Could the American Revolution ever be justified?

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If one of the requirements for a war to be just according to the CCC is that it must be the legitimate authority who wages the war, and also that there must be a “serious prospect of success”, how could the American Revolution ever be justified? And how could we celebrate the fourth of July if we are celebrating something that morally speaking, we couldn’t have fought for if we were there (in 1776)? I love my country, but I’m a Catholic first. If you have any answers, if it’s possible please link a source(s).

catholic.com/documents/just-war-doctrine
 
johnnyt3000 said:
If one of the requirements for a war to be just according to the CCC is that it must be the legitimate authority who wages the war, and also that there must be a “serious prospect of success”, how could the American Revolution ever be justified? And how could we celebrate the fourth of July if we are celebrating something that morally speaking, we couldn’t have fought for if we were there (in 1776)? I love my country, but I’m a Catholic first. If you have any answers, if it’s possible please link a source(s).

catholic.com/documents/just-war-doctrine
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Well we won the war so their must have been a serious prospect of success. The Declaration of Independence outlines the reasons we went to war. If we had taxtation w/o representation today many people would be very upset.
 
The Revolutionary War was justified. Britain was violating the natural rights of the colonists. They rebelled and set up a government based on natural rights.
 
the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain
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I think that’s about all we need to deny the American War for Independence was a just war.

It was lasting. It was certain. But not grave. A lack of representation is not, in and of itself, grave matter. It can lead to worse things. But the colonists made much worse of it than was just. They threatened, injured, and vandalised their rightful rulers in the name of a “right” they never needed before. In fact, that very few people until very recently have had the chance to appreciate. And we’re probably going to lose it again in the near future.

The only reason to recognise the sovereignty of the United States is because the United Kingdom does. And it only did so in 1783, in Paris.
 
The real losers of the war were the American Indians
 
johnnyt3000 said:
If one of the requirements for a war to be just according to the CCC is that it must be the legitimate authority who wages the war, and also that there must be a "serious prospect of success", how could the American Revolution ever be justified? And how could we celebrate the fourth of July if we are celebrating something that morally speaking, we couldn’t have fought for if we were there (in 1776)? I love my country, but I’m a Catholic first. If you have any answers, if it’s possible please link a source(s).

catholic.com/documents/just-war-doctrine
Click to expand...
Well the local legitimate governments of the states sent delegates to the First and Second Continental Congress so it was a legitimate authority waging the war. And there was a good prospect of success clearly, since we won.
 
I think this thread’s been done.

Try telling the colonists that they were the aggressors when British troops had the right to kick in their doors and occupy the colonists’ homes. Don’t they teach about the Quartering Act in school anymore?

Johnny, can I come over to your house; bring a gun; bring 5 friends with guns; and get the mayor to pass a law that says you have to give us food & let us live there? Wouldn’t that be moral? I mean, the government passed the law, right?
 
Oh my, all this time I’ve been thinking God had blessed America so much because they valued freedom and realized the freedom was given to us by God…
I know we didn’t do everything right…owning people as slaves and mistreating the Indians and others but we still had God at the helm and realized we were all sinners and after years of suffering on many people’s parts we as a nation tried to set it right. But then we kicked God out and tried to make it a place where he wasn’t even welcome.
That’s kind of where we are today, IMHO!

As to the OPs question… The Brits were trying to take away God given freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…on many levels…
 
TarkanAttila said:
It was lasting. It was certain. But not grave. A lack of representation is not, in and of itself, grave matter.
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This is my thought. I do not think the Revolutionary War meets the current standard of Just War Doctrine. However, the standard is not retroactive. Popes have called for wars that do not mean the current standard. God called for wars that does not meet this standard, at least from the perspective of the participants. Just War doctrine is based on moral law, but it is a dated application and can only be seen from in contemporary light.

I wonder what Charles Carroll would have to say today if he could comment on the current Just War doctrine and the issue of the morality of the war in his day.

BTW - I also do not think the Civil War would meet today’s criteria, but it seems to be a moral war.
 
