AMERICA is More than the Sum of Her Parts

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Declaration of Independence, democracy, Founders, freedom, Idea of America, liberty, representation, US Constitution

America is a IDEA. She is much larger than her expansive borders. She is far more profound than her vast natural resources. She is richer than Wall Street or the FED or Fort Knox. She is …

• All people created equal under the Law.
• All people free to express their thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and religious experiences.
• All people free to pursue their own version of the American Dream, their personal road to happiness.
• All people have the inherent right, given by their Creator, to LIVE, to make their own choices on how to live, and to find their own dream.

The idea of America is rooted in her people.

You know the rest … “If one sentence captures the quintessential idea of America, surely it the famous assertion contained in the Declaration of Independence: “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.” Almost every word of this remarkable sentence, 236 years old today, is pregnant with meaning and strikingly relevant.”

Our Founders were not like the majority of idiots/scoundrels who now reside in Washington, DC. They were brilliant, realistic men who were well educated, not just with books, but with life travels and adventures. They had a profound understanding both of the nature of mankind and the nature of government and, more importantly, they wanted above all else to create a government that would function within specific, restricted boundaries to maintain the individual freedoms guaranteed the American people. Our Founding documents record an Ideal that became America. It is unique in the world. It is NOT democracy … it is representation.

Democracy is mob rule, majority rules, and “might makes right!” In spite of the various national histories, languages, cultures, religions, and experiences of this nation of legal immigrants, America remains unique in the world. All are welcome. All, according to our Constitution, are offered the same opportunity to reach for your dreams. Sometimes reality doesn’t match up to the ideal, but the Ideal remains!

“Neither blood, history, religion, language [bind Americans together] — what else is left? Only an idea: that you could come to America and be whatever you wanted to be. You might have been a bog-trotter in Ireland or a baron in Silesia; in America, you were free to become whatever you could make of yourself.”

The enormity of President Obama’s numerous crimes against our Constitution and the faith & trust the American people placed in him is heinous. The ease with which he can stand before us and openly & deliberately speak lies is disgraceful. Everything he says and does is designed to further cripple the the American people, to enlarge their (our) dependency on the government, and build a uninformed “slave class” who will blindly accept the promise of an easy life in exchange for their “pursuit of happiness!”

BUT … The idea of America, the idea of individual freedom issues from the throne of GOD, as does the idea of individuals created equal under the Law. These ideas are rooted and grounded in Biblical truths. While humans are innately imperfect and sinful, G-D planted inside each of us a desire to be free to live as we see fit under His Natural Law. The result is that we each must work to improve our character, our self to obtain our dream of freedom.

President Obama has been ruthlessly successful in his effort to “divide and conquer,” to exploit our inherent differences, yet the idea of America As devious as the President has shown himself and his administration to be, as regards our Constitution over the last 5 years, he has no power over the idea of America that resides within a vast majority of her people still.

#1MVetMarch

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Hundreds of veterans descended on Washington, D.C. on Sunday under overcast skies and light rain to protest the closure of the war memorials during the government shutdown — and tore down the barricades surrounding the memorials to sounds of horns from truckers and cars and the roar of motorcycle engines.

Call it what you want, “evil” always overplays its hand and causes the GOOD to rise up in retaliation. Even today (10-13-13), Veterans so abused by the policies and decisions of this administration have gathered in DC to voice their anger. The harder the President pushes to control, to regulate, to corral the American people or any segment of us into a behavioral pen, the more likely a “push-back” will occur. It is the very Nature of the American Idea! We Will Not Be Intimidated! We will Not be Ruled! We are AMERICANS, and we KNOW LIBERTY!

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Last Call Anyone?

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Benghazi-gate, But God, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dr. Thomas A Harris, fast-furious, freedom, I'm OK; You're OK, LAST DAYS, Osama bin Laden, President Obama, SEAL Team6, secular humanist doctrine

If you haven’t listened to the title song posted here, please do …

This is not an article on the “Last Days,” but it is a post with the intent on drawing our attention to the bizarre flip-flop of good vs bad behaviors in our American culture today. Have you noticed? Have you seen “good” deeds outlawed while “bad” behavior is rewarded? Individual citizens are arrested for having a Bible study in their home while the current administration gets away with … “Fast & Furious” (Border agent Brian Terry slain by FBI weapon in Mexican hands), SEAL Team6 (that targeted Osama Bin Laden) 30 of 38 members of that team are now dead, and “Benghazi-gate” which resulted in 4 dead Americans and unknown numbers of survivors that have disappeared. There are other evidences, but the point is clear.

