Capital, if fails us now

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AUGUST 30, 2019

Thomas PaineGetty Images

By Jamelle Bouie

Because it's Labor Day weekend, and because I've been thinking a lot about the early American republic, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite figures from the founding era, Thomas Paine.

There's no direct connection between Paine and Labor Day. But I want to talk about him because, unlike many of his revolutionary contemporaries, Paine's radicalism went beyond the political question of rights and representation to touch on social questions of property and distribution. Neither a slave owner like the Virginia revolutionaries nor a wealthy merchant like their counterparts in New England, Paine was an artisan turned journalist, a British immigrant to the American colonies who quickly embraced the Revolution in all of its earth-shattering potential.

Before "Common Sense" — his most famous and influential work, which championed republicanism and independence — he wrote "African Slavery in America," a blistering attack on slavery, slave owners and the hypocrisy of certain Americans.

With what consistency, or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many hundred thousands in slavery; and annually enslave many thousands more, without any pretense of authority, or claim upon them?

After the revolution, Paine would return to Europe. In 1790 he went from London to Paris to observe and support the French Revolution. There, he wrote and published "Rights of Man," a sharp rebuttal to Edmund Burke's counterrevolutionary critique, "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Paine doesn't just defend the French Revolution, he gives us a full picture of his worldview, and hammers home on one of the themes of his life, that you cannot have political liberation without social and economic transformation:

When it shall be said in any country in the world my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness: When these things can be said, then may that country boast its Constitution and its Government.

This is a long way of getting to my personal favorite in the Paine catalog, 1797's "Agrarian Justice," subtitled "Opposed to Agrarian Law, And to Agrarian Monopoly, Being a Plan for Meliorating the Conditions of Man."

In "Agrarian Justice," Paine makes two arguments. First, that there's no natural right to private property in land. "There could be no such thing as landed property originally," he wrote. "Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it." At the same time, however, the reality of "cultivation" makes landed property inevitable:

When cultivation began, the idea of landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separating the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself upon which that improvement was made. The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right of the individual.

But while "cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention," Paine also believes that "the landed monopoly, that began with it, has produced the greatest evil." It has, he writes:

dispossessed more than half of the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before.

Paine's solution to this dispossession is what we'd call a universal basic income. A set of payments, made as "compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property."

It is proposed that the payments, as already stated, be made to every person, rich or poor. It is best to make it so, to prevent invidious distinctions. It is also right it should be so, because it is in lieu of the natural inheritance, which, as a right, belongs to every man, over and above property he may have created, or inherited from those who did.

And to pay for this, Paine calls for a tax on all land held in private ownership.

So what does Paine have to do with Labor Day? If Labor Day is meant to celebrate and honor the American labor movement, then I think it's worth a nod to Paine as an avatar of labor radicalism who embraced the social democratic implications of the American Revolution and who saw — in its ideals — the promise of liberation, not just from political bondage, but from the tyranny of property.

What I Wrote

I wrote a response to some conservative criticism of The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project:

No, the American revolutionaries did not declare a commitment to white supremacy, and the framers of the Constitution did not spell out their structural accommodation with slavery. But there's good, strong evidence that these were critical parts of the founding moment, fundamentally tied to the identity and political economy of the new nation. This was not inevitable. There were other choices available — other options for constructing the nation. "A general emancipation after the Revolution," writes the historian Winthrop D. Jordan in "White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812," "would have come as a glorious triumph, the capstone of the Revolution." Instead, the Revolutionary generation ran away from the implications of their ideas.

And I tried to explain why it's wrong to say the United States "is a republic and not a democracy":

For the founders, "democracy" did not mean majority rule in a system of representation. The men who led the Revolution and devised the Constitution were immersed in classical literature and political theory. Ancient Greece, in particular, was a cautionary tale. When James Madison critiqued "democracy" in Federalist No. 10, he meant the Athenian sort: "a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person." This he contrasted with a "republic" or "a government in which the scheme of representation takes place."

Currently Reading

Eric Levitz on "white identity politics" in New York magazine.

Julia Azari on the failure of America's democratic institutions in Foreign Affairs.

Jeffrey Goldberg interviews James Mattis in The Atlantic.

Tina Vasquez on the image of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, in the New York Review of Books.

Tobi Haslett on the new discourse of bourgeois "incoherence."

Feedback

If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to friends. They can sign up here. If you want to share your thoughts on an item in this week's newsletter or on the newsletter in general, please email me at jamelle-newsletter@nytimes.com.

Photo of the Week

A car show in Staunton, Va.Jamelle Bouie

I have no interest in owning a classic car, and I'm not really a car person at all, but I love going to car shows. I love the enthusiasm of the owners and the attendees, and I'm always impressed by the dedication and skill it takes to revive old vehicles and bring them into the modern world. Which is just to say that I go to classic car shows whenever I can, to talk, to observe and to photograph. This picture is from a show in Staunton, Va., which is just 45 minutes west of Charlottesville, over Afton Mountain and into the Shenandoah Valley. I took it with a Leica range finder, on black and white film. I didn't do the developing, but I may print the photo in a darkroom when I get the chance.

Now Eating: Grilled Potato Salad with Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette

If you're going to have a cookout for Labor Day, I highly recommend you try this salad. It is a potato salad for people, like me, who do not like mayonnaise-based potato salads. It's a perfect accompaniment to any number of main dishes. And if my experience is any indication, people will demand this Serious Eats recipe if you bring it for a group.

Ingredients

2 pounds small yellow or red-skinned new potatoes
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano, divided
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves, divided
4 medium cloves garlic, minced, divided
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions (about 4 whole scallions)
2 tablespoons minced shallots (about 1 small shallot)
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 whole lemon.

Directions

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Season generously with salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer until potatoes are tender but not falling apart, about 5 minutes. Drain potatoes and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet to allow excess moisture to evaporate.

When potatoes are cool enough to handle, split each one in two lengthwise and transfer to a large bowl. Add half of oregano, half of parsley, half of garlic and half of olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss roughly until potatoes are well-coated in the mixture and their surfaces are a little roughed up.

Combine remaining oregano, parsley, olive oil, garlic, scallions, shallots and mustard in a large bowl.

Light three-fourths of a chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Alternatively, set half the burners on a gas grill to the medium-high heat setting, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate.

Place potatoes cut-side-down over direct heat and cook, turning occasionally, until well-browned and crisp on both sides, 5 to 8 minutes total. Transfer potatoes to the bowl with the olive oil and herb mixture as they finish cooking.

Split lemon in two and place cut side down directly over heat. Grill until well browned, about 5 minutes. Squeeze grilled lemons into bowl with potatoes. Toss potatoes to thoroughly coat in fresh herb, olive oil, mustard and lemon juice mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

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