Before the American Revolution, colonial newspapers were filled with frustration over corruption, Crown influence, and the emptiness of British political rhetoric. Among those criticisms was the Virginia Gazette’s 1772 essay, “On Patriotism,” which argued that the word “patriotism” had become little more than political theater.
“Patriots rise up like mushrooms… first to clap for a fool, and then to hiss for a knave.”
The author describes modern “patriots” as opportunists who use virtue as a mask for ambition, rising and falling in public favor like fashionable performers.
He contrasts this with ancient patriotism, fierce, self-sacrificial, and driven by conviction, before arguing that Britain’s political system has made true patriotism impossible.
Regular government machinery, expanding royal influence, and the use of debt and taxation to strengthen the Crown, he warns, have destroyed the very idea of a genuine patriot. Written just four years before independence, the piece reflects a growing colonial belief that the British Constitution no longer protected liberty.
