As most Americans enjoy their holiday week and especially as we join in tomorrow’s festivities of our Independence Day celebrations, we need to renew the pledges made by those who proposed the Declaration of Independence some 242 years ago — again to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” to assure the birthright given to us by the Founders is passed to future Americans. Not least is to prepare for and counter today’s existential threats posed by the current forces of tyranny.
First, let me wish everyone a happy Independence Day! And remind you that John Adams wrote from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to his wife Abigale on July 2, 1776 that he thought that day would be celebrated in the future. The Declaration was formally proposed on July 2, 1776 — after the Revolution had begun months before; was approved on July 4th; and after formal drafting, was signed on August 2nd as depicted in the following portrait. Whatever . . . we celebrate these historical events every July 4th.
Consider first an elaboration of a few details associated with this the first of our two Founding documents — the other being the United States Constitution, signed in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, after the Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation failed to unify the thirteen states formally into the United States.
John Adams, subsequently George Washington’s Vice President and our second President, thought July 2nd would be a Grand Holiday for the ages because that was when the motion for independence was approved by the Second Continental Congress, then having met in Philadelphia since May 10th. This motion and the subsequent vote of the representatives of the 13 original states officially separated the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain — then the world’s most potent power. This historic initiative was over a year after the American Revolution actually began in April 1775 — notably at Lexington and Concord, not far from Adam’s home and farm in Braintree/Quincy, Massachusetts.
In his letter dated July 2, 1776 to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.” A confident and euphoric Adams declared:
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
As many enjoy tomorrow’s celebrations, we should note that he was right about there being a Holiday for the ages to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our great nation — even though he was a couple of days off on the date. He joined on July 4th with the rest of his colleagues in approving the Declaration of Independence, a document that eloquently articulated the reasons why the colonies had separated from the British Empire. This approval — on July 4th — would go down in history as the “memorable Epocha.”
Prints of this approved version of the Declaration carrying the July 4, 1776 date were prepared by John Dunlap, the official printer for the Continental Congress and widely distributed on July 5. The text of these so-called “Dunlap Broadsides” was followed by the words “Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President; Attest. Charles Thomson, Secretary.” Click here to review the sequence of events in drafting and signing the Declaration of Independence.
The above best known and final version (Thomas Jefferson, to be our third President, authored the first draft.), in excellent cursive penmanship and dated July 4, 1776, was actually signed on August 2, 1776 by most of the representatives to the Continental Congress, and eventually by all 56, who represented America’s 13 original states. Click here for background discussion and here for a review of our Founding Documents, including the Declaration of Independence explaining the Founders’ position to King George II and the rest of the world. Thus began the first of our Founding Documents and the birth of our nation.
The American Flag, recently much in the midst of controversy among some of today’s citizens who seem not to respect it, also draws its heritage from this period. Click here for one discussion of the legend that Betsy Ross made the first American flag after a visit in June 1776 by George Washington, Robert Morris and her husband’s uncle, George Ross. Though she may not have made the first American flag, records show that she indeed was a flag-maker, paid in 1777 by the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making “ship’s colours, etc.” She is also credited with demonstrating how to cut a 5-pointed star with a single clip of scissors, if the fabric is folded correctly. (Click here for directions that I learned in grade school.)
The Declaration’s preamble included a most memorable sentence that I and all of my generation memorized in grade school, declaring:
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Subsequent paragraphs listed indictments and a denunciation of King George and Great Britain; and concluded with another memorable paragraph:
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
This was a formal, unilateral declaration of our Union, whether July 2nd or 4th of 1776, even though we had been at war with Great Britain for over a year for the causes boldly embodied in the Declaration — a war that was to continue for another 6 years until Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1782 and the new nation’s status was formalized by the 1783 Treaty of Paris that recognized internationally the sovereignty of the United States of America.
Still, it took another four-plus years of being governed under the relatively loose and ineffective U.S. Articles of Confederation (1781-89), until on September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed, also in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, establishing ground rules by how a far more effective Federal Government would protect the liberty of “We the People.”
As Benjamin Franklin was leaving that signing he was asked by a lady, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?” to which he famously replied, “A Republic if you can keep it.”
Click here for my November 15, 2016 discussion of the Constitution, the founding of our Republic and some aspects of this challenge today.
Indeed — Franklin’s famous question resonates in current U.S. political debates, when many Americans do not recognize our Republican government, claiming that we are governed by a democracy — which our founders absolutely rejected, because of the failed previous attempts of democracies which ended in tyranny. Our educational system has failed to educate many of our citizens — particularly among the millennials — to recognize and accept that important fact.
The actual formation of the U.S. government — for the peoples of the then original thirteen states took time. After the Constitution was ratified by nine states, it became the supreme “Law of the Land” on June 22, 1788. George Washington was sworn in on March 4, 1789 as the first U.S. Congress met in New York City. Vermont became the last of the 13 states to ratify the Constitution on January 10, 1791. Click here for the ratification timeline.
The all-important Bill of Rights — even today, insisted upon by Thomas Jefferson and drafted by James Madison, was introduced in the House of Representatives in 1789. Ten of Madison’s proposed twelve amendments, intended to limit the power of government to protect our natural rights of liberty and property, became the first ten Amendments to the Constitution on December 17, 1791, after ratification of three quarters of the states.
Then, within another 20 years, with James Madison as the fourth U.S. President — following Washington, Adams and Jefferson, the new United States again confronted Great Britain in the War of 1812. The British burned the White House, but thankfully, Madison escaped.
In the battle of Baltimore, as he sought to understand how the battle progressed, Francis Scott Key penned the Star Spangled Banner, which became our National Anthem. Again an important symbol of our founding that should be revered rather than disrespected as has become all too commonplace. Consider its memorable words, including all four stanzas.
O say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner — O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto — “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Most Americans should be familiar with the first verse, but we should ponder all — particularly the fourth verse. May that motto continue to guide us as we plan to enjoy the festivities of this Fourth.
We should ponder again Franklin’s question and answer . . . this serious exchange is as pertinent to us today as it was to those who signed the Constitution and, a dozen or so years earlier the Declaration of Independence, which focused on the tyranny from which they then sought to be free.
Can we keep the “Republic” our founder’s gave us? There are reasons for doubt; so we still need Patriots who will continue the fight for Liberty, under the motto advanced in the Star Spangled Banner: “In God is our trust.”
Our leaders are still sworn to support and defend the Constitution, though sometimes one wonders whether they truly intend to live up to that oath. The Founders intended our founding documents to underpin our unalienable Rights, among which are “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We should remember the words of Thomas Jefferson that are on the rotunda of his memorial in Washington, DC … “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Bottom Lines.
“We the people,” now from 50 states rather than just 13, must hold our leaders, each and every one, accountable for their respective oaths of office, which vary in detail but not in intent. We should consider the issues of our day and today’s bloated legacy of the limited federal government our founders gave us; and seek to remain true to our founding documents and the Patriots who mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to give us this great nation. The Liberty of our posterity demands no less of us.
As my hero and once big boss, Ronald Reagan, said:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
We at High Frontier will continue to inform the powers that be of existential threats to this great nation — and to urge them to “provide for the common defense” as charged by the Constitution they are sworn to uphold. Hopefully, key federal authorities and members of congress will soon deal more effectively with today’s existential threats.
What can you do?
Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.
Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.
Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org, for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.
Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.
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