But this isn’t about politics or even President Obama. It is about the American people. It is about our “evolution!” Who knows what prompted those early adventurers to leave their European homes in search of … what? FREEDOM! If I asked each reader to give a definition of FREEDOM, I’d get as many different answers as there are readers. Our Declaration of Independence declares the purpose of government is to secure for every citizen our unalienable Rights, among which are LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS.

BUT … “There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weights the hearts.” Proverbs 16:25; 21:2

Few would deny the human potential for good, but many deny the same humans the potential for bad. let’s clarify good and bad for the purpose of this article as good = constructive and bad = destructive.

Like the Prometheus of Aeschylus, who challenged the Olympian gods, and stole their fire to give to mankind, so our ancestors came to these shores, to bring progress, through science and Classical culture, safely away from the oligarchical pestilence of Europe. Here, ships arrive with Pilgrim settlers in Salem Harbor, 1628.

The early Pilgrims, Puritans, and merchants came to the “new World” to build, or contruct, a new world! The “old” world was fraught with tyranny, political & religious oppression, and affliction – “destructive” conditions. They sought a place to start fresh. Their moral compass dictated their ideals, and while there are always exceptions to the rule, they aspired to a high moral standard as taught by their religious practices. There is no doubt each perceived their obligation to strive for “holiness” in their everyday lives, and did so to the best of their ability and understanding, imperfect though they remained. Still, they sought to better themselves. Do we?

For decades now, students have been taught they are descendants of monkeys, simply another primate, with a somewhat larger brain. Some educators and scientists aren’t even convinced of that much. In the 60’s two radical physicians, Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. Thomas A Harris, took center stage with their work. Dr Spock encouraged permissiveness by telling parents they restricted the child’s creative potential when imposing morals. Dr. Harris confirmed this is his thesis: I’m OK; You’re OK Both of these men subscribed to a secular humanist doctrine which, basically says, “If it feels good, do it!”

What do we do, then, when we feel as Paul felt when he wrote:

ROMANS 7: 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Psychiatrists and psychologists agree … Shove those guilt feelings down. Ignore them! They’re nonsensical, old-fashioned, and not logical. Heard any of that lately? Maybe in the “contraception” debate?

The TRUTH is that “compromise” has leaked into our American culture. On the Alternatives to Marriage website, I found this information:

“increasingly more children today are living with unmarried parents:

39.7% of all births are to unmarried women (CDC, 2007).

Nearly 40% of different-sex, unmarried American households include children (CPS, 2007).

41% of first births by unmarried women are born to cohabiting partners (Larry Bumpass and Hsien-Hen Lu, 2000).

About two-fifths of children are expected to live in a cohabiting household at some point (Census, 2000).”

If we think there will not be “fallout” from this, we’re only kidding ourselves. And, as always, it is the children who pay the price. The really pathetic part is there is no distinction in the organized church. We, as free but corrupt humans have chosen destruction … destruction of our own lives and those of our children. We have chosen destruction of our nation’s character and the liberties our predecessors fought and died to achieve. We have squandered our “birthright!” But God … God has a better way, if we will make the necessary adjustments.

I want to leave you with a few wise words … no, not mine! I ask you only to consider them while I do the same, and make the necessary corrections.

• “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” Proverbs 4:23
• “There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 16: 25
• “You may believe you are doing right, but the Lord judges your reasons.” Proverbs 21: 2
• “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17: 9-10

What is Left? What is Right?

Tags

5000 Year Leap, anarchy, Declaration of Independence, PEOPLE's Law, Ruler's Law, tyranny, US Constitution

Before we can remember who we are as Americans, we must LEARN more about how our FOUNDERS saw things! Their world, after all, was a bit different than ours is today. An astounding assembly of remarkable men, though far from perfect, these men were able to put aside their personal religious and political views to find a harmonious balance that penned The Founders’ Unchanging Principles of Liberty. An experiment in freedom that allowed the individual power over his own life.

Over the last few decades, but especially over the last 3 years, we, the American people, have allowed our government to turn America into a tyrannical state. We are the only ones who can change this!

Political parties did not exist in 1789. Washington despised the idea of political associations, formed in such a way as to pit one group of citizens against another. In his farewell speech in 1796 he said:
[While speaking on the subject — The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.]

“All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

“However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

[Bold emphasis not in original text.]

Rather than political parties, our Founders saw a different political spectrum than we are used to seeing. Most of us have been taught, if anything, that Democrats are left-leaning and Republicans are right-leaning, but left and right of what? What is the center? How does one measure Left and Right?

