What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.
John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.
Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.
But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I’ve come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation.
It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.
Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.
Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.
– President Ronald Reagan
I wish you all the best of Independence Days. And may Freedom reign in the Spirt of ’76!
This is why Ronald Reagan was great. He Understood.
Opus, you're absolutely right. He GOT IT. I don't think that the present administration has a clue.
Wonderful post! Happy Independence Day and God Bless America!
Happy 4th LL.
No doubt Dems don't have a clue. They're obsessed with working their communist agenda. July 4th was just some date in the past where people declared independence from an entity that doesn't exist anymore. All concepts and principles are therefore declared null and void. It's all about things that either don't matter or are destructive now.
Thanks LL, Happy 4th of July!
Life or death for those unborn black children comes down to the fundamental question of 'When does life begin?'…and the left is afraid to answer that.
Fantastic post! Hope you had a wonderful 4th, LL.
I miss having a trustworthy adult in the White House. All the things Reagan warned us of are happening.
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