“The conservative "thinks of political policies as intended to preserve order, justice, and freedom. The ideologue, on the contrary, thinks of politics as a revolutionary instrument for transforming society and even transforming human nature. In his march toward Utopia, the ideologue is merciless.”
― Russell Kirk
(Above: Lou Gehrig's retired jersey number in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.)
Introduction: My Life as a Fan of the Greatest Sports Team, Professional or College, in the History of the World
Baseball, not football, is America's greatest game because it is most aptly-titled "The National Pastime." I have been watching baseball since my birth year of 1981, and to this day, my father still speaks of how he sat me on his lap at approximately four months of age to watch each game during the 1981 World Series between the Yankees, the team I was predestined to follow due to being my father's son, and the Dodgers, which ended in a Dodgers championship after they rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to win the final four games. This would be the last time the team would appear in the World Series for 15 years, which to date remains the second longest drought since the franchise missed the Fall Classic from the time it was still in Baltimore in 1901 until the team finally broke through in 1921, two years after former owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert purchased Babe Ruth and several other players from the Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee. Frazee sold away the team's fortunes for the next 84 years because he wanted money to fund a Broadway musical, resulting in the Red Sox fading away as the Major Leagues' most dominant franchise. Upon the most lopsided player swap in the history of North American sports, the ultimate professional sports empire was born, appearing in 40 World Series between 1921 and 2009 and winning 27 World Championships between 1923 and 2009. No other sports franchise in the history of the world has ever matched the level of success of the New York Yankees, and it is likely that no other professional or college sports team ever will.
I have been a fan of the Yankees since the 1990 season, when the franchise finished dead last in the American League East Division with a 67-95 while endeavoring through just the second rebuilding effort in the past quarter century. The previous as well as the following two seasons were also losing seasons, and I recall asking my father on many occasions between 1990 and 1992 as I was engaging in more actively following the Yankees if the team would ever win the World Series. He often laughed at me like he knew some tidbit of esoteric knowledge I did not, and told me to just be patient, and then would always go into a short story about the rich history and tradition of the franchise, which including descriptions of the Hall of Famers and the previous 22 World Championships won. Sure enough, he was correct, because by 1993, the team spent a goodly portion of the season tied for first place in the division with the Toronto Blue Jays, who would go on to win its second consecutive World Series in a dramatic Game Six win over the Philadelphia Phillies on the strength of Joe Carter's walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Phillies' closer Mitch Williams. The following season, 1994, the Yankees finished with the best record in the American League and the second in all of Major League Baseball behind the Montreal Expos, but the player's strike ended the season as well as causing the cancellation of the World Series that year for the first time since 1904. This was unfortunate for the Yankees and for me because it delayed the team's first World Championship run since 1978 for two more years since the following season they were eliminated by the Seattle Mariners on the strength of the stellar play by Ken Griffey, Jr., and Randy Johnson in what still remains as one of the great postseason series in league history. Perhaps saddest of all for me is that the strike prevented me from ever getting to see my hero Don Mattingly ever play in the World Series. I do, however, cherish the memories of his warrior-like efforts in the 1995 Division Series in which he hit .417 with one home run and six RBI's as it was literally just "Donnie Baseball" and another Yankee great, Bernie Williams, who kept the Yankee offense afloat. And in 1996, my long, agonizing wait ended when team upset the heavily-favored Atlanta Braves who had one of the greatest starting pitching staffs in Major League history in six games after losing the first two games. It was at this time that a new generation of future Hall of Famers burst onto the scene for the Yankees, most notably Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
The Tragedy of Lou Gehrig
(Above: Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees.) "Line-Up for Yesterday" G is for Gehrig The Pride of the Stadium;
Earlier this morning, I posted an article celebrating the 237th anniversary of the ultimate triumph that became the great American experiment in democracy. Throughout the long history of Major League Baseball, too, there have been great events occurring on America's birthday to add special meaning to the holiday: both Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Phil Niekro struck out their 3,000th batters during the holiday; and 30 years ago today, the Yankees' Dave Righetti pitched the first no-hitter by a member of the team since Don Larsen's perfect game in Game Five of the 1956 World Series. However, this is also a watershed day in the history of Major League Baseball, particularly for the Yankees, as one of the greatest legends bid the Yankee family and fans, and the world farewell in front of 61,808 fans at what was arguably one of the two greatest sporting venues in the history of mankind alongside the Roman Coliseum, Yankee Stadium. Lou Gehrig had been diagnosed with a disease that would become better known in bearing his name, called "amytrophical lateral sclerosis" (ALS) on June 19, 1939, on his 36th birthday. He had noticed, according to Wikipedia, physical changes, stating at the end of the 1938 season that "I tired mid-season. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again." While posting well-above average statistics in 1938 (.295 batting average, 114 RBI, 170 hits, .523 slugging percentage, 689 plate appearances with only 75 strikeouts, and 29 home runs), he had largely struggled in the World Series, going 4-14 with all four hits being singles. But in 1939, there was no denying there was a problem with him physically, as he became a virtual invalid on the diamond. By the end of April, his statistics were the worst of his career, with one RBI and a .143 batting average. Fans and the press openly speculated on Gehrig's abrupt decline. James Kahn, a reporter who wrote often about Gehrig, said in one article:
"I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don't know what it is, but I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers 'go' overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It's something deeper than that in this case, though. I have watched him very closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely — and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn't there... He is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere."
