Editing Rum Rebellion (section)

==Causes==
[[Michael Duffy (Australian journalist)|Michael Duffy]], an author writing in 2006, says

::Essentially it was the culmination of a long-running tussle for power between the government and private entrepreneurs, a fight over the future and the nature of the colony. The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by [[government fiat]].<ref name="DuffySMH"/>

Duffy goes on to say that the Rebellion was not thought of at the time as being about rum:

::... almost no one at the time of the rebellion thought it was about rum. Bligh tried briefly to give it that spin, to smear his opponents, but there was no evidence for it and he moved on.

::Many years later, in 1855, an English Quaker named [[William Howitt]] published a popular history of Australia. Like many [[teetotallers]], he was keen to blame [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] for all the problems in the world. Howitt took Bligh's side and invented the phrase Rum Rebellion, and it has stuck ever since.<ref name="DuffySMH"/>

''The Biography of Early Australia'' dismisses Macarthur's complaints as ridiculous and quotes Evatt as saying that legally Macarthur was guilty of two out of the three charges brought against him, including [[sedition]].<ref name="BiogEA"/> Both consider that Bligh was wholly justified in his actions because he was the legitimate authority. Duffy asserts that had Johnston arrived when summoned on 25 January, the Rum Rebellion probably would never have happened.<ref name="DuffySMH"/>