Humans are a Tribal Creature ,and Humans are a rather violent aggressive bunch ,
We are also very Contradictive as well, on one hand We take what is not ours to take ,
On the other we Protect those less fortunate that have freedom taken away from them,
That’s why war is Justified ,and there have been lots of Human Wars,
No Wonder U F O’s Pass us by ,🙂
 
It is the British Empire which is inherently unjust. The British monarchs are Germans who were imported to rule Britain simply because they were Protestants and all of the legitimate heirs to the British throne were Catholics.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Great_Britain
At the age of 54, after the death of Queen Anne of Great Britain, George ascended the British throne as the first monarch of the House of Hanover. Although over fifty Roman Catholics bore closer blood relationships to Anne, the Act of Settlement 1701 prohibited Catholics from inheriting the British throne; George was Anne’s closest living Protestant relative.
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By all common sense, the american war of independence had almost no chance of succeeding.

A fledgling nation, without a traditional military, was taking on a nation that boasted the world’s most powerful army and navy and which also had the world’s foremost economy (and which supplied the US with essentially all it’s trade goods). Its military leaders were well trained and had recently defeated their only real rival (the French) in the seven years’ war AKA the French & Indian war. All of the US leaders were facing loss of their property, and a noose for treason.

If this were 2016, Las Vegas wouldn’t make book on a US victory. That’s part of why the US victory is often seen as divinely inspired.
 
In some ways the U.S. revolution can be regarded as a proxy war within the major war between Britain and France. France provided something like 90% of the American’s gunpowder. So maybe the question should be whether the war between Britain and France was a just war.
 
The colonies had been governing themselves for more than 150 years. It was the British Government that was being tyrannical. Because of all the debt that British Government had received due to its long war with France, they imposed the Stamp Act on the colonies in order to raise more money. This was a violation of the original charter made by the King. Finally, the King sent British troops to Boston to assert his authority. Go read the Declaration of Independence. It’s a long list of offenses that the British Government committed against the colonies. Were they supposed to endure unjust tyrannical power. How is that not a grave cause? Thomas Jefferson stated himself, “that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…”(Declaration of Independence).

The argument that the American War for Independence was an immoral one is a poor argument at best.
 
PolarGuy said:
By all common sense, the american war of independence had almost no chance of succeeding.

A fledgling nation, without a traditional military, was taking on a nation that boasted the world’s most powerful army and navy and which also had the world’s foremost economy (and which supplied the US with essentially all it’s trade goods). Its military leaders were well trained and had recently defeated their only real rival (the French) in the seven years’ war AKA the French & Indian war. All of the US leaders were facing loss of their property, and a noose for treason.

If this were 2016, Las Vegas wouldn’t make book on a US victory. That’s part of why the US victory is often seen as divinely inspired.
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**Perhaps the rebels overestimated their own resources and underestimated the government’s will to respond.

As for the rebellion being justified, I can hardly agree with the taking of human life over taxation issues.
Furthermore it should be noted that the government had gone to some great expense to secure the victory in the above mentioned French/Indian war.
That the victory primarily benefited the colonists by opening up vast new lands to them.
Therefore the government felt justified in trying to recoup some of that expense though increased taxes on its colonies.

The success of the rebellion might be seen as “divinely inspired.” Certainly such was a long shot.
Or it might be seen as our Creator setting us up for a little lesson about “always treating others as we would like them to treat us.”
The fat lady has not sung yet.**
 
As usual the US gets a bum rap. The history of Europe can be distilled to “let’s start a war every 20 years or so for no good reason, for several hundred years, until we start a war so terrible that 50 million people die; whole cities are leveled; and we need the USA to bail us out.”

By comparison, US wars are a lot more morally defensible generally speaking.
 
Whether the American Revolution met Catholic “just war” criteria or not shouldn’t affect how we celebrate the 4th of July or other national holidays… That would be comparable to saying that people who were conceived out of wedlock, or in some fashion that the Church does not approve (e.g., in vitro, surrogacy) shouldn’t celebrate their birthdays!
 
This is why I do not celebrate the Fourth or the Revolution.

See, according to “natural rights” it is indeed justified, but that is a very protestant way of thinking politics. Where in Scripture or Church teaching is the blueprint for a REPUBLIC?
 
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