And indeed, Gehrig was making contact with pitches, striking out only once in 28 at-bats. However, legendary Yankees manager Joe McCarthy found himself resisting pressure from Yankee management to switch Gehrig to a part-time role. Things came to a head when Gehrig had to struggle to make a routine put-out at first base. The pitcher, Johnny Murphy, had to wait for Gehrig to drag himself over to the bag so he could field the throw. Murphy said, "Nice play, Lou." And on April 30, Gehrig went hitless against the Washington Senators. Gehrig had just played his 2,130th consecutive major league game. On May 2, the next game after an off-date, Gehrig approached McCarthy prior to the game in Detroit against the Tigers and said, "I'm benching myself, Joe... for the good of the team." McCarthy acquiesced, and plugged Ellsworth "Babe" Dahlgren in at first base, making Gehrig's replacement an answer to trivia questions at bars nationwide as well as on Jeopardy! forever. Gehrig would remain with the Yankees as the team's captain, but he would never play again.
As Lou Gehrig's debilitation became steadily worse, his wife, Eleanor, called the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her call was transferred to Charles William Mayo, who had been following Gehrig's career and his mysterious loss of strength. Mayo told Eleanor to bring Gehrig as soon as possible. Gehrig flew alone to Rochester from Chicago, where the Yankees were playing at the time, arriving at the Mayo Clinic on June 13, 1939. After six days of extensive testing at Mayo Clinic, the diagnosis of ALS was confirmed on June 19, Gehrig's 36th birthday as previously stated. The prognosis was grim: rapidly increasing paralysis, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, and a life expectancy of less than three years, although there would be no impairment of mental functions. Eleanor Gehrig was told that the cause of ALS was unknown but it was painless, non-contagious and cruel -- the motor function of the central nervous system is destroyed but the mind remains fully aware to the end.
Gehrig's love for his wife, Eleanor, was tender and sweet, and one of the most storied in the history of American sports. He used to write to her frequently. In one letter written shortly following his examination, he said:
"The bad news is lateral sclerosis, in our language chronic infantile paralysis. There isn't any cure... there are very few of these cases. It is probably caused by some germ...Never heard of transmitting it to mates... There is a 50–50 chance of keeping me as I am. I may need a cane in 10 or 15 years. Playing is out of the question..."
In a sad irony prompted by the visual of Boy Scouts greeting and waving to him in wishing him luck, Gehrig leaned over to a reporter standing adjacent to him and grimly uttered:
"They're wishing me luck -- and I'm dying."
July 4th, 1939: Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium
(Above: Lou Gehrig crying during or after his speech on July 4th, 1939.)
On June 21, the New York Yankees announced Gehrig's retirement and proclaimed July 4, 1939, "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium. Between games of the Independence Day doubleheader against the Washington Senators, the poignant ceremonies were held on the diamond. In its coverage the following day, The New York Times said it was "perhaps as colorful and dramatic a pageant as ever was enacted on a baseball field [as] 61,808 fans thundered a hail and farewell."Dignitaries extolled the dying slugger and the members of the 1927 YankeesWorld Series team, known as "Murderer's Row," attended the ceremonies. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Gehrig "the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship" and Postmaster GeneralJames Farley concluded his speech by predicting, "For generations to come, boys who play baseball will point with pride to your record."
(Above: Babe Ruth hugs Lou Gehrig after his speech on July 4th, 1939. This was the moment that their feud over an alleged comment by Gehrig's mother regarding the comparison of the attire of Ruth's daughters came to an end.)
Yankees Manager Joe McCarthy, struggling to control his emotions, then spoke of Lou Gehrig, with whom there was a close, almost father and son-like bond. After describing Gehrig as "the finest example of a ballplayer, sportsman, and citizen that baseball has ever known", McCarthy could stand it no longer. Turning tearfully to Gehrig, the manager said, "Lou, what else can I say except that it was a sad day in the life of everybody who knew you when you came into my hotel room that day in Detroit and told me you were quitting as a ballplayer because you felt yourself a hindrance to the team. My God, man, you were never that."
