Independence Day Message

When the signers of the Declaration of Independence printed their remarkable document on July 4, 1776, they knew they were committing themselves and the people they represented in Congress to war.

 Already, George Washington and his army had driven the British out of Boston, and moved south to organize the defense of New York. There, Washington received his copy of the Declaration and ordered it read to the people of New York in the city commons, whereupon the crowd promptly raced to and tore down the statue of King George. As I understand it, most of the statue was melted down to make cannonballs.

The era of American Exceptionalism had begun, and continues to this day.  That it does so is due in no small part to the line of American patriots who died in battle defending their country – a line that begins even before July 4, 1776, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord more than a year earlier, even as far back as the Boston Massacre in 1770.

But the Fourth of July was a game changer.  No longer were the American patriots merely rebels against a King they perceived to be tyrannical.  They were a nation, one they were willing to give their lives to keep.  It must have helped to know that the Signers themselves were also willing to put everything on the table, pledging their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” to the cause of liberty on the North American continent.  And indeed, many of them would give their lives and fortunes in the war years ahead.  But not one of them sacrificed his sacred honor, because that honor had been pledged to a cause greater than any of them, or any of us.

Today, the line of American patriots continues, as does the glory of American Exceptionalism, despite the cynicism of those misguided acculturates, sophisticates, and lest I say, elected officials who deny it. Men and women of selfless character still die for our freedom, and because they do, freedom itself, like the line of patriots, forever marches on.