Today Is Independence Day; I’ll Bet You Didn’t Know That

Actually, today is Independence Day, though most Americans would not know that. Thomas Jefferson presented the article to the continental congress on July 2, 1776 and it was printed on July 4th yet the abstract was signed on July 3^rd. There is a lot of history unknown to our citizenry as modern day education places little emphasis on patriotism and American exceptionalism. Thank God you have me, your conservative oracle and unabashed patriot. So, set back, perhaps pour yourself an adult beverage and bask in my brilliance on this day when in 1776 the greatest nation on earth was born.

Governor Morris of Pennsylvania was put in charge of the committee to draft the final copy of the Constitution. Other men who had much to do with writing the Constitution included, “John Dickinson, Edmund Randolph, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, and George Wythe.” These men, “though competent” were scribes, merely 18^th century Dictaphones. The more apt question, in my mind is, “who authored our constitution?”

How many high school graduates could answer that question? How many of you can? If you don’t know, you will soon, I’ll tell you. Before I do there are other, equally important things you should know on this most important, historical day.

Thomas Jefferson is widely credited with authoring the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was asked to write the declaration article in early June, 1776 and finished it in less than three weeks. Jefferson, along with 54 compatriots on a very hot day in July affixed their signatures to the document. It is widely known that Jefferson had an account at the tavern across the street from the Graff House, “Declaration Hall” an account that grew to some size even with Jefferson’s means. As Jefferson was a man endowed with a great moral character this footnote is insightful. Jefferson knew that by authoring this document he was daring the British to hang him. Had they caught him they surely would have.

Thomas Jefferson finished the declaration and it was signed by the delegates on July 3rd, 1776. Don’t send me mail you history buffs. The signing was on the 3^rd, it was printed on the 4^th. John Hancock signed the document with an extraordinary large signature declaring, “I want King George to be able to read it without having to put on his spectacles”.

Jefferson and the signers declared that we should be a sovereign country. George Washington made it happen.

Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman. He pursued two intertwined interests; military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.

When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years.

Washington had not the best temperament as the commander of the patriot army. He routinely ordered the whipping of troops in his command for insubordination and other infractions of military decorum. He was a hard man. What isn’t widely known is that Washington personally financed, to the extent possible much of the expenses incurred by the continental army. Washington suffered many a demoralizing defeat at the hands of the British and caused Thomas Paine, “the Rush Limbaugh of his time” to write, "These are the times that try men's souls." The deciding battle came as Washington crossed the Delaware to surprise the Hessians. It was a bold act and energized the continental army and our country. The rest is history, if proper history were to be taught today.

George Washington secured our sovereignty yet not our freedom. Our constitution did so, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common 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.”

The Virginian version of our constitution was authored by James Madison whom later became our fourth president and commander in chief during the war of 1812. Madison worked most directly with Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and John Adams in the construction of our constitution as we know it.

Our constitution was created with the declaration in mind, that we are endowed by our creator. In literary form it is practically without fault, an inspired document.

All of this historical documentation leads me to ask a question, a pertinent and prescient one. Were it possible to know, what would the framers and those that fought for this countries sovereignty and freedoms think if they could witness the functioning state of the country they born?

Our framers envisioned a country whereupon rugged individualism and personal freedoms made us distinctly dissimilar and exceptional. In the Federalists paper # 39 James Madison describes the difference between Federalism and nationalism. He noted, “That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these terms are understood by the objectors; the act of the people, as forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate nation, is obvious from this single consideration, that it is to result neither from the decision of a MAJORITY of the people of the Union, nor from that of a MAJORITY of the States. It must result from the UNANIMOUS assent of the several States that are parties to it, differing no otherwise from their ordinary assent than in its being expressed, not by the legislative authority, but by that of the people themselves. Were the people regarded in this transaction as forming one nation, the will of the majority of the whole people of the United States would bind the minority, in the same manner as the majority in each State must bind the minority; and the will of the majority must be determined either by a comparison of the individual votes, or by considering the will of the majority of the States as evidence of the will of a majority of the people of the United States. Neither of these rules has been adopted. Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution.”

What Madison so eloquently put forth is that we can all rally around a national flag yet; the power of our government must remain with the states.

My favorite amendment is the tenth. Wherein; “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people.” Sadly, the tenth amendment has been adulterated by the commerce clause with attribution to the Supreme Court.

I’ll admit conscribing a return address that reads, “Illinois” is a hard sell wherein I conjoin with the 10^th. Yet imagine this; our federal government is restricted to abiding by the constitution and the real legislative power belongs to the states as written by our framers. The results would be states that actually have to compete for residents. If the tax burden in state X is too high you could move to state Y. As is, in a national form of government, “never intended by our founders” there is no escape.

I ask you again; what would our framers say?

George Washington served two terms and the country wanted to make him King. Though Mount Vernon lay in ruins Washington never drew a salary as president saying, “It is unseemly.” He retired from political life and died just three years later from throat cancer.

James Madison also died shortly after leaving office. “In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."

What would they think? Really, ask yourself. Is the form and substance of government we are today compelled to abide with the imaginings of those great men upon whose dreams for greatness we were founded. Ask yourself, and then ask those who have adulterated and obliterated the documents upon which we were founded. In forming this country the framers pledged their fortunes, lives and sacred honor. How much honor have you witnessed in American government as it exists today? Our elected officials we must currently abide should be ashamed and should ask themselves what I have asked. What would the framers think?

Conservative Springfield 02JUL08 Independence Day