It is widely said that only about a third of the colonists wanted to break from British rule and declare independance.

In other words, if the "power of the people" had dictated public policy, we'd still be British subjects - or even worse.

An overwhelming majority of colonists did not want to risk their lives and livelihoods by attempting to challenge the power and authority of the British Empire with a wobbly bid for independance supported by a handful of undisciplined "minutemen".

And yet the founding fathers did anyway - and put THEMSELVES at the greatest risk. The men who founded and defended the birth of this nation - Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Adams, Washington, Henry, Hamilton, Madison, Paine... these were not poor and downtrodden men - these were very wealthy, successful, respected and intelligent men.

Yet each and every signatory and defender of the Declaration of Independance knew they were going up against the greatest empire and military power ever seen in the world up to that time. Every man who signed it knew they were signing their own death warrant if they were to fail in their highly unpopular decision to break from British rule.

And yet the founding fathers did it anyway.

They put their comfort, their wealth, their families, their futures and their very lives at immense risk. There were no guarantees, no backroom agreements with the British Monarchy or Generals, no safe-haven if they lose - but they still put it all on the line... EVERYTHING they had... and for what??  

More wealth? More land? More possessions? No.

They put everything they had into unsure turmoil for their "principles" - among these that individual freedom and liberty is not an arbitrary assignment to be licensed from the government but a inalienable right bestowed upon individuals by God.

And for that - I have eternal thanks and reverence for what was set into motion 226 years ago today.

If only a third of the population was enough carve this nation off the face of the greatest Empire in the world - and succeed, I do have hope for our future.

And I thank many of you here on this board also. You give me great hope that, if such a time again arises where barely a third of the people of our nation are willing to stand for their principles, whatever drove through the hearts of our founding fathers and led them to succeed will also drive through our hearts and minds and unite us to reestablish our inalienable rights against whatever overwhelming forces confront us in the uncertain future. But if that time ever comes, I only pray I have a sliver of the courage shown by our founding fathers when they signed their names to that declaration that even today puts a lump in my throat when I read it.

[USA]


Remember, if "democracy" had won the day in deciding to declare our independance 226 years ago, there'd be nothing to celebrate this Fourth of July.

Thank you.  Well said for a nemesis! [;)]

And I would stand by you

... These facts and observations has given me a bit of hope that tree of Liberty may grow again someday soon.

... Lately, It has been anemic and in many aspects even dying.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

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.

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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

If these great men could see the state of the things in the original 13 states they would roll over in their graves and curse the attackers of the 2nd amendment.
And admonish us for allowing it to happen.
But as we celebrate the birth of our great nation we must remember that it is not to late as long as we still have breath in our bodies.

Who would have thought that we would be celebrating our 226th birthday,  with CAP flying over our monuments and local PD/FD being issued radiac detectors in our major cities, kind of leaves a bad tast in my mouth.

I wish we could start over again with the government we started with.

What the hell was wrong with those people wasting everyone's time and not accepting the lesser or two evils?

[USA]

Oh... uh... okay, yeah, I guess I meant you too [b]DonR[/b]

[i]{Note To Self: be more specific in who you thank next time}[/i]

[;)]


And who exactly was the OTHER candidate they should have voted for... as opposed to King George III?

[%|]

Right now here in Oklahoma , Glenbeck is on the Radio... And he is delivering the most stirring account of America that I have heard in a long time...

Ben

Thankyou Mac, that may well be the best post I've ever read. I can certainly relate to many of your thoughts today.....Thanks again