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"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." —Declaration of Independence "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."—Declaration of Independence "Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!"—George Washington "A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader."—Samuel Adams "The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth."—Thomas Paine "[T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776 have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them." —Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Adams, 12 September 1821) "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient."—Samuel Adams "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof—Lev. XXV, v. X"—Inscription on the Liberty Bell |
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A VISITOR FROM THE PAST I had a dream the other night, I didn't understand. You buy permits to travel, and permits to own
a gun, Your children must attend a school that doesn't
educate. You've given your control, to those who do you
harm, Your public servants don't uphold the solemn
oath they've sworn. As I awoke he vanished, in the mist from whence
he came. Adapted from a poem by Thelen Paulk |
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Let Americans act worthy of themselves—and of their history. There is a legend about the day of America's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt. At that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said:
"To the mechanic in the workshop, they
will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. He fell back exhausted. The fifty-six delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors. That man was Saint Germain. On that day fifty-six men, a little band so unique the Americans have never seen any like them since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor. What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven 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. But they sired a nation that grew from sea to
shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, It also commemorates the first of two true philosophical
revolutions in all history. The second such revolution was Solidarity
in the Polish Gdansk Shipyard, starting the domino effect of the
Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that
in the land of the United States of America, Americans sometimes forget that great truth,
and they never should. Poles have not . . .
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"By signing the Declaration, all were guilty
of high treason under British law. The penalty for "No wonder they wavered! No wonder they
discussed back and forth for days on end before signing the document
that carried so grave a penalty. An old legend dramatizes the
story of the one who galvanized the delegates and gave them the
courage to sign that document. “Gibbet!” echoes a fierce, bold voice, that startles men from their seats–and look yonder! A tall slender man rises, dressed—although it is summer time—in a dark robe. Look how his white hand undulates as it is stretched slowly out, how that dark eye burns, while his words ring through the hall. (We do not know his name, let us therefore call his appeal) "Here is the Speech of the Unknown “Gibbet? They may stretch our necks on
all the gibbets in the land—they may turn every rock “They may pour our blood on a thousand scaffolds, and yet from every drop that dyes the axe, or drips on the sawdust of the block, a new martyr to Freedom will spring into birth! “The British King may blot out the Stars of God from His sky, but he cannot blot out His words written on the Parchment there! The works of God may perish—His Word, never! “These words will go forth to the world
when our bones are dust. To the slave in the mines they will speak–hope—to
the mechanic in his workshop—freedom—to the coward-kings
these "The Days of Your Pride and Glory Are Numbered! "The Days of Judgment and Revolution Draw Near! “Yes, that Parchment will speak to the Kings in a language sad and terrible as the trump of the Archangel. You have trampled on mankind long enough. At last the voice of human woe has pierced the ear of God, and called His Judgment down! You have waded on to thrones over seas of blood—you have trampled on to power over the necks of millions—you have turned the poor man’s sweat and blood into robes for your delicate forms, into crowns for your anointed brows. Now Kings—now purpled Hangmen of the world—for you come the days of axes and gibbets and scaffolds—for you the wrath of man—for you the lightnings of God!— “Look! How the light of your palaces on fire flashes up into the midnight sky! “Now Purpled Hangmen of the world—turn and beg for mercy! “Where will you find it? “Not from God, for you have blasphemed His laws! “Not from the People, for you stand baptized in their blood! “Here you turn, and lo! a gibbet! “There—and a scaffold looks you in the face. “All around you—death—and nowhere pity! “Now executioners of the human race, kneel down, yes, kneel down upon the sawdust of the scaffold—lay your perfumed heads upon the block—bless the axe as it falls—the axe that you sharpened for the poor man’s neck! “Such is the message of that Declaration to Man, to the Kings of the world! And shall we falter now? And shall we start back appalled when our feet press the very threshold of Freedom? Do I see quailing faces around me, when our wives have been butchered—when the hearthstones of our land are red with the blood of little children? “What are these shrinking hearts and faltering voices here, when the very Dead of our battlefields arise, and call upon us to sign that Parchment, or be accursed forever? “Sign! if the next moment the gibbet’s rope is round your neck! Sign! if the next moment this hall rings with the echo of the falling axe! Sign! By all your hopes in life or death, as husbands—as fathers—as men—sign your names to the Parchment or be accursed forever! “Sign—and not only for yourselves, but for all ages. For that Parchment will be the Text-book of Freedom—the Bible of the Rights of Man forever! “Sign—for that declaration will go forth to American hearts forever, and speak to those hearts like the voice of God! And its work will not be done, until throughout this wide Continent not a single inch of ground owns the sway of a British King! “Nay, do not start and whisper with surprise!
