The Gordon Riots

Among the many reasons that America won their Revolutionary War are my top three:

First, there was the French Alliance.  Though it pains me to admit it, our victory was largely due to help from the French, who not only did not surrender during the war but actually fought well.  The French played a crucial role by providing the United States with a formidable navy and by spreading Britain’s forces thin across the world.  Before the French entered the war, the British could focus their attention on the rebellion without much fear of other global conflicts.  (Though we should remember that part of the France’s motivation was not only to harm its historic enemy, England, but also to be able to pick up new territories that the British military was too thinly stretched to defend.)

Second, there was the sheer impossibility of the Britain being able to logistically support its army so far from home.  As we become accustomed to modern transportation, we tend to forget that two hundred years ago a small wooden fort equipped with a single cannon and barrel of moldy flour could control a huge amount of territory primarily because of the flour.  The hardest task for generals of the era was to keep their armies fed well enough to be able to survive (never mind being well enough to fight).  England could never supply its army well enough for the forces to go on the offensive.

Last, America won because George Washington didn’t lose.  As asinine as that sounds, it is correct.  Washington could have blundered so badly that the war could have been lost.  The fact that he managed to keep his army supplied, trained, and largely undefeated until Great Britain realized that the war was unwinnable was an impressive strategic victory.

There are a host of other, smaller reasons.  Among those reasons are included the lack of Loyalist support in the colonies, the fact that Native Americans didn’t (for the most part) side with the British, that the colonists fought unconventionally, and the incredible incompetence of some British generals.  

A somewhat obscure reason for the British loss, however, is the impact of the London Gordon Riots of 1780.  The riots, the worst in a century, had prolonged effects in both domestic and foreign policy.

The root of the riot goes all the way back to the Popery Act of 1698, a hateful, discriminatory law that basically stripped all civil rights from Catholics—as evidenced by the actual title of the law, “An Act for the further preventing the Growth of Popery”.  The discriminatory provisions included a prohibition of Catholics attending school, of owning property, or of receiving an inheritance.  Catholic priests were to be perpetually jailed at the pleasure of the monarch and any British citizen lucky enough to apprehend a priest would receive a bounty of £100.

I wish I could tell you the riot was because concerned citizens were angry at the injustice of the act, but actually the people of London were furious that The Papists Act of 1788 lifted, ever so slightly, some of the harsher provisions of the previous act, specifically that if Catholics took an oath of allegiance to the monarch and rejected the authority of the Pope over English law, they could own property and enlist in the British Army.

The act was passed for two pressing reasons.  First, England was at war with practically everybody and the army desperately needed more recruits.  Second, England was terrified that Ireland might emulate the Americans and start its own revolution for independence.  The law formally recognized something of a settled fact—the Irish were already in the army and Naval Press Gangs were snatching up any men who were even close to physically fit, regardless of nationality or religion.  (Occasionally, as it turned out, some of those “men” were actually women.)

Note.  I have never understood why governments periodically decide that certain groups cannot join the army, whether it is because of their religion or sexual orientation.  Imagine the outrage if, in time of war, all those prohibited from serving went down to the docks and waved goodbye to the departing troops.  “Goodbye boys!  Have fun in the war!”

Terribly upset about the return of civil rights to Catholics, Lord George Gordon, the head of the Protestant Association, began making a series of inflammatory speeches to the poor of London.  (Think of this as George Wallace addressing the KKK, but without bedsheets.). Because the ongoing wars hurt trade, the poor were suffering from high unemployment and inflation, and according to Wallace/George, if Catholics were allowed into the military, there would be an inevitable return to absolute monarchy, enslavement to the Pope, watered down beer, and dogs would marry cats.  (This is not the famous General Charles George Gordon of Khartoum, but an altogether different British nobleman with a similar name.)

After two and a half centuries, there is a rather obvious effort by some historians to shift the cause of the riots to economic reasons, but in the end, the primary cause was religious persecution against Catholics.  (As you read that last sentence, try desperately hard not to think about the Lost Cause of the Glorious South.  I don’t care how many times you have read the books of Shelby Foote, the American Civil War was fought over slavery.) 

Lord George met with King George III and tried to convince the monarch to repeal the law, but the King was only periodically crazy, and not stupid.  Lord George marched his followers to Parliament and urged them to act, but even Parliament refused to listen to him.  Within days, the Protestant Association took to the streets and was quickly joined by a mob of 40,000 to 60,000 angry people who were eager to demonstrate their stupidity with violence.

The target of the mob was initially the poor Irish immigrant neighborhood of Moorfields.  Despite the pleas of prominent merchants in the area, the London Mayor refused to send troops.  The rioters quickly burned and looted Moorfields homes, then moved towards the center of London.  

The mob, wearing blue ribbons for identification, grew steadily in size and stormed Newgate Prison, freeing the convicts and destroying the prison.  When the government still didn’t move to stop the riot, three other prisons were destroyed, along with Catholic churches and the homes of prominent citizens.  

The riot lasted five days and it was only after the violent mob turned to the Bank of England that the King sent in 15,000 soldiers who had orders to fire at will on any group of four or more people who refused to disperse.  Almost three hundred people were killed and another two hundred were wounded.  

When the riot was over, about two dozen ring leaders were quickly charged with treason and executed, the Mayor was convicted of criminal negligence and fined £1,000, and Lord George was arrested and charged with high treason, but was acquitted. A few years later, George, the great defender of the One True Faith converted to Judaism, taking the name of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon.

This riot had far-reaching ramifications.  England had been negotiating with Spain to stop supporting the Americans in their revolution, but the rise of anti-Catholic sentiment in London brought a sharp end to the diplomatic talks.  And Austria, also a Catholic country, decided not to aid England in the war against America.  

In London, the riots helped convince !merchants that the protracted wars, both in Europe and America, were bad for business.  There was also a growing cry for London to create a police force—an idea that was criticized because it would be copying something that had been done in Paris.  (This was more than forty years before Sir Robert Peel established Scotland Yard.)

There was, additionally, general agreement among the leadership of British Society that when a mob commences to use violence to achieve political  aims, a delayed response only encourages more destruction.  This seems to be a lesson we have to relearn at least once a generation.