In his incredible book, A Miracle that Changed the World: The 5000 year Leap, Skousen suggests our Founders sought to find the balance between Tyranny and Anarchy. Tyranny being total centralized power in one person our a small group of persons (monarchy) versus Anarchy – “no government, no law, no systematic control, and no governmental power.” The yardstick is power, rather than political parties. Skousen defines the opposites in terms of who has the power. The Founders’ objective was to find a balance between the two extremes. With tyranny, all power rests at the top with the “king,” so Skousen calls this Ruler’s Law. The opposite, he calls PEOPLE’s Law because the people have the power to control the government, “and political power is maintained at the balanced center with enough government to maintain security, justice, good order, but not enough government to abuse the people.”

Sadly, what we see in today’s America is much closer to what Skousen calls Ruler’s Law, or tyranny! Here are a few evidences from his list:

“3. The people are not equal, but are divided into classes and are all looked upon as “subjects” of the king.

“5. The thrust of governmental power is from the top down, not from the people upward.

“6. The people have no unalienable rights. The”king giveth and the king taketh away.”

“8. The ruler issues edicts which are called “the law.” He then interprets the law and enforces it, thus maintaining tyrannical control over the people.

“9. Under Ruler’s Law, problems are always solved by issuing more edicts or laws, setting up more bureaus, harassing the people with more regulators, and charging the people for these “services” by continually adding to their burden of taxes.”

Our Founders were remarkable men, and the fact that such a concentration of incredibly gifted, creative, articulate, educated men gathered together at the conception of America is nothing short of miraculous. None could mange to come up with a Constitution alone. It required four months of discussions and arguments to find the balance they sought. They succeeded! In spite of the ridicule from various individuals today, our Constitution stands strong, the longest surviving Constitution, binding together what has proven to be the most successful experiment in governing in history.

Have you realized that from the dawn of time through the birth of America, civilization progressed only so far. Yes, a wheel and fire were found, but little else in that vast expanse of time, and yet in the mere 236 years since America’s birth, we have not just fire, but lasers, not just carts pulled by horses, but jets and space crafts landing on the moon. We have medicines based on scientific research, not just superstition. Think of all that have transpired just in your, or your parents’, or your grandparents’ lifetime. In the early 1900’s the electric light did not yet exist. Cars did not exist. And certainly, there were no McDonald’s! This explosion of innovation and invention was PERMITTED by LIBERTY like the world had never known! This liberty, our Founders believed was unalienable because it came from Providence, from God. Jefferson referred to Providence as “Nature and Nature’s God,” in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds 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.

from the Declaration of Independence

Why are we, as Americans, allowing our liberties to be stripped from us?

Why is CONGRESS not functioning in its capacity to control the Administrative branch?

Why do we, the people, sit back and let our government seize control of our life, liberty, and our pursuit of happiness?

WHY? BECAUSE WE ARE IGNORANT!!!!! We are unaware, unlearned in the Constitution. We might know the preface, the Preamble, but not the concepts. The GOVERNMENT is supposed to work FOR us, not condescend to report to us lies and half-truths. We, as adult Americans, must assume the mantle of authority laid upon us in our Constitution and hold our elected officials accountable TO the US Constitution. With FREEDOM, comes responsibility! If we don’t, the liberties we have known will not survive for our grandchildren to enjoy.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A Miracle that Changed the World: The 5000 year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen, 1981 National Center for Constitutional Studies

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: W. Cleon Skousen (January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was educated in Canada, the United States and Mexico. He received his law degree from George Washington University and was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia. He served in the FBI 16 years, became a member of the faculty of Brigham Young University in 1951, and was given a leave of absence to become Chief of Police in Salt Lake City in 1956. In 1960 he became the Editorial Director of LAW and Order, the most widely distributed police magazine in the U.S. He is also the author of several books including The Naked Communist and So You Want To Raise a Boy?. Prior to his passing, Mr. Skousen traveled and lectured in 29 foreign countries and 43 of the 50 states. His largest audience was 15,000 in the Hollywood Bowl.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING:

Piss on the Constitution

What is Left? What is Right?

Socialism v Free Enterprise: Translating ObamaSpeak

Tags

Class Warfare, Declaration of Independence, Socialism v Free Enterprise, tax "fairness", US Constitution, Who is responsible?

What He Said v What He Meant

by Mark Alexander via The Patriot Post

“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.”
Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richards Almanack, 1735)

Barack Hussein Obama never so much as operated a corner lemonade stand, but his perspective on free enterprise, shaped by his lifelong socialist indoctrination, is certainly getting some traction.

