Thoughts on Independence Day

From: The Pen of Dr. Gary North

We have all heard the phrase, “a Fourth of July oration.” Maybe in my parents’ day, or my grandparents’ day, but not in mine. I do not recall ever hearing a single patriotic speech on the Fourth of July.

On July Fourth, we set off fireworks. But fireworks have nothing to do with the great event of the Fourth of July. Fireworks are associated with the national anthem, which was composed for British War II (1812), not British War I.

Public fireworks are almost always funded by tax money, since there is no way to keep non-paying viewers from watching. But as government expenditures go, fireworks should be the model for all government expenditures: only once a year, no full-time employees, funded locally, benefits are not means-tested, access is first come-first served, no politician gets any credit, no mailing lists are involved, and Congress always shuts down during the show. . . .

For most Americans, the story of the American Revolution is more like a series of museum displays with toy soldiers than a series of events that grab our collective imagination. Other than George Washington, the most famous general of the American Revolution is Benedict Arnold. In third place is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne. . . .

By any modern standard, in any nation, what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration to prove the tyranny of King George III would be regarded by voters today as a libertarian revolution beyond the dreams of any elected politician, including Ron Paul. Voters would unquestionably destroy the political career of anyone who would call for the restoration of King George’s tyranny, which voters would see as the destruction of their economic security, which they believe is provided only by politicians and each other’s tax money. . . .

This is why the documents of the American Revolution make no sense to us. We read the words and marvel at the courage of those who risked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor by signing the Declaration. But we cannot really understand why they did it. We live under a self-imposed tyranny so vast, so all-encompassing by the standards of 18th-century British politics, that we cannot imagine risking everything we own in order to throw off the level of government interference suffered by the average American businessman in 1776, let alone the average farmer. . . .

The Declaration of Independence points a finger at us, and shouts from the grave on behalf of the 56 signers: “What have you done? What have you surrendered in our name? What, in the name of Nature and Nature’s God, do you people think liberty is all about?”

We have no clue. American voters surrender more liberty in one session of Congress than the colonists surrendered to the British crown and Parliament from 1700 to 1776.

Read the entire article. . . .

“The Obama Man Can”

A Declaration Worth Remembering

A July 4th Connection

John Adams

John Adams, our second president, and Thomas Jefferson, our third, both died on the same day. These two former presidents died on July 4, 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Both Jefferson and Adams along with Benjamin Franklin were on the committee that helped draft the

Thomas Jefferson

Declaration of Independence. Jefferson and Adams, who had worked together in the cause of independence, became bitter political enemies. They differed on nearly every issue and became opponents in the presidential race of 1800 where Jefferson defeated Adams who was running for a second term. The two men reconciled their differences during retirement and became close friends. These two Founding Fathers died within a few hours of each other on this day 183 years ago.

John Quincy Adams Speaks On The Sixty-First Anniversary Of The Declaration Of Independence

John Quincy Adams

[In] the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?Cast your eyes backwards upon the progress of time, sixty-one years from this day; and in the midst of the horrors and desolations of civil war, you behold an assembly of Planters, Shopkeepers and Lawyers, the Representatives of the People of thirteen English Colonies in North America, sitting in the City of Philadelphia. These fifty-five men, on that day, unanimously adopt and publish to the world, a state paper under the simple title of ‘A DECLARATION. . . .’

 

Well, indeed, may such a day be commemorated by such a Nation, from year to year! But whether as a day of festivity and joy, or of humiliation and mourning, – that, fellow-citizens, – that in the various turns of chance below, depends not upon the event itself, but upon its consequences; and after threescore years of existence, not so much upon the responsibilities of those who brought the Nation forth, as upon the moral, political and intellectual character of the present generation, – of yourselves. In the common intercourse of social life, the birth-day of individuals is often held as a yearly festive day by themselves, and their immediate relatives; yet, as early as the age of Solomon, that wisest of men told the people of Jerusalem, that, as a good name was better than precious ointment, so the day of death was better than the day of one’s birth [Ecclesiastes 7:1].

Are you then assembled here, my brethren, children of those who declared your National Independence, in sorrow or in joy? In gratitude for blessings enjoyed, or in affliction for blessings lost? In exultation at the energies of your fathers, or in shame and confusion of face at your own degeneracy from their virtues? Forgive the apparent rudeness of these enquiries: – they are not addressed to you under the influence of a doubt what your answer to them will be. You are not here to unite in echoes of mutual gratulation for the separation of your forefathers from their kindred freemen of the British Islands. You are not here even to commemorate the mere accidental incident, that, in the annual revolution of the earth in her orbit round the sun, this was the birthday of the Nation. You are here, to pause a moment and take breath, in the ceaseless and rapid race of time; – to look back and forward; – to take your point of departure from the ever memorable transactions of the day of which this is the anniversary, and while offering your tribute of thanksgiving to the Creator of all worlds, for the bounties of his Providence lavished upon your fathers and upon you, by the dispensations of that day, and while recording with filial piety upon your memories, the grateful affections of your hearts to the good name, the sufferings, and the services of that age, to turn your final reflections inward upon yourselves, and to say: – These are the glories of a generation past away, – what are the duties which they devolve upon us? (July 4, 1837)

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