The Yankees retired Gehrig's uniform number "4", making him the first player in Major League Baseball history to be accorded that honor. Gehrig was given many gifts, commemorative plaques, and trophies. Some came from VIPs; others came from the stadium's groundskeepers and janitorial staff. Footage of the ceremonies shows Gehrig being handed various gifts, and immediately setting them down on the ground, because he no longer had the arm strength to hold them. The Yankees gave him a silver trophy with their signatures engraved on it. Inscribed on the front was a special poem written by The New York Times writer John Kieran. The trophy cost only about $5, but it became one of Gehrig's most prized possessions. It is currently on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. On the trophy, his teammates had inscribed the following:
"We've been to the wars together; We took our foes as they came; And always you were the leader, And ever you played the game.
Idol of cheering millions, Records are yours by sheaves; Iron of frame they hailed you Decked you with laurel leaves.
But higher than that we hold you, We who have known you best; Knowing the way you came through Every human test.
Let this be a silent token Of lasting Friendship's gleam, And all that we've left unspoken; Your Pals of the Yankees Team."
However, the most important event of the day was not the number of accolades and honors Gehrig received, but of the speech that followed. Generally, we acknowledge most great speeches as having been delivered by politicians, most notably presidents and religious clergymen and women, who are generally renowned as being great orators. This one, however, was by an athlete, though a very educated one as he attended Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League family of universities located in New York City, as is part of the school's official titled Columbia University in the City of New York. His speech is one of the most famous in American history, and without a doubt in the history of professional sports, much less Major League Baseball.
Below is film footage of Gehrig's speech on July 4th, 1939. It is the most complete copy available on YouTube, as the only full-length video I was able to find over the two hours spent looking for a copy of the film was on Fox Sport, whose video format was not YouTube and therefore incompatible with what Blogger will allow:
The only unfortunate comment written by a journalist was when David Whitley of the July 4, 2011 article in The Sporting Newsstated that the speech would have been better had it been delivered by Hillary Clinton.
Conclusion: Lou Gehrig's Legacy
On June 6, 1941, four days after Gehrig passed away, the Yankees dedicated a monument in center field to him, making him the second player or manager in the franchise's history to be so honored after Miller Huggins in 1932. On it is inscribed what perhaps is the greatest tribute to a man so filled with superlatives that only a simple, yet eloquent phrase such as this could have been stated to appropriately describe his accomplishments:
"A man, a gentleman and a great ballplayer whose amazing record of 2,130 consecutive games should stand for all time."
On September 6, 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr., broke Gehrig's consecutive games record on his way to 2,632, which he ended on his own terms on September 20, 1998. Ironically, it came against what was arguably one of the greatest single-season teams in the history of North American sports and the same franchise for whom Gehrig played: the New York Yankees, who won that day 5-4 in Baltimore. As a 14 year old student in the 8th Grade, I recall vividly watching the game in which Ripken broke Gehrig's record on that September 8 night in 1995, including the home run in which Chris Berman nearly had an orgasm when he proclaimed, "Oh my goodness! He's done it again!" As melodramatic as it was, I appreciated what Ripken was accomplishing. Both men endured copious injuries and serious illnesses during the course of their streaks to reach the totals at which they arrived. But upon further reflection, I also noted one undeniable fact: Ripken was nowhere near the player as was Gehrig. While I do not have his career statistics from that very game in his career, their batting records were both excellent and yet incomparable, as Gehrig's far exceeded Ripken's in quality. Consider these statistics below:
There is clearly no comparison in the level of greatness between the two players. Furthermore, Gehrig played on six World Championship teams and was still the team's captain even after his failing health forced him into a premature retirement during the 1939 season, so that would make seven championship teams. Ripken, however, only played on one World Championship team in 1983, and never again returned to the Fall Classic.
In 1969, Gehrig was voted the greatest first baseman of all-time by the Baseball Writers' Association. Sixty years later in 1999, he received the most votes of any baseball player selected on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as chosen by the fans. That same year, he was also named the sixth greatest player by The Sporting News on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, given annually to the MLB player best exhibiting the integrity and character of Gehrig, was first presented in 1955 and was named in the first baseman's honor.
(Above: Lou Gehrig and wife Eleanor playing at the piano.)
As was mentioned earlier, his marriage and love for Eleanor is one of the renowned in this history of American sports. In 1976, Mrs. Gehrig authored an autobiography titled My Luke and I, describing her life and the mutual love shared between the two. When commenting on her life with her famous husband, she said:
"I would not have traded two minutes of joy and the grief with that man for two decades of anything with another."
While it is true that Gehrig was an even better person than he was a ballplayer, a high compliment considering her his greatness on the diamond, perhaps his greatest legacy is that which killed him. God has a purpose behind every person who is born into Creation. While he provided 15 years of wonderful memories for the generation of children and adolescents who matured to adulthood between the era of the "Roaring '20's" and the economic and social depths of the Great Depression, his diagnosis, suffering, and ultimately his death as a result of ALS led to greater awareness of the disease; in fact, the disease is now most commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Since then, there have been major medical breakthroughs in treating those afflicted with ALS, as famous British University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking also suffers from it and has since about 1963-64, when he was 21 years old. Today, he is 72, and though almost completely paralyzed, he still is the considered arguably the most brilliant scientist in the world and speaks through a speech generating device. Still, scores of people die within a matter of a few years of their diagnosis with the illness because they do not have the pecuniary means to procure the proper treatment as does Hawking. Research continues on to this day in finding a way to treat and hopefully eventually cure the illness. This research might not be nearly as aggressively-pursued today without the ultimate sacrifice paid by Gehrig. It is, therefore, that we attribute to the man who already was noted in his day as one of the greatest baseball players of all time, that his greatest accomplishment, what I will regard is his "masterpiece," is his ultimate sacrifice to the cause of medical science. The legacy of Gehrig has long outlived Gehrig the man.
