Sacrifice: A romantic delusion

"Making voluntary sacrifice the operative principle of republican government had proved to be a romantic delusion." So writes Joseph Ellis on page 168 of His Excellency at the beginning of the section named Infant Empire in chapter 5.

Here, there is certainly a romantic delusion. Ironically, the delusion is the notion that sacrifice—voluntary or not—is romantic.

Ellis adds: "Both individual citizens and sovereign states often required coercion to behave responsibly, which meant that the federal government required expanded powers of taxation and ultimate control over fiscal policy."

The only proper role of government is to manage the use of force to protect us from force (and fraud)—be it from abroad, from our neighbors, and especially from the biggest force wielder of all: our own government. As Washington himself apparently wrote or said: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Damn straight.

So, when Ellis associates, in effect, "behaving responsibly" with "sacrifice", he's in dangerous territory.

Sacrifice means to surrender a higher value for a lower value. Given this, Washington was certainly not sacrificing when he risked his life for years to defend everything he loved about America as it was and as it could become. He was gloriously selfish.