Chuck Roots
19 March 2018
www.chuckroots.com
The Ripon Bulletin
An Act of Political
Courage
As an amateur student of history,
and in particular American History, I have always been amazed at the manner in
which the United States of America came into existence. How were these
colonialists of the seventeen hundred’s in what was known then simply as
America, able to come together from a variety of backgrounds and experiences,
and form a more “perfect union”?
In the Preamble to the Constitution
of the United States, we read these enduring words: We the
People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (British
spelling of defense), promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
What
I should like to point out in this Preamble is the focus on the wording. The
Founding Fathers purposefully wrote a Constitution that was for all Americans and
was intended to last into perpetuity. That means it’s as relevant today in
providing America with a basis for rights and liberties as it was the day it
was drafted in 1787.
Enjoying
the comforts of a prosperous nation such as we have become, fogs the image of
embattled patriots encamped against the most powerful monarch in the world at
that time (King George III), and the most powerful army, the British Redcoats. Yet
fully two-thirds of the colonists were preparing themselves to resist Britain,
even if it meant war.
The
Constitution was written for the American colonists, but it was also written to
King George as a challenge that these colonists who had been mistreated and denigrated
as second class British subjects, had had enough. That is not to say that all
Americans were wanting to push back against the oppression of the British
crown. Some were willing to grovel and fawn before the power of the rule of
Britain.
Thomas
Jefferson wrote in his “Summary View of the Rights of British America” in 1774,
these words of challenge that he knew full-well would be read by the king. “Let those flatter, who fear. It is not an
American art form.” Americans do not, and will not, ever bow to a head of state,
including our own. In fact, George Washington would not hear of being made King
of America, as some petitioned. And he had the foresight to recommend for the
presidency no more than two four-year terms.
“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.”
The delegates from the original thirteen states set in motion the eventual
undoing of slavery with these words, “All men are created equal.” To them, the
truths that were self-evident, were truths ordained by God so that the entirety
of the human race would recognize that all humans are of one family. To oppose
such an understanding, or to treat others as lesser beings, is in direct
contradiction to what God had declared in Holy Scripture.
“And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge
to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” It’s at this point, these final words
of the Declaration of Independence, that the signers on this hallowed document laid
everything on the line. The year was 1776, and the Revolutionary War was
already underway. In fact, the outcome was in serious doubt.
Of
the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, all knew what they were
getting into. If the colonists should lose the war, then they would be hung,
shot, or otherwise dispatched from this earth. The best they could hope for was
to be captured, returned to England for a trial and then executed in some
hideous manner. The members of the 2nd Continental Congress had been
arguing over many issues. Once the Declaration was finished and all agreed to
sign it, a comment was made to Benjamin Franklin that they must all hang
together in a show of unity. Is said that Franklin responded with this quip: “We must all hang together, or most
assuredly, we will all hang separately.”
Though
these men were of varying backgrounds, educational levels, even places of birth
(some born in Britain, while most were born in America), and though they did
not agree on all issues (slavery, for instance), they also realized if they had
any chance to be free from the oppressive rule of Britain they must, at all
cost, come together in unity. And they did!
The
signers of the Declaration were not revealed until January of 1777, following
General George Washington’s Christmas victory in the Battle of Trenton (NJ),
and in early January, the Battle of Princeton (also NJ).
The
Revolutionary War would last until 1783, but the die was cast. The army
Washington commanded would indeed defeat the vaunted British crack troops, and
America would be reborn as the United States of America, all because a few dozen
patriots were willing to give up everything they had in life, including their
own lives, to establish for the world the “land of the free, and the home of
the brave!”
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