For more information on how you can help the promote the cause of medical research for ALS (aka. "Lou Gehrig's Disease"), please visit The ALS Association, the organization leading the fight against Lou Gehrig's Disease.
(Above: Painting by John Trumbull of the sighing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in 1826.)
Introduction: Capturing the Spirit of the Fourth of July Through the Eyes of President Ronald Reagan
In a time when the founding principles of the American way are in the gravest jeopardy, there are still many people who take time to enjoy this great holiday every July 4th by remembering that for which it stands. Today, as you know, is Independence Day, the 237th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence which officially declared the thirteen British colonies on what is now the East Coast of the United States independent from the rule of His Majesty, King George III. The 56 men who signed the document did so knowing they were risking their lives, fortunes, and posterity to further the cause of the American people's liberty. Thankfully, the new nation, not recognized at that time by any other foreign power, would be after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that brought the Revolution to a final conclusion. It is at this time that the beginning of the American way of life, the way we have known it, took off from its launching as does a rocket. In the eyes of a largely-jealous world, its course has not been altered, nor has it looked back. America is, despite of its many great faults and imperfections, the world's greatest hope for a peaceful future.
The first manner in which I will celebrate the Independence Day on this very wet and rainy day in my hometown in the metropolitan area of Knoxville, TN, which was named the most patriotic city in America according to Foursquare in yesterday's USA Today, will be to provide a video of President Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on Independence Day in 1986. While brief in duration, it is no less poignant in its purpose and magnitude. President Reagan had the innate ability to bring the best out of the American people, to lift the people's spirits through humbly creating better conditions towards the end of people of all walks of life and all levels of income, racial, ethnic, and sexual classification to become more prosperous during his presidency, and he ended the Cold War without firing a single shot against the Soviet Union. Yet, Reagan is often remembered, ridiculed, and reviled by the Left as a "war monger" because of his ordering the most massive military arms buildup in the nation's history, and they to this day, including my former professor for my History of Contemporary Europe course during the Fall 2007 semester at the University of Tennessee, continue to claim that he had nothing to do with the downfall of the Soviet Union. You and I know better, though. While it is true that the Soviet Union began to suffer serious economic difficulties in the early 1980's following its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, it might still be alive today, albeit at a diminished capacity comparably, had it not been for President Reagan's aggressive anti-Communist foreign policy, the most aggressive such policy during the 45 year the history of the Cold War. When such policies as Containment and Detente failed, Reagan's plan to put an end to the Cold War with the Soviets was the only possible and reasonable solution. As such, he saved the world for future generations from fear of a nuclear holocaust, leaving no other nation to date who is comparable to America's economic and military might, nor to its commitment to peace. As we now have a new cabal of enemies in the form of a series of shadow societies known as Islamic terrorism, our challenges to date are every bit as great as those we met while fought against Nazism, Fascism, and Communism all those years ago. With God on our side, we will defeat this menace, too, and hopefully bring about another period of international peace through strength known during the time of the Roman Empire as a Pax Romana.
