On this 244th Independence Day, I have been impressed with the fragility of the freedoms we possess. These past months of COVID orders and riotous protests show me how quickly our liberties can be curbed, and even vanish, because of the models of the “experts” and the will of the powerful. I hope Americans take the actions and reactions of these past weeks and months to heart. It is “we the people” who possess inherent, God-given rights, not government or its agencies. Americans must be reminded of this. As a nation under God, in Whom we trust, we see that government is accountable also. It is not the highest authority. The rule of law supersedes the whims and even the dictates of any branch or agency of government that contradicts that law. Who holds them accountable? We do! But if we do not act, and individual self-government breaks down, our republic will fail and America will cease to be “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
America is the only nation in the world based on an idea – freedom and self-government – so if we don’t understand that idea and what sacrifices were made to win that freedom and keep it for over two centuries, how can we possibly continue to keep it? – Eric Metaxas, Author & Speaker
It takes great pains to preserve liberty. Our founding fathers knew and experienced that, and they warned us what would happen if we lapsed in our vigilance to preserve it.
A Republic must either preserve its Virtue or lose its Liberty. – Rev. John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Founding Father and our 2nd President, John Adams, wrote to his wife, Abigail, less than a year after the Declaration of Independence was signed. The war for independence was raging in the north, and Adams and his compatriots were priceless targets of the British occupational forces. Those signers had pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to see this liberation through, and with their blood, sweat, and tears. Read his letter:
I have been lately more remiss, than usual in Writing to you. There has been a great Dearth of News. Nothing from England, nothing from France, Spain, or any other Part of Europe, nothing from the West Indies. Nothing from Howe, and his Banditti, nothing from General Washington.
There are various Conjectures that Lord How is dead, sick, or gone to England, as the Proclamations run in the Name of Will. Howe only, and nobody from New York can tell any Thing of his Lordship.
I am wearied out, with Expectations that the Massachusetts Troops would have arrived, e’er now, at Head Quarters. — Do our People intend to leave the Continent in the Lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what Fatality attends them? With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.
Does our State intend to send only half, or a third of their Quota? Do they wish to see another, crippled, disastrous and disgracefull Campaign for Want of an Army? — I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before. The Spleen, the Vapours, the Dismals, the Horrors, seem to have seized our whole State.
More Wrath than Terror, has seized me. I am very mad. The gloomy Cowardice of the Times, is intollerable in N. England.
Indeed I feel not a little out of Humour, from Indisposition of Body. You know, I cannot pass a Spring, or fall, without an ill Turn — and I have had one these four or five Weeks — a Cold, as usual. Warm Weather, and a little Exercise, with a little Medicine, I suppose will cure me as usual. I am not confined, but moap about and drudge as usual, like a Gally Slave. I am a Fool if ever there was one to be such a Slave. I wont be much longer. I will be more free, in some World or other.
Is it not intollerable, that the opening Spring, which I should enjoy with my Wife and Children upon my little Farm, should pass away, and laugh at me, for labouring, Day after Day, and Month after Month, in a Conclave, Where neither Taste, nor Fancy, nor Reason, nor Passion, nor Appetite can be gratified?
Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.*
Adams speaks to you and me in that final paragraph! Read it again!
(In Adams’ own hand…)
Be inspired. Be informed. Be involved. America needs a rebirth of freedom and the backbone it takes to preserve and defend it. It cannot be left to the politicians. We the People must speak and act. This is why we celebrate Independence Day. Make it a meaningful holiday this weekend! God bless you and may God bless America.
THE IRON PEN by Daniel Hite 
Leave a Reply