A
member of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board recently asked for an
explanation of a statement made in an editorial. The statement was that this
country never fought a revolution or a civil war.

If a
school board member can be unsure of what was meant, perhaps others are, too.

Britain’s
American colonies did not fight a revolution against Great Britain. By
definition, a revolution is a conflict where one faction seeks to overturn, or
unseat a government by armed conflict, and replace it with another.

This
was not the case in our colonial days. The colonies did not try to unseat the
king or parliament. Rather, the colonies chose to remove themselves from the
Crown.

Similarly,
a civil war is one where two factions fight to take control of a government.
Such was not the case when the Confederate states tried to secede from the
union.

The
War for Independence and the War Between the States can quite accurately be
called wars of secession. The secessionists won the first one, but lost the
second.

But
why is this significant? Aren’t these just semantic differences?

No.
While the differences may be considered subtle, blurring the distinctions
reflects a poor understanding of our history. And if we, as a people, can’t
understand our history, we’ll never have a clear vision of our future.

But
understanding what our wars have been is only one small part of our blurred
self-image. Ask the average U.S. citizen what type of government we have and
the answer will likely be, “A democracy.”

This,
too, is wrong. Article four, section four of the Constitution guarantees a
“Republican” form of government.

Again,
the distinction is more than semantic. In a democracy, where the majority rules
on everything–including laws–there is little safeguard for the rights of the
minority. Indeed, they may have no rights at all. In a republic, especially a
constitutionally limited republic, rights are protected.

Other
misused words are freedom and liberty. Most people use them interchangeably,
though they represent two different conditions.

Liberty
is a condition under which all individuals are free to think, speak and act in
any manner that doesn’t interfere with the rights of others. Those that do
interfere with the rights of others face criminal penalties.

Yet
freedom itself is slightly different. Consider the time of institutional
slavery here in the U.S. The slave master was free, but the slave, who had done
no wrong to any other, was not free. There was no true condition of liberty.

If the U.S. is to fulfill its stated goal as being that
“sweet land of liberty,” we need to understand the words we use in describing
our past because they will be on the signposts that lead to our future.