Below is the video from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation of President Reagan's Independence Day Address. Calm, cool, and polished, there have been no other presidents during my lifetime who have matched his oratory skills. Enjoy the clip, and sit back and reminisce during the period of time we conservative-libertarians fondly recall as being "Morning in America":
A Brief History of the Declaration of Independence
French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his famous historic account about our republic in its early years titled Democracy in America that most Americans of that day were far more aware of what policies the government was implementing than the peoples of Europe. Today, however, this is no longer the case. In the video provided below that I found on the saucy website run by conservative feminists titled Chicks on the Right, we will see examples of today's Americans on a beach in California who absolutely have no clue as to why America celebrates Independence Day on the Fourth of July:
This is truly a tragedy, an embarrassment to the American public education system. However, based upon my experiences working with high school students in the past, I am not surprised. Most people -- teenagers or young adults -- are more interested in playing with their iPhone's, iPod's, and video games than in reading about the history of their forefathers or learning about their families' past. I thank The Good Lord that I never was dealt this hand, because my father made sure that I began learning these very important details very early in life upon the time I was old enough to read. At the age of four, I learned nearly every single known dinosaur, what period in the Mesozoic Era in which they lived, whether they were carnivorous or herbivores, and what family classification in which they were placed. At six, I began reading about the Solar System and history for the first time, and it was the latter subject that would inspire me to earn my degree in the discipline just last year. Upon the time I started to learn about U.S. history, I began by learning in order the first 40 presidents, which ranged from Washington through Reagan. I can still recall the manner in which I began to learn these facts. In the fall of 1987 while I was still in Kindergarten, I purchased a book at the semi-annual RIF fair at my elementary school a book titled, "The 40 Presidents: Facts and Fun." While this was, of course, a kids book, it no doubt served its purpose in initiating my education for the future, and within a year I began having my father purchase adult narratives and biographies on these great men. My first president over whom I became enamored and who still remains one of my two favorite presidents along with Ronald Reagan, was Thomas Jefferson, and upon discussing this topic with an art teacher at the school I employed this last year, she found it astounding that I chose him since the prevailing wisdom is for most children to be interested in Washington or Lincoln. For me, though, Jefferson was completely fascinating, perhaps more for his philosophy, wisdom, intellect, and being the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which was actually ratified and approved on July 2, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress but signed by the 56 member delegation two days later on July 4th, thus making the separation from Great Britain official. While I was not fully capable of comprehending the entire significance behind Jefferson's or any other Founding Father's contributions to America's founding, I had definitely developed an instinctual cognizance and therefore an appreciation for what they accomplished and what they were sacrificed, as well as the brave patriots who fought in the war against the most powerful military on Earth, of whom it is estimated that 25,000 Continental Army soldiers and militiamen made the ultimate sacrifice so that America could be free. In the spring of 1988, while still in Kindergarten, I "authored a book" about Jefferson, filled with illustrations and a few details about his life, including a very short account about his friendship with John Adams and his drafting of the Declaration of Independence. I will proudly say that not only am I well-educated and versed in the history of our country as well as many others around the world, I was also admit that I was a precocious youth.
Since it would take me many hours of research to fully detail the history behind Independence Day, which I previously stated includes the signing of the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Philadelphia 237 years ago today, I will provide a list of nine interesting facts courtesy also of Chicks on the Rightin yesterday's article that also included the last video posted of the individuals who know nothing about the history of our great nation titled "Happy Fourth of July! We Live Among Morons!" While most people do not know every single detail about the week long or so convention leading up to the ratification on the 2nd and the signing on the 4th, I will provide you History's gift that should be partaken and enjoyed by all of God's creatures, Americans or not:
1. The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776.
On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. The delegates then spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson. On July 4, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, and as a result the date is celebrated as Independence Day. Nearly a month would go by, however, before the actual signing of the document took place. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July 9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in favor of independence. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”—written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, but several—Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean and Matthew Thornton—signed on a later date. (Two others, John Dickinson and Robert R. Livingston, never signed at all.) The signed parchment copy now resides at the National Archives in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, alongside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
2. More than one copy exists.
After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the “Committee of Five”—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston—was charged with overseeing the reproduction of the approved text. This was completed at the shop of Philadelphia printer John Dunlap. On July 5, Dunlap’s copies were dispatched across the 13 colonies to newspapers, local officials and the commanders of the Continental troops. These rare documents, known as “Dunlap broadsides,” predate the engrossed version signed by the delegates. Of the hundreds thought to have been printed on the night of July 4, only 26 copies survive. Most are held in museum and library collections, but three are privately owned.
3. When news of the Declaration of Independence reached New York City, it started a riot.
By July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence had reached New York City. With hundreds of British naval ships occupying New York Harbor, revolutionary spirit and military tensions were running high. George Washington, commander of the Continental forces in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall. A raucous crowd cheered the inspiring words, and later that day tore down a nearby statue of George III. The statue was subsequently melted down and shaped into more than 42,000 musket balls for the fledgling American army.
4. Eight of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in Britain.
While the majority of the members of the Second Continental Congress were native-born Americans, eight of the men voting for independence from Britain were born there. Gwinnett Button and Robert Morris were born in England, Francis Lewis was born in Wales, James Wilson and John Witherspoon were born in Scotland, George Taylor and Matthew Thornton were born in Ireland and James Smith hailed from Northern Ireland.
5. One signer later recanted.
Richard Stockton, a lawyer from Princeton, New Jersey, became the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to recant his support of the revolution. On November 30, 1776, the hapless delegate was captured by the British and thrown in jail. After months of harsh treatment and meager rations, Stockton repudiated his signature on the Declaration of Independence and swore his allegiance to King George III. A broken man when he regained his freedom, he took a new oath of loyalty to the state of New Jersey in December 1777.
6. There was a 44-year age difference between the youngest and oldest signers.
The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin, 70 years old when he scrawled his name on the parchment. The youngest was Edward Rutledge, a lawyer from South Carolina who was only 26 at the time. Rutledge narrowly beat out fellow South Carolinian Thomas Lynch Jr., just four months his senior, for the title.
