellbeing, and he is responsible, with his fellow citizens, for the life and wellbeing of the commonwealth. A subject holds his life and his rights at the pleasure of the monarch, who is as his father, owing him love and fealty, on the grounds that the monarch is responsible for the wellbeing of the commonwealth.

While there have been bad republics with bad laws, and good monarchies with good laws, the blatant fact is that under a republic the free men can change the evils of the regime without bloodshed, whereas under a monarchy the subjects must wait for a good monarch to change the evils, or must take up arms against him.

This issue is not one open to debate, for debate is the province of free men. Free men by rights must kill those who attempt to enslave them. We do not attempt to persuade the slaveowners to let us be free, as a gift from the royal hand.

I see no need to answer such questions, as well-meant as they might be, because if they are meant frivolously, there is no need; and if they are meant seriously, the only proper answer comes from the muzzle of a gun.

The only lord to which a Virginian bows is the one who walks on water.

 

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