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History on Repeat

On October 28, 2025 in the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee, Virginia Morgan, COS Ohio's State Grassroots Coordinator, gave an effective, heartfelt testimony shortened to just three minutes.

An historian at heart, the below narrative is her full written testimony (and history lesson!) in its entirety. Full recording of the October 28 hearing is linked below.

*****

I recently visited historic Williamsburg, Virginia. As an amateur historian this was a dream vacation for me. I’m currently writing a blog about events leading up to the American Revolution and the founding of our country.

Steeped in Williamsburg’s living history and my own research, I had cause to ask what position I would have taken in Colonial Virginia or anywhere in the colonies in the early 1770s. Would I have been a patriot?

Would I have been a Tory sympathizer of the crown? Would I have remained neutral but refused to sell my beef cattle to Washington's quartermaster because I knew Continental money wasn't worth much?

Would I, as a mother, have gathered wool from my sheep and woven cloth for a new coat for my son due to his regrettable decision to fight in Washington's Army?

Would my fear of the British Army have caused me to keep silent to avoid arrest if I spoke out for independence? I don’t believe it was so different from the time we are in now and there are numerous similarities.

King George III and his ministers had more or less ignored America under a policy called ‘salutary neglect’ so long as the American colonies remained loyal and contributed to a profitable economy in England.

England had huge debts in 1765 brought on by the French wars in Europe and the French and Indian War in America. When the king asked how the debt would be paid, Parliament instituted a set of measures over the next 10 years to tax the colonies for revenue and at the same time, to make it clear to the colonies that they were subjects of the king and Parliament.

An analogy today would be to confine a toddler to a small play area or playpen after he has had the run of the house for 2 months.

The Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts created hated taxes in the colonies and we know from history these acts were passed without colonial representation in Parliament. Other measures were taken later that the colonists grew to hate: closing the port of Boston, the billeting of British troops in their towns and homes, disbanding elected colonial assemblies, moving trials to other locations and otherwise tampering with the citizens’ time-honored English right of trial by jury of one’s peers.

Still most Americans considered themselves proud Englishmen and loyal subjects of King George - the only paradigm they had ever known.

Benjamin Franklin had served for nearly 20 years in England as a colonial agent of several colonies, trying to make Englishmen better understand colonial America. He loved England and was a loyal Englishman, but in the years after the Stamp Act he was aware not only of the turmoil brewing in America; he began to witness a change in attitude of the English people toward the colonies and the change was not a positive one.

In 1774 he was called before the King’s Privy Council to answer for private information Franklin had written about the turmoil. His letters were made public without his permission and the chastisement by the Privy Council was a great embarrassment to him as a gentleman of envoy status and a loyal Englishman. He began to write of the poor British perception of Americans as rough and “backwoodsy” and wrote to one friend, “Every man in England seems to consider himself a sovereign over America and seems to jostle himself into the throne with the king, and talks of ‘our subjects in the colonies.’ ”

In March 1775, he had to almost flee England to avoid arrest and two months later was welcomed as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the 2nd Continental Congress where he urged logic, reason, and goodwill in delegate discussions. By this time, however Franklin had become a patriot, seeing no path for reconciliation of England with her colonies.

I believe most Americans want good governance, but we see our tax dollars being squandered in bloated federal budgets, regardless of which party is in power.

We see Congressional leadership in positions of power for decades in Washington DC, in a broken system that favors incumbent re-elections and lobbying that appears to be lucrative and less than transparent, regardless of which party is in power.

We see government by executive orders, no way to run a republic, regardless of which party is in power.

When my kids were at home, we had a rule that anyone could call a family meeting. There were only a few rules: everyone had to speak plainly and respectfully what they wanted to change. Everyone understood that the outcome was final, even if someone didn’t like it and that it could be revisited in future. They knew the rules, even if something didn’t go their way. They had a voice.

Whether it’s a family meeting, a representative assembly in Williamsburg, or resolutions before you in this House committee chamber of state government, I believe Americas feel now is their time to speak out against the tyranny that exists in our out-of-control federal government.

Americans want common sense in government. We may not always be politically savvy, but we know best how to run our daily affairs. Americans usually seem to understand what is common sense. And there seem to be currants of discontent bubbling up in the grassroots across America:

* Young people going into the workplace who feel disenfranchised out of the American dream of home ownership, becoming a business owner or investing in a startup.
* Retirees losing their homes because property taxes inflate at outlandish rates that are out of cinque with their ability to keep up.
* Entrepreneurs fighting the red tape of regulation just to get their business off the ground.

Some 20 years ago, I paid attention to the discord growing in public and political arenas. I saw discontent and frustration not unlike what I had read about before the Revolution, or before the Civil War and my own knowledge of friends and family who were wounded in Vietnam and in the Middle East wars. I wanted to understand better how government worked and why so much of it didn’t make sense.

In 2008, there was no end of talking about SEC officers being in cahoots with stock markets and events that led up to the banking crisis and what really happened to cause so many people to lose their homes. I studied what looked to me like tricks of Wall Street brokers who created a fund of what was termed ‘toxic assets’ where investors seemed to encourage homebuyers who were not qualified to buy a home.

Then the same investors bought into another fund that paid well when the toxic assets failed. It was making money no matter what tragedy befell others.

I voted, but I wanted to become engaged to do more. It was apparent to me, a political novice, that the federal debt was growing at an alarming rate and that our government was out of control.

Convention of States appealed to me because it is non-partisan. It is legal. It is not starting from scratch, but works within the framework of the Constitution to correct the imbalance of power between the states and federal government. It was a way to meet grassroots citizens and light a spark to interest them in becoming self-governing citizens again, to vote, and even become engaged in government. I learned that I could actually meet my Ohio legislator - something that is very difficult in Washington DC.