Invoking the two pillars of his re-election campaign, tax “fairness” and class warfare, Obama first focused on the tax piece, asserting, “I’m not going to see us gut the investments that grow our economy.”

In ObamaSpeak, “gut the investments” translates as “cut taxes,” and “grow the economy” translates as “grow the government.” This remark was a smokescreen in regard to Democrat efforts to let the across-the-board Bush tax rates expire, which, in effect, will raise taxes on all Americans who earn a living rather than live on the dole.

To that end, Obama’s Senate lap dog, Patty Murray (D-WA), served up this ultimatum: “If we can’t get a good deal — a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share — then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013 rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle-class families under the bus.”

Of course, EVERY aspect of her classist rhetoric requires a secret decoder ring.

“Good deal” means “raising taxes” and “balanced deal” means “more spending.” If the Demo-gogues were serious about balancing anything, they’d do precisely what “middle-class families” do during tough times: cut expenses.

“The wealthy” means “tax payers rather than tax consumers.” As for paying their “fair share,” the producers and job creators who earn $250,000-and-above (which is the target for Obama’s looming tax increase) while constituting just two percent of the population already pay 43.6 percent of all federal income taxes. Obama is also keenly aware that the top 25 percent of income earners already pay more than 84 percent of income tax revenues and the top 50 percent of earners now pay almost 98 percent of all income tax revenue collected — which means he’s all but created a voting majority who pay little or no federal income tax.

Clearly, Democrats don’t represent the “99 percent.” Instead, they pander to the 50 percent who are the beneficiaries of confiscated and redistributed wealth from the other 50 percent. I invoke again the timeless words of George Bernard Shaw: “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

Continuing with the translation exercise, Murray says Senate Demos won’t “lock in a long-term deal,” meaning “extend tax relief for tax payers,” and “throwing middle-class families under the bus” is what Obama and his Socialist Democrats do best.

Every dollar paid into the bloated federal coffers is one less dollar to be spent or invested in the private sector — where all those “middle-class families” Obama and his cadres use for cannon fodder — are barely making ends meet.

After pitching his plug for tax increases, Obama then got way off his teleprompted script with the most pointed classist and collectivist rhetoric he has yet to regurgitate: “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. … If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Of course, in the context of his socialist agenda, “somebody else” is his collectivist euphemism for “government,” a.k.a. Hillary Clinton’s “village.”

Finally, he asserted that collectivism is responsible for the existence of the middle class: “So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we created the middle class.” (As a half-truth, he may be partially correct. More middle-class folks could be wealthy if socialist government taxes and regulation weren’t holding them back.)

According to Obama, then, we owe all that we are and all that we own to government.

Notably, after having presided over four years of a flat-lined economy, despite spending trillions of dollars with nothing to show but trillions of dollars in debt, Obama’s chronic Narcissistic Personality Disorder enables him to completely ignore reality.

Every time he diverts from his ObamaPrompter, as he did with his assessment of free enterprise, he exposes his ultra-Leftist agenda. Some memorable examples include his recent assertion that, “The private sector is doing fine,” but we need more government jobs. Then there was his infamous comment to Joe the Plumber that we need to “spread the wealth around.” My personal favorite, however, was when an open mike caught his whispered assurance to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “After my election I’ll have more flexibility.”

Contemplate those words again: “After my election I’ll have more flexibility.”

As if he hasn’t yet done enough damage to our economy, culture and world standing in his first term? One wonders just what other damage he’d do with “more flexibility” in a second term.

Obama leads his lemmings to believe that business owners are millionaires driven by greed who don’t care about the jobs they create and the families those jobs support. In fact, the vast majority of small businesses — those which make up the foundation of our economy — are owned by men and women who put in long hours for not much more money than their managers and supervisors. But that’s during a healthy economy.

In a failing economy, like the current one under the Obama regime, small business owners who are personally liable for the debt required to operate their businesses, are taking out second home mortgages, maxing their credit cards, and borrowing from relatives and retirement savings in order to keep their businesses solvent.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wasted no time returning fire in defense of free enterprise.