It is a truth, your own hearts witness it, God proclaims it.—This
Continent is the property of a free people, and their property
alone. “Look at this strange history of a band of exiles and outcasts, suddenly transformed into a people—look at this wonderful Exodus of the oppressed of the Old World into the New, where they came, weak in arms but mighty in Godlike faith—nay, look at this history of your Bunker Hill —your Lexington—where a band of plain farmers mocked and trampled down the panoply of British arms, and then tell me, if you can, that God has not given America to the free? [12-second applause] “It is not given to our poor human intellect to climb the skies, to pierce the councils of the Almighty One. But methinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah’s throne. Methinks I see the Recording Angel–pale as an angel is pale, weeping as an angel can weep—come trembling up to that Throne, and speak his dread message— “Father! the old world is baptized in blood! Father, it is drenched with the blood of millions, butchered in war, in persecution, in slow and grinding oppression! Father—look, with one glance of Thine Eternal eye, look over Europe, Asia, Africa, and behold evermore, that terrible sight, man trodden down beneath the oppressor’s feet—nations lost in blood—Murder and Superstition walking hand in hand over the graves of their victims, and not a single voice to whisper, “Hope to Man!”’ “He stands there, the Angel, his hands trembling with the black record of human guilt. But hark! The voice of Jehovah speaks out from the awful cloud—‘Let there be light again. Let there be a New World. Tell my people—the poor—the trodden down millions, to go out from the Old World. Tell them to go out from wrong, oppression and blood–tell them to go out from this Old World—to build my altar in the New!’ [11-second applause] “As God lives, my friends, I believe that to be his voice! Yes, were my soul trembling on the wing for Eternity, were this hand freezing in death, were this voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last impulse of that soul, with the last wave of that hand, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember this truth—God has given America to the free! [13-second applause] “Yes, as I sank down into the gloomy shadows of the grave, with my last gasp, I would beg you to sign that Parchment, in the name of the God, who made the Saviour who redeemed you—in the name of the millions whose very breath is now hushed in intense expectation, as they look up to you for the awful words—‘You are free!’” [9-second applause] "O many years have gone since that hour—the Speaker, his brethren, all, have crumbled into dust, but it would require an angel’s pen to picture the magic of that Speaker’s look, the deep, terrible emphasis of his voice, the prophet-like beckoning of his hand, the magnetic flame which shooting from his eyes, soon fired every heart throughout the hall! "The work was done. A wild murmur thrills through the hall.—Sign? Hah? There is no doubt now. Look! How they rush forward—stout-hearted John Hancock has scarcely time to sign his bold name, before the pen is grasped by another—another and another! Look how the names blaze on the Parchment—Adams and Lee and Jefferson and Carroll, and now, Roger Sherman the Shoemaker. "And here comes good old Stephen Hopkins—yes, trembling with palsy, he totters forward —quivering from head to foot, with his shaking hands he seizes the pen, he scratches his patriot-name. "Then comes Benjamin Franklin the Printer . . . "And now the Parchment is signed; and now let word go forth to the People in the streets—to the homes of America—to the camp of Mister Washington, and the Palace of George the Idiot-King—let word go out to all the earth— "And, old man in the steeple, now bare your arm, and grasp the Iron Tongue, and let the bell speak out the great truth: "FIFTY-SIX TRADERS, LAWYERS, FARMERS
AND MECHANICS HAVE THIS DAY SHOOK THE SCHACKLES OF THE WORLD!" |
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| "And, beloved ones, I must also mention
in memory and in the coming commemoration of July 4th that nations
in the earth did revile, did mock and scorn the great pageant
held for Mother Liberty, accusing America of overdoing such things.
O beloved, these words of the cynic reveal how nations beyond
the pale of the sponsorship of Mother Liberty do not appreciate
the fullness of that torch of illumination as the enlightenment
of the Holy Spirit, as the entering in to the temple of God’s
people of the Father and the Son!" |
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Philadelphia is one of the places where Europeans first studied Native American poloitcal thought. William Penn is the first non-Native American political figure to establish a state in the native American mode. William Penn was fundamentally committed to living in peace with Native Americans and integrated his new state into their political structures. The key issue is that until William Penn, individual's rights were something derived from the state. Willaim Penn created a state where the state's authority derived from the members of the community. He had a real change of faith which funademantally altered how he understood od's relationship to man and installed that insight into his constitution. Democracy in the Greek sense and in the European tradition was specifically about individuals as related to ethnic and family and tribe membership. Slaves, foreigners, children, women, workers, by definition had no personal rights because they were not people by law. Penn's state followed Native American thought that the state's sole authority is based on the rights of the individual. In European thought, including all the writers
contemporary with Penn and much later, individual Pennsylvania was the first state derived from European cultural traditions which asserted individual human rights as natural, God given, by nature, by birth and from birth and independant of all ethnic or religious or cultural ID, and the state as an intitution which derives its function as the collective action of the individuals. Penn's innovation became the American contribution to world political thought. America has contributed to world cuisine in fundamental
ways and much more beneficially than Potatoes, Corn, Tomatoes, Yams and sweet potatoes, are all American contributions to world culture. American political thought is also very much a mix derieved as much from Native American political institutions such as the Iroquois, Cherokee and Huronian republican models, which had a great influence on US political development through William Penn, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The World Cup is another area where a nexus can be drawn because soccer was football in the USA until the beginning of the 20th Century where Harvard Football became Ivy League Football. Intercollegiate soccer was the dominant sport and the Ivy League and soccer football was still the highest paid professional sport in the USA until the beginning of WWII. The first formal intercollgiate football match in the USA was between Princeton and Rutgers I think, somewhere about 1850. Harvard (American) football is many decades later. Large scale ball games were a very significant
part of native American culture for centuries before football
stadiums. Every town had a ball stadium throughout pre-Columbian
America. |
"The Declaration of Independence . . . [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man."—Thomas Jefferson
"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."—from the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain:
brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."—Samuel Adams
our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they are established and brought to perfection."—Benjamin Rush (1786)
| Historic Documents | History of 4th of July |
| Happy 4th of July! | From Sea to Shining Sea |
The New American
| Translation
for 140 languages by ALS |
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