Did you know that today, July 2nd, is actually the day that the Declaration of Independence was signed? John Adams assumed the 2nd of July would be celebrated as the birthday of our Independence. Of course, things moved slowly for our government even before it was born.
This weekend, July 4th, is celebrated in America as Independence Day. We have a barbecue, hang a flag or dress in red/white/blue, light some fireworks, and hopefully send our guests home with a designated driver. Too many Americans think that is the sum total of the story. Much of our Nation (and virtually all of the media) neglect to ponder the rich history behind this day and why we celebrate.
As our Independence may be the most serious issue facing America today, Mockazine.com thought it appropriate to give a little history about Independence Day and what it means to our Nation.
Unlike other countries, organized around a common race, language, religion, and history; America is a melting pot born of people with diverse backgrounds independent of one another. Oppression was our only commonality until we united together and forged a nation based on liberty and freedom.
As Israel Ortega, of the Heritage Foundation, said last year:
Ultimately, the genius of our country lies in its people. Previous immigrant waves began with the first pilgrims from England, and included Germans, Irish, Polish, Chinese and Italians, among others. Today's Hispanic Americans are just the latest in a long list of those who left their homelands and their families in search of a better future.
In response to big government oppression, our founding fathers crafted a small federal government; first with the Articles of Confederation and later with the Declaration of Independence. Birth is a messy event characterized by pain, anguish, bloodshed, and joy. The birth of a nation is no less painfully, bloody, or blessed. Our forefathers felt so strongly about American ideal of freedom and independence that they would sacrifice their businesses, reputations, property and even their lives to see it come to fruition.
This liberty and independence is not only a corporate freedom from the tyranny of King George III, it is a proclamation of the individual independence of all men from man-made government. The Declaration of Independence surely attacks the injustices wrought by King George, but only after laying a foundation on unalienable rights for all man kind. Our forefathers precipitated a paradigm shift in exclaiming that government is the servant of the people and government has only those rights that the people will lend to it. The second paragraph of the Declaration says, "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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . ."
As the nation grew, it made mistakes, small and large, and even participated in some shameful acts such as broken treaties with the Native American Nations and, of course, slavery. The guiding words of the Declaration, however, have acted as a moral compass leading the republic, by Abraham Lincoln's time to wage war to end slavery.
You may be surprised to learn that slavery was not blindly accepted by the founding fathers. As a matter of fact, originally the Declaration of Independence included a statement condemning King George III for bringing slavery to the continent. According to Matthew Spaulding, Ph. D., in an article titled Independence Forever:
One charge that Jefferson had included, but Congress removed, was that the king had "waged cruel war against human nature" by introducing slavery and allowing the slave trade into the American colonies. A few delegates were unwilling to acknowledge that slavery violated the "most sacred rights of life and liberty," and the passage was dropped for the sake of unanimity. Thus was foreshadowed the central debate of the American Civil War, which Abraham Lincoln saw as a test to determine whether a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" could long endure.
Curiously, that fact is left out of many textbooks today. In addition to the above charge, Jefferson was also careful not to mention "property" as an unalienable right because he believed it would give a foundation for slave owners to argue for the case of slavery (this omission in spite of the fact that private property is essential to the liberty of the citizen and the prevention of government tyranny).
Today, our liberty is under assault. "Progressive" politicians have already enacted laws that tell us what kinds of light-bulbs we can use (more on that next week) and where smoker's may smoke (did you know it is illegal to smoke OUTSIDE in certain parts of California). Hate crimes legislation makes certain thoughts illegal even though our constitution guarantees freedom of speech (the same hate crimes legislation brought before the senate would legalize pedophilia as a legitimate "sexual orientation"). Laws have even been passed in states such as Colorado and Massachusetts that make it illegal to have gender specific bathrooms--while you may have a "men's room" or a "women's room", a person who self-identifies as a different gender may use those public restrooms and be protected under the law. These laws grossly lack Common Sense.
In addition to the legislative assaults that progressives have waged on our country, we also have a bloated, hyper-expansive government. The problem of government hyper-expansion is not limited to the current political party in power. Democrats AND Republicans both have progressive elements that seek to expand the reach of the federal government into our personal lives. The recent bailouts of insurance companies, banks, and now private industries (General Motors, for example) amount to a federal takeover of these institutions. At the same time, the president seeks to nationalize our health-care and tax carbon dioxide emissions! Carbon dioxide, by the way, is a completely natural substance emitted by every living being that breathes oxygen.
The American experiment is an experiment in individual liberty. As American's, we must protect the liberties passed on to us by our forefathers. How can you repel this assault on your freedoms? Here are some suggestions:
Research History. As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
(Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284) Too many school districts have dumbed-down their curriculum and teach a biased history that neglects the facts surrounding America's birth. You can get a clearer picture of American history by visiting Heritage.org.
Vote for Character, not Party Affiliation.
The two-party system has failed us. We can no longer afford to blindly vote along party lines. We must seek out leaders with character and integrity and put them in office.
Demand Term Limits
Politicians and public servants with lifetime appointments develop a sense of entitlement and elitism. John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton was right when he originally wrote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." in a letter dated April, 1887. We need term limits on our legislators, judges, and political executives as well as their staff.
Right now, though, you can do something easy. Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence? This document for which men fought and died is the cornerstone of the American Ideal. If you have not read it, you should. For your convenience I have posted the text here:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
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.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
