I’m not sure what’s more mind-blowing to me: That our country has lasted 250 years or that I have lived through well more than one-third of its history.
Right after the Declaration of Independence was signed, Benjamin Franklin made one of the great maxims of the English language.
Franklin was responding to John Hancock, who said, "There must be no pulling different ways; we must all hang together." Franklin replied, "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
It was a pun with a serious double entendre. No laughing matter. Each of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence was signing a death warrant as a traitor, punishable by literal, not figurative, hanging.
John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, was the first to sign. His signature is at the top of the list, five inches long. As a result, the name “John Hancock” has come to be synonymous with the word “signature.”
None of the 56 signers were hanged, but five were imprisoned.
Richard Stockton of New Jersey was the only signer intentionally targeted and captured by the British specifically because he signed the Declaration. He was locked in a brutal New York prison, starved, and subjected to freezing conditions before being released in a prisoner exchange. His health never recovered.
At least 12 signers had their plantations, estates, and houses completely burned or looted by British troops. Several signers had sons captured or killed in the fighting, and others had their wives forced into hiding or briefly detained.
I wonder if such bravery still exists in the hearts and minds of Americans today? It certainly did 84 years later when hundreds of thousands of men died for their beliefs in the Civil War. It certainly did 164 years later when hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to fight tyrannical fascism sweeping the world in World War II. Bravery is built into our DNA and written in our souls from God.
At the time of the Declaration, the U. S. was a small colony facing the most powerful nation on earth. It was a David v. Goliath tale.
And just as today, there was huge debate about whether war was just or made sense. Many colonists sided with the British, making the war as much a civil war as a revolutionary war. The “patriot” revolutionaries constituted about 45 percent of the population. The “Tories” who were loyal to the crown constituted 20 percent and the rest were “fence sitters.”
Before the war even officially started, groups like the Sons of Liberty used brutal tactics—such as tarring and feathering or burning down homes—to terrorize Loyalists and force neutrals to pick a side.
Unlike the American Civil War, which featured distinct geographic borders, the Revolution split towns, congregations, and families. Benjamin Franklin’s own son, William Franklin, was a staunch Loyalist governor who never spoke to his father again.
After the Revolutionary War was won 70,000 Loyalists left America representing 15 percent of the total Loyalist population and about one in 40 of all inhabitants in the newly formed United States. Can you imagine? And you think the U. S. is bitterly divided today?
John Adams suggested Thomas Jefferson to write the first draft of the Declaration. Jefferson was known for his eloquence. Benjamin Franklin made the first edits with substantial contributions. Robert Sherman and Robert Livingstone contributed as members of the drafting committee, which then presented the draft to the entire Continental Congress, which spent two days debating and refining the Declaration.
Most of the Declaration is a laundry list of bad things King George and his administration had done to the colonies: denying the right to a jury trial, restricting trade, abolishing local governing bodies, taxing without representation and just basically being British tyrants over the American colonists.
By far, the most significant part of the Declaration is the introduction, which put forth the radical notion that free men have inalienable rights from God that can not be expropriated by tyrants, that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, and that if a government ceases to properly serve its citizens, then citizens have the right to abolish it. Then, of course, there is the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Freedom and liberty — these are the core concepts of what it means to be a citizen of the United States. I can write anything I want on these pages. I can call Trump an imbecile or Biden a moron. No one will arrest me, call me, threaten me, or kidnap me in the middle of the night never to be seen again.
That is freedom and liberty. That is why we fight and die. That is what this worldwide battle is all about. It is a battle that is still raging today and will probably rage forever. We must never stop fighting for world freedom and liberty. If we do, the 250 years stops and we become sub-human slaves, and life ceases to be worth living.
A billion Chinese do not have freedom and liberty. Their Christian pastors are arrested and thrown in jail. Dissidents are imprisoned. Their Internet is censored and manipulated. People disappear in the night. Same with Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Niger, Mali, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Egypt, etc.
Approximately half of the world's population—about 4.2 billion people—live in countries where freedom of expression is in crisis and they lack the security to openly criticize their government.
That is what the fighting is about. It’s a fight worth fighting. It’s why the U. S. is still an independent nation after 250 years.