“The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motor, that Papa John didn’t build Papa John Pizza, that Ray Kroc didn’t build McDonald’s, that Bill Gates didn’t build Microsoft — you go on down the list … to say something like that is not just foolishness, it is insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America and it’s wrong,” Romney said. > > > READ MORE

BLOGGER’S NOTE: Many Americans have a confused concept of compassion. Many of these Americans are very well intended, faithful people who have been beguiled by the misconceptions in various media that surround us. It is true there are many needy people among us – those with genuine needs as a result of devastating situations in their lives. These people need help. No one denies this. The question is who is responsible for the care of those in need. “GO & DO LIKEWISE” I propose that it is my responsibility and yours – as INDIVIDUALS – to personally tend the needs of the poor and help those in need in whatever ways we are each able. If we each put that on ourselves, the government would not be in the debt it finds itself. We ARE our brothers’ keeper, my friends, and the sooner we begin to take up the slack, the sooner our government can tend the duties for which it is responsible – i.e securing our borders and protecting our citizens via the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Check the video below!

In the Shadow of Our Fathers

Tags

Declaration of Independence, worthy example

On Independence Day: In the Shadow of Our Fathers

Below is something my Uncle Rex wrote for me a while back when I was in a low moment, verging on despair because so many of our fellow-Americans are still asleep and it seemed to me cannot be awoken. I have posted it before, but I think it is especially appropriate to post today, on Independence Day, when so many of us are wondering “what’s there to celebrate?” There is so much that has happened and is happening that is destroying everything that the Founding Generation fought, bled, died, and struggled for, that it can truly seem like a farce, a sick joke, to attend parades, watch fireworks, or do anything in celebration on our Independence Day, as John Adams called on us to do.

A reading of the Declaration of Independence today (which is something we should all do to honor our heritage) will show the stark reality that many of the most egregious of the “long train of abuses” enumerated in the Declaration as causes of taking up arms and causes of separation, are now happening again, to us. Our forefathers threw off a corrupt and oppressive empire, and while we slept, another has been built up around us, and over us, step by step, brick by brick, and we are now in a nearly directly parallel position that the Founders were in in 1772-1774: On the very eve of Revolution. And we are here, in large part, because so many of our countrymen have been asleep at their watch for decades, and many are STILL asleep. And so, it is easy to despair. I will have more to say later, but please read this – Stewart Rhodes

In the Shadow of our Fathers

The liberty we possess as Americans is not government granted but God given. It is what our Fathers call “Our natural birthright.” Therefore, it is not ours to give away nor to relinquish; for in essence, it is given to us as caretakers for the up and coming generations of Americans yet unborn.

It is as if we are running a marathon with the baton of American liberty clutched in our hands. Our goal and our purpose is to carry it safely and pass it on to the next generation of American runners so they in turn may pass it on to the next and so forth.

But – if because we cannot see the finish line and the odds against us seem insurmountable; if we become overwhelmed and lose our will to continue the race and succumb to the temptation to sit it out; if we lose the hope in the contest and give up the race, then all is lost and American liberty is no more. The fate of future Americans is weighed in the balance and we as a free people are in charge of the outcome for no man or group of men holds in their hands the final answer to the issue but ourselves. It is up to us to run the good race and fight the good fight; we as individuals as well as we as a team, for no one person carries the American baton of liberty by themselves, we are all in this together till the end…and be assured there is no end, at least not until Providence dictates it to be so.

When in the darkest hours of the year 1772, when disunion against British tyranny seemed eminent, Warren of Plymouth was desponding and said:

“The towns are dead and cannot be raised without a miracle.”

Samuel Adams responded: “I am very sorry to find in you the least approach towards despair. Nil desperandum (never despair) is a model for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.” (Bancroft”History of the United States” Vol. III pg. 426)

And indeed they did!

In late December of 1772, during that same low ebb, the Boston Committee of Correspondence wrote:

“By the people’s thorough understanding of their civil and religious rights and liberties, encouraged to trust in God that a day was hastening when the efforts of the colonists would be crowned with success, and the present generation furnish an example of public virtue worthy of imitation of all posterity.” (IBID pg. 428)
Today is that day! (4 July)

Therefore, let us be a worthy example for our posterity by walking worthily of the freedom whereby we have been made free and by never returning back to the beggarly elements of slavery; for we are not children of the bond woman of old Europe but we are free born under these western skies, and free we must remain, for you are children of noble parental blood – they never quit, neither must you.

The world watches what you do here today with the greatest of anxiety for if we fail, the light of mankind’s hope for liberty and freedom will be extinguished and the world will be thrown into an age darker, sinister and more slavish than mankind has ever experienced.

Finally brethren, be not counted as the generation who lost all after it has been given all by those who gave all, for if you do, your posterity shall rise up in their slavish toil and curse you.