7. Two additional copies have been found in the last 25 years.
In 1989, a Philadelphia man found an original Dunlap Broadside hidden in the back of a picture frame he bought at a flea market for $4. One of the few surviving copies from the official first printing of the Declaration, it was in excellent condition and sold for $8.1 million in 2000. A 26th known Dunlap broadside emerged at the British National Archives in 2009, hidden for centuries in a box of papers captured from American colonists during the Revolutionary War. One of three Dunlap broadsides at the National Archives, the copy remains there to this day.
8. The Declaration of Independence spent World War II in Fort Knox.
On December 23, 1941, just over two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the signed Declaration, together with the Constitution, was removed from public display and prepared for evacuation out of Washington, D.C. Under the supervision of armed guards, the founding document was packed in a specially designed container, latched with padlocks, sealed with lead and placed in a larger box. All told, 150 pounds of protective gear surrounded the parchment. On December 26 and 27, accompanied by Secret Service agents, it traveled by train to Louisville, Kentucky, where a cavalry troop of the 13th Armored Division escorted it to Fort Knox. The Declaration was returned to Washington, D.C., in 1944.
9. There is something written on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
In the movie “National Treasure,” Nicholas Cage’s character claims that the back of the Declaration contains a treasure map with encrypted instructions from the founding fathers, written in invisible ink. Unfortunately, this is not the case. There is, however, a simpler message, written upside-down across the bottom of the signed document: “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.” No one knows who exactly wrote this or when, but during the Revolutionary War years the parchment was frequently rolled up for transport. It’s thought that the text was added as a label.
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Conclusion: A Tribute to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the Principle Authors of the Declaration of Independence, Who Passed Away on this Date in 1826
(Above: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, co-authors of the Declaration of Independence, and former presidents of the United States. Both men died on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)
Within hours of one another, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away on July 4th, 1826, exactly 50 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. Said Jefferson in the short period of time prior to his death during the early morning hours of that day, "Is it the Fourth?" while many hours later, John Adams uttered these famous last words: "Thomas Jefferson lives," unable to possibly know of his death which had occurred just hours earlier. It is fitting that the two men who were the most instrumental in its being drafted and passed as a resolution died on that day; it was as if was another baptism for the young republic and a reaffirmation of America's greatness by God Almighty Himself.
Below are the words to the Declaration of Independence. I will also post a physical copy of the document as well (Courtesy of ABC News):
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 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 harrass 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 & 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 Brittish 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 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 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
While it is widely known that Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, a task at which he was charged around June 28, it was Adams, according to legend and his letter to Timothy Pickering on August 6, 1822, who made the suggestion for the young delegate from Virginia to endeavor in drafting this most vital of documents. Below is the actual letter from Adams to Pickering (Courtesy of Constitution.org):
You inquire why so young a man as Mr. Jefferson was placed at the head of the Committee for preparing a Declaration of Independence, I answer; It was the Frankfort advice, to place a Virginian at the head of every thing. Mr. Richard Henry Lee, might be gone to Virginia, to his sick family, for aught I know, but that was not the reason of Mr. Jefferson's appointment. There were three committees appointed at the same time. One for the Declaration of Independence, another for preparing articles of Confederation, and a other for preparing a treaty to be proposed to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Committee of Of Confederation, and it was not thought convenient that the same person should be upon both. Mr. Jefferson came into Congress, in June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent of composition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation, not even Samuel Adams was more so, that he soon seized upon my heart; and upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all in my power to procure the votes of others. I think he had one more vote than any other, and that placed him at the head of the committee. I had the next highest number, and that placed me the second. The committee met, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make the draught, I suppose because we were the two first on the list.
The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught I said, "l will not." "You should do it." "Oh! no." "Why will you not? You ought do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first--You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second--I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are much otherwise. Reason third--You can write ten times better than I can." "WelI," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."
A meeting we accordingly had, and conned the paper over. I was delighted with its high tone and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning negro slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. There were other expressions which I would not have inserted, if I had drawn it, particularly that which called the King a tyrant. I thought this too personal. I never believed George to be a tyrant in disposition and in nature; I always believed him to be deceived by his courtiers on both sides of the Atlantic, and in his official capacity only, cruel. I thought the expression too passionate, and too much like scolding, for so grave and solemn a document; but as Franklin and Sherman were to inspect it afterwards, I thought it would not become me to strike it out. I consented to report it, and do not now remember that I made or suggested a single alteration.
We reported it the committee of five. It was read, and I do not remember that Franklin or Sherman criticized any thing. We were all in haste. Congress was impatient, and the instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson's handwriting as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter of it, as I expected the would; but they obliterated some of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if any thing in it was. I have long wondered that the original draught has not been published. I suppose the reason is, the vehement phillipic against negro slavery.
As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The substance of it is contained in the Declaration of Rights and the Violations of those Rights in the Journals of Congress, in 1774. Indeed, the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet, voted and printed by the town of Boston, before the first Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel Adams.
