Memorial Weekend 2009 I gave the following speech which ends with an excerpt written by Rush Limbaugh, Jr. While this was SIXTEEN years ago, it is still relevant and matters more than ever:
The story of Abraham Clark touches me no matter how many times I read. Such sacrifice he made so that generations to come would know Freedom and have claim to living in the Greatest Nation on earth America.
Could I make the same sacrifice? I ask each of you to look at your family next to you and ask yourself, could I do the same? We all talk about how we are willing to sacrifice for this great country but are we really?
America is great because we have the choice to choose opportunity – to choose liberty. It is also our choice to choose bondage to government, to choose security vs opportunity. For America to thrive we must be willing to accept the responsibility and the risk of having the freedom to make these choices.
Since the Revolutionary War we have seen many changes to our culture, our society and our government. Over time we have become forgetful of the value of the gift the Founding Fathers gave to us all. We take for granted our freedoms. We have become intolerant of pain or sacrifice of any kind. We have come to rely on the Government to solve our problems and have forgotten that the price for Government help however small, is ALWAYS our freedom.
We have become a nation obsessed with everything being fair, being equal and see nothing wrong with taking from one to give to another – just to keep it fair. We think that doing without means no Starbucks, cable tv or Ipods. What would the Founding Fathers think of us if they could see what we have become?
We have become so entrenched in pointing fingers and engaging in the us vs. them that we can no longer be civil, be united. How can a problem be solved when the people are divided into Democrat vs Republican, Liberal vs Conservative, rich vs poor, black vs white?
For generations we have all participated in the slow dismantling of the Constitution – some naively and some maliciously. The time has come for each of us to accept our responsibility as an American and to put aside our differences so that we may unite as a country and restore the Constitution as the Supreme law of the Land.
The time has come for us to choose opportunity and liberty again.
So today I stand before you all and confess that I was like most Americans, asleep and unaware of the insidious nature of government. That I naively did not understand the Constitution is what protects us from ourselves. I did not appreciate the wisdom of The Founding Fathers who understood the frailties of human nature.
I declare today I am proud to be a citizen of the Greatest Nation on earth – America.
Today I pledge to all of you, to my country, to Lady Liberty, my life, my fortunes and my sacred honor.
I am asleep no more. I am naïve no more.
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“What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?
I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.
Ben Franklin was the only really old man. 18 were under 40; 3 were in their 20’s. Of the 56 almost half – 24 – were judges and lawyers. 11 were merchants, 9 were landowners and farmers and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers and politicians.
With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of MA, these were men of substantial property. All but 2 had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th century.
Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it….. These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember, a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York harbor.
They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.
It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. 2 of them became presidents of the U.S. 7 of them became state governors. 1 died in office as vice president of the U.S. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. 1, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers….
Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from VA, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: “why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law.”
Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that 2 of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.
William Ellery, delegate from RI, was curious to see the signers’ faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, “but in no face was he able to discern real fear.” Stephen Hopkins, Ellery’s colleague from RI, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: “my hand trembles, but my heart does not.”
Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.
Francis Lewis, NY delegate saw his home plundered – and his estates in what is now Harlem – completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality…..
Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington’s appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.
John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of PA. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and trouble man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, last words to his tormentors were: “tell them that they will live to see the hour when shall acknowledge it(the signing) to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country.”
Thomas Nelson, signer of VA was at the front in command of the VA military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their HQ’s into Nelson’s palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Gov. Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, “why do you spare my home?” They replied, “sir out of respect to you.” Nelson cried “give me the cannon!” and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits…..
Of those 56 who signed the DOI, 9 died of wounds or hardships during the war. 5 were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. 2 wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. 12 signers had their homes completely burned. 17 lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.
And finally there is Abraham Clark.
He gave 2 sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk alfloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his son’s lives if he would recant and come out for the King and parliament. The utter despair in this man’s heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: “No”
The 56 signers of the DOI proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. “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”. Rush Limbaugh, Jr.