–Rex. Ruth, Founder, The Educational Institute for Governmental Studies

The Top 10 Significant Figures Who Helped Found America

Tags

Articles of Confederation, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, Treaty of Paris

The Founding Fathers' Monument in Plymouth, MA - A graphic map to Liberty!

article by Martin Kelly

The founding fathers were those political leaders who were part of the American Revolution and the founding of the new nation after independence was won. There were many more than ten founders that had a huge impact on the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. However, this list attempts to pick the top ten founding fathers who had the greatest impact. Honorable mentions not included were John Hancock, John Marshall, Peyton Randolph, and John Jay.

A young, Colonel G. Washington

1. George Washington – Founding Father

George Washington was a member of the First Continental Congress. He was then chosen to lead the Continental Army. He was the president of the Constitutional Convention and of course became the first president of the United States. In all these leadership positions, he showed a steadfastness of purpose and helped create the precedents and foundations that would form America.

2. John Adams was an important figure in both the First and Second Continental Congresses. He was on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence and was central to its adoption. Because of his foresight, George Washington was named Commander of the Continental Army at the Second Continental Congress. He was chosen to help negotiate the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the American Revolution. He later became the first vice president and then the second president of the United States.

3. Thomas Jefferson, as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, was chosen to be part of a Committee of Five that would draft the Declaration of Independence. He was unanimously picked to write the Declaration. He was then sent to France as a diplomat after the Revolution and then returned to become first the vice president under John Adams and then the third president.

4. James Madison was known as the Father of the Constitution, for he was responsible for writing much of it. Further, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, he was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers that helped persuade the states to accept the new Constitution. He was responsible for drafting the Bill of Rights that were added to the Constitution in 1791. He helped organize the new government and later became the fourth president of the United States.

5. Benjamin Franklin was considered the elder statesman by the time of the Revolution and later Constitutional Convention. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He was part of the Committee of Five that was to draft the Declaration of Independence and made corrections that Jefferson included in his final draft. Franklin was central to getting French aid during the American Revolution. He also helped with negotiating the Treaty of Paris that ended the war.

6. Samuel Adams was a true revolutionary. He was one of the founders of the Sons of Liberty. His leadership helped organize the Boston Tea Party. He was a delegate to both the First and Second Continental Congresses and fought for the Declaration of Independence. He also helped draft the Articles of Confederation. He helped write the Massachusetts Constitution and became its governor.

7. Thomas Paine was the author of a very important pamphlet called Common Sense that was published in 1776. He wrote a compelling argument for independence from Great Britain. His pamphlet convinced many colonists and founding fathers of the wisdom of open rebellion against the British if necessary. Further, he published another pamphlet called The Crisis during the Revolutionary War that helped spur on the soldiers to fight.

8. Patrick Henry was a radical revolutionary who was unafraid to speak up against Great Britain at an early date. He is most famous for his speech which includes the line, “Give me liberty or give me death.” He was a governor of Virginia during the Revolution. He also helped fight for the addition of the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution, a document with which he disagreed because of its strong federal powers.

9. Alexander Hamilton fought in the Revolutionary War. However, his true importance came about after the war when he was a huge proponent for the US Constitution. He, along with John Jay and James Madison, wrote the Federalist Papers in an effort to secure support for the document. Once Washington was elected as the first president, Hamilton was made the first Secretary of the Treasury. His plan for getting the new country on its feet economically was instrumental in forming a sound financial basis for the new republic.

10. Gouverneur Morris was an accomplished statesman that ushered in the idea of a person being a citizen of the union, not the individual states. He was part of the Second Continental Congress and as such helped provide legislative leadership to back up George Washington in his fight against the British. He signed the Articles of Confederation. He is credited with writing parts of the Constitution including possibly its preamble.

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These men, and many others, together worked, argued, and committed to the definition and establishment of a new breed of FREEDOM in this experiment of America as a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy! Might does NOT make right in our form of government as it would in a democracy. Rather, we are ultimately governed by the Rule of Law, as stated in out Constitution, and each and every American (this must also come to include our elected officials in Congress and the White House) is held accountable to the rule of Law, to the Constitution. We are NOT ruled by the majority or by the strongest or any other subjective authority, but by the absolute authority of the Constitution. This is why it is imperative to have Justices that will apply the Law rather than interpret or rewrite it. It is a delicate balance, and currently, we are way out of balance! We-the-People must assume our rightful authority and correct the balance of power or our Republic is lost.

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson seek inspiration as they work to create the Declaration of Independence. Sculpted by Stan Watts