Your friend and humble servant,
John Adams
___
(Above: Photograph of Daniel Webster, U.S. congressman and senator from Massachusetts during the Antibellum period. Courtesy of Wikipedia)
To conclude this article, I will post what was one of the most poignant and beautiful eulogies in American history delivered by Daniel Webster on August 2, 1826 in honor of the late Adams and Jefferson. I first read this as an assignment in my Early American Republic history course during the Spring 2010 semester taught by my favorite professor during my college years. A pleasure to read, I now have the distinct pleasure to present it to you from the exact webpage the professor of this class, as well as three other U.S. history classes I took -- History of the American Revolution, 1763-1789; History of the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877; and United States History from 1877-1933. I hope you enjoy this, and remember the spirit under which this great nation was founded (Courtesy of Dartmouth University - Daniel Webster):
Adams and Jefferson
August 2, 1826
Source: Shewmaker, 104-113
This is an unaccustomed spectacle. For the first time, fellow-citizens, badges of mourning shroud the columns and overhang the arches of this hall. These walls, which were consecrated, so long ago, to the cause of American liberty, which witnessed her infant struggles and rung with the shouts of her earliest victories, proclaim, now, that distinguished friends and champions of that great cause have fallen. It is right that it should be thus. The tears which flow, and the honors that are paid, when the founders of the republic die, give hope that the republic itself may be immortal. It is fit that, by public assembly and solemn observance, by anthem and by eulogy, we commemorate the services of national benefactors, extol their virtues, and render thanks to God for eminent blessings, early given and long continued, through their agency, to our favored country.
ADAMS and JEFFERSON are no more; and we are assembled, fellow-citizens, the aged, the middle-aged, and the young, by the spontaneous impulse of all, under the authority of the municipal government, with the presence of the chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, and others its official representatives, the University, and the learned societies, to bear our part in these manifestations of respect and gratitude which pervade the whole land. ADAMS and JEFFERSON are no more. On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national jubilee, in the very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and reechoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were on all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of spirits.
If it be true that no one can safely be pronounced happy while he lives, if that event which terminates life can alone crown its honors and its glory, what felicity is here! The great epic of their lives, how happily concluded! Poetry itself has hardly terminated illustrious lives, and finished the career of earthly renown, by such a consummation. If we had the power, we could not wish to reverse this dispensation of the Divine Providence. The great objects of life were accomplished, the drama was ready to be closed. It has closed; our patriots have fallen; but so fallen, at such age, with such coincidence, on such a day, that we cannot rationally lament that the end has come, which we knew could not be long deferred.
Neither of these great men, fellow-citizens, could have died, at any time, without leaving an immense void in our American society. They have been so intimately, and ofr so long a time, blended with the history of the country, and especially so united, in our thoughts and recollections, with the events of the Revolution, that the death of either of them would have touched the chords of public sympathy. We should have felt that one great link, connecting us with former times, was broken; that we had lost something more, as it were, of the presence of the Revolution itself, and of the act of independence, and were driven on, by another great remove from the days of our country's early distinction, to meet posterity and to mix with the future. Like the mariner, whom the currents of the ocean and the winds carry along until he sees the stars which have directed his course and lighted his pathless way descend one by one, beneath the rising horizon, we should have felt that the stream of time had borne us onward till another great luminary, whose light had cheered us and whose guidance we had followed, had sunk away from our sight.
But the concurrence of their death on the anniversary of Independence has naturally awakened stronger emotions. Both had been President, both had lived to great age, both were early patriots, and both were distinguished and ever honored by their immediate agency in the act of independence. It cannot but seem striking and extraordinary, that these two should live to see the fiftieth year from the date of that act/ that they should complete that year/ and that then, on the day which had fast linked for ever their own fame with their country's glory, the heavens should open to receive them both at once. As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who is not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well as in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its benefactors are objects of His care?
ADAMS and JEFFERSON, I have said, are no more. As human beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no more, as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence; no more, as at subsequent periods, the head of the government; nor more, as we have recently seen them, aged and venerable objects of admiration and regard. They are no more. They are dead. But how little is there of the great and gooe which can die! To their country they yet live, and live for ever. They live in all that perpetuatesw the remembrance of men on earth; in the recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep-engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of mankind. They live in their example; and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exerciese, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their own country but throughout the civilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning brightly for a while, and then giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human kind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died; but the human understanding, roused by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception of the true philosophy and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course successfully and gloriously. Newton died; yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on by the laws which he discovered, and in the orbits which he saw, and described for them, in the infinity of space.
