第一个人民公社不是指英国工业革命时期 Robert Owen 所建立的空想社会主义公社(1832年) ；不是指普法战争刚刚结束时〝法共起义〞所建立的巴黎公社 (1871年) ；不是指日俄战争刚刚结束时、布尔什维克的托洛斯基宣称在圣彼得堡建立的苏维埃(始创人其实是无政府主义者Voline) (1905年) ；不是指在第一次世界大战前后犹太复国主义者在巴勒斯坦所建立的 Kibbutz (拉丁化希伯萊文，意即公社) (1914年) ；更不是指1958年正式在中国遍地成立的人民公社。

第一个人民公社建立于1620年，即莎士比亚去世后四年，也即是明神宗 (万历帝) 驾崩、光宗继位的那一年。地点？正就是日后美国立国的根据地波士顿东南的鳕角 (Cape Cod) 。

走到美国任何一个角落，只要您张开眼睛，就不难发现這一个名字：Mayflower (五月花号) 。五月花号是一只破而不沉的跨洋货船，载着的是一群破落但不沦落的清教徒。船上沒有人预料到，他们所作的艰苦航程，也正是美国建国前最重要的长征。最重要，因为他们将会在新地上最早证明人民公社的必然失败，同时也最早证明私产权的不可或缺。私产权正就是1776年美国立国之本。

五月花号宪章(Mayflower Compact) 本身可以是虚文，正如所有宪法本身都可以是虚文一样。真正使人行宪守宪的是私产权。每个人都是私产权拥有者，即使您是百分百的不名一文。不名一文的您拥有生命。您我的生命是无价之宝。解放奴隶、解放妇女、解放民族，无一不是基于对个体生命拥有权的维护。若果我们不能行使自己的生存权 (也即最基本的私产权)，哪我们算是什么呢？宪法算是什么呢？

生存权的行使，也是对生存资料的需求。生存资料有限，而需求无限。以有涯随无涯，怎办呢？分配嘛 。好。利用厚生。然而，谁分配、谁主浮沉呢？

五月花号的一众跟我们一样，知道开源，对大同社会无限憧憬。可以理解、五月花号长征生还者的集体主义情绪强烈，向往公社，涓滴归公。于是、虽然五月花号宪章尊重个人自主权，第一个人民公社却在北美洲正式成立了---历史代号是 Plymouth Colony；由一个〝中央小组〞以上帝名义实施大镬饭政策，革私产权的命。

Plymouth Colony很快就发现数百年后苏联太晚才承认的事实：上面強行分配，下面就虚作卖力。

公社的人终于在祈祷中看到上帝哪无形的手：私产权。(Adam Smith 说上帝哪无形的手是价格，不对。) 于是，重新根据五月花号宪章，恢复了私产权，为创富而推翻了自建的公社制，开始了一个还未有美国的美国梦。

1776 and 1865

America declared independence on July 4th, 1776. By September 3rd, 1783, the American Revolution War had come to a victorious end. However, the American states were not quite united yet. As a matter of fact, the burried issue of slavery was still too visible as a fault line dividing the North and the South. The North-South marriage was therefore hardly consummated. America was more a Confederation than a United States. 

Economy-wise, the North was essentially about commerce and industry, which attracted free-moving entrepreneurs and workers alike. The South was just the opposite. Its plantations called for a serfdom of laborers tied to the land, which appealed to slave ownership.

Where patriotism made American independence possible and successful, slavery made American union insecure and unstable. Meanwhile, where religion generated light and discourse, agitation generated heat and discord.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," so Abraham Lincoln said, and thus he set out to unite the North and the South when secession had to be reversed or would be irreversible. In history, civil wars were prone to be more bloody than foreign wars. The American Civil War was no exception. It concluded in 1865, the year an American nation was reborn. Without such rebirth, the United States would have been a nation that failed the way many Latin American nations did.

Let me celebrate the 4th of July by putting the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation together. Combined, they documented how and why we Americans had saved “the last best hope of earth.” 

What’s saved can be lost. My generation must not lose it.

--- Lingyang Jiang