What I have discovered is that many regular people just want government to mostly stay out of their lives. They want truth and common sense, and to pay their bills and provide for their families. They want to be able to live life within their own belief system. I knew from history that this was also the case 250 years ago when events led to a revolution.

We live in a time of division, and people don’t always explain it well, but they understand and expect government to uphold basic tenets of individual freedoms. And that there is a natural limit to the power of government to intrude in the daily lives of its citizens.

I will point out several non-common-sense problems today as determined in reliable polling and their shared traits grounded in history:

Problem 1: The unsustainable National Debt of $37 trillion and funding endless wars – a great majority of Americans want these two problems solved. Numerous Congresses and administrations consider tax revenue their personal money and government the best vehicle to take care of citizens.

Problem 2: Political parties have used government shutdowns to their purposes. You may know people who are furloughed, as is my son at NASA, but the current shutdown if compromised will increase the debt, no matter its other purposes. Excessive spending must stop.

I have read that the national debt acquired during the 1861 U.S. Civil War was never paid off, but that the balance simply had new debt added to it, resulting in a kind of rolling forever-loan to U.S. taxpayers.

If true, it means my grandchildren will be paying interest on money borrowed by the government to pay the Union Army surgeon who removed Confederate shot from their great-great-great grandfather after the Battle of Chattanooga.

In 1755, it was the debt of Britain from its endless 17th and 18th century wars with France that Britain then set in motion the taxing of colonial America by King George and Parliament without representation – the ‘long train of abuses and usurpations’ resulted in the Declaration of Independence and a political revolution.

Problem 3: Opening U.S. borders to unfettered illegal immigration – the great majority of Americans want this problem solved as well. Our country is a nation of immigrants, but immigration until recent years has been legislated with quotas and rules to manage it. The late Gore Vidal, a liberal, wrote that when a country opens its borders to unvetted illegal immigration, it is no longer a country.

Problem 4: Crime is excessive in what should be a rather safe country with our history, resources and American ingenuity, especially for people in cities that don’t enforce financial deterrents or criminal prison sentencing.

Just last week I received a letter from my insurance company informing me that “attempts to recover your deductible and our claim payment” from a Mr. Javier Pavon have “proved unproductive.” Mr. Pavon is an uninsured motorist who hit my car in July. He stopped for one second and then fled the scene.

He got away with costing me a $300 deductible and my insurance company, or rather it cost other policy-holders, $7,000 to repair my car. The anxiety of Americans is growing about the lack of support for deterrents against criminal behavior. Perhaps others know a historical precedent for this problem – I don’t, unless it would be the lawlessness of Prohibition.

Problem 5: The U.S. Senate was intended by the founders to be the honorable chamber of experience, reason, and stability, intended to thwart transient ideas of the masses. In one example of Senate cluelessness of the wishes of Americans, I recently learned that 25 states have legislation eliminating soda in school lunches. Yet, not one U.S. senator would co-sponsor a bill to eliminate soda in school lunches.

Doing so would defy the powerful and wealthy lobby of the soda industry. Yet estimates are that 30% of children in the U.S. are pre-diabetic. Is this the honorable, reasonable future we want for our children? Or is it an elitist way that Senators stay in power?

Problem 6: Congress and unelected officials have no limits on their terms of office. The Founders did not conceive of a time when government service would be a lifelong career choice. It was seen as a duty to serve and then return to private life. U.S. representatives serve an average of twelve years, but Americans strongly assert that career House and Senate politicians become entrenched in the establishment and add to the broken structure in the federal government.

In 1770 King George’s Privy Council, an elite council of aristocratic advisors to the King, warned Parliament that the council would tolerate the rescission of all the Townshend taxes on American imports - except the tax on tea.

This was a monetary decision to be sure, but even more a decision of elites to exert power over groups they considered less valuable. The intent was to show the colonies that England was the master and Americans were the servants.

We know the decision did not go well when Massachusetts colonials responded with a Boston Tea Party.

In summary, I am fairly sure that had I lived in the 1770s I would most likely have been a patriot. I want to think I am not so different from most Americans who value common sense. The issues are not so different: government intrusion in every aspect of our lives, government spending off the charts, and excessive regulation that drives up costs and prohibits so many Americans, especially young adults, from realizing the American dream.

I do not in any way wish to diminish the bravery of patriot Nathan Hale, who before being hanged by the British for spying said, “I regret that I have only one life to give for my country.” While I am most certainly not being hanged, nature has me in the twilight of my life and I, too, regret that I am unable to push on in this fight.

But you can. You are in a position of great power to find common sense solutions the bulk of Americans want. I believe the American people have proven time and time again they will do the right thing. I believe the commissioners at convention who are answerable to the American people through you, their legislatures, will do the right thing.

So I appeal to you, who are the statesmen and stateswomen of our time here in this august and powerful body to do your duty to solve our country's most pressing problems. The scale of justice balances itself; it’s the way of Nature and of Nature’s God.

This is the time to do the courageous thing as so many others have done in our country’s history when our rights were threatened or the ship of state needed to be righted.

The American people seem to be tired of waiting. I appeal to you to do the right thing and pass the Convention of States resolution out of committee and let all Ohio constituencies have a voice.

Thank you for your service.

Virginia Morgan

Listen to the entire October 28 hearing, including Ginnie Morgan, HERE

www.conventionofstates.com

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Created:	2025-10-28 09:15 GMT
Updated:	2025-10-28 21:41 GMT
Published:	2025-10-28 16:00 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:07 GMT
Change Author:	Virginia Morgan
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