No two men now live, fellow-citizen, perhaps it may be doubted whether any two men have ever lived in one age, who, more than those we now commemorate, have impressed on mankind their own opinions more deeply into the opinions of others, or given a more lasting direction to the current of human thought. Their work doth not perish with them. The tree which they assisted to plant will flourish, although they water it and protect it no longer; for it has struck its roots deep, it has sent them to the very centre; no storm, not of foce to burth the orb, can overturn it; its branches spread wide; they stretch their protecting arms braoder and broader, and its top is destined to reach the heavens. We are not deceived. There is no delusion here. No age will come in which the American Revolution will appear less than it is, one of the greatest events in human history. No age will come in which it shall cease to be seen and felt, on either continent, that a mighty step, a great advance, not only in American affairs, but in human affairs, was made on the 4th of July, 1776. And no age will come, we trust, so ignorant or so unjust as not to see and acknowledge the efficient agency of those we now honor in producing that momentous event.
We are not assembled, therefore, fellow-citizens, as men overwhelmed with calamity by the sudden disruption of the ties of friendship or affection, or as in despair for the republic by the untimely blighting of its hopes. Death has not surprised us by an unseasonable blow. We have, indeed, seen the tomb close, but it has closed only over mature years, over long-protracted public service, over the weakness of age, and over life itself only when the ends of living had been fulfilled. These suns, as they rose slowly and steadily, amidst clouds and storms, in their ascendant, so they have not rushed from the meridian to sink suddenly in the west. Like the mildness, the serenity, the continuing benignity of a summer's day, they have gone down with slow-descending, grateful long-lingering light; and now that they are beyond the visible margin of the world, good omens cheer us from "the bright track of their fiery car"!
There were many points of similarity in the lives and fortunes of these great men. They belonged to the same profession, and had pursued its studies and its practice for unequal lengths of time indeed, but with dilligence and effect. Both were learned and able lawyers. They were natives and inhabitants, respectively of those two of the Colonies which at the Revolution were the largest and most powerful and which naturally had a lead in the political affairs of the times. When the Colonies became in some degree united by the assembling of a general Congress, they were brought to act together in its deliberations, not indeed at the same time but both at early periods. Each had laready manifested his attachment to the cause of the country, as well as his ability to maintain it, by printed addresses, public speeches, extensive correspondence, and whatever other mode could be adopted for the purpose of exposing the encroachments of the British Parliament, and animating the people to a manly resistance. Both were not only decided, but early, friends of Independence. While others yet doubted, they were resolved; where others hesitated they pressed forward. They were both members of the committee for preparing the Declaration of Independence, and they constituted the sub-committee appointed by the other members to make the draft. They left their seats in Congress, being called to other public employments at periods not remote from each other, although one of them returned to it afterwards for a short time. Neither of them was of the assembly of great men which formed the present Constitution, and neither was at any time a member of Congress under its provisions. Both have been public ministers abroad, both Vice-Presidents and both Presidents of the United States. These coincidences are now singularly crowned and completed. They have died together; and they did on the anniversary of liberty...
And now, fellow-citizens, without pursuing the biography of these illustrious men further, for the present let us turn our attention to the most prominent act of their lives, their participation in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE...
It has sometimes been said, as if it were a derogation from the merits of this paper, that it contains nothing new; that it only states grounds of proceeding and presses topics of argument, which had often been stated and pressed before. But it was not the object of the Declaration to produce any thing new. It was not to invent reasons for independence, but to state those which governed the Congress. For great and sufficient causes, it was proposed to declare independence; and the proper business of the paper to be drawn was to set for th those causes, and justify the authors of the measure, in any event of fortune, to the country and to posterity. The cause of American independence, moreover, was now to be presented to the world in such manner; of it might so be, as to engage its sympathy, to command its respect, to attract its admiration; and in an assembly of most able and distinguished men, THOMAS JEFFERSON had the high honor of being the selected advocate of this cause. To say that he performed his great work well, would be doing him an injustice. To say that he did excellently well, admirably well, would be inadequate and halting praise. Let us rather say, that he so discharged the duty assigned him, that all Americans may well rejoice that the work of drawing the title-deed of their liberties devolved upon him...
The Congress of the Revolution, fellow-citizens, sat with closed doors, and no report of its debates was ever made. The discussion, therefore, which accompanied this great measure, has never been preserved, except in memory and by tradition. But it is, I believe, doing to injustice to others to say, that the general opinion was, and uniformly has been, that in debate, on the side of independence, JOHN ADAMS had no equal. The great author of the Declaration himself has espressed that opinion uniformly and strongly. JOHN ADAMS, said he, in the hearing of him who has now the honor to address you, JOHN ADAMS was our colossus on the floor. Not graceful, not elegant, not always fluent, in his public addresses, he yet came out with a power both of thought and of expression, which moved us from our seats...
The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general character, and formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, manly, and energetic; and such the crisis required. When public bodies are to be addressed on passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech farther than as it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occassion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object this, this is eloquence; or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence, it is action, noble, sublime godlike action...
Let us, then, bring before us the assembly, which was about to decide a question thus big with the fate of empire. Let us open their doors and look upon their deliberations. Let us survey the anxious and care-worn countenances, let us hear the firm-toned voices, of this band of patriots.
HANCOCK presides over the solemn sitting; and one of those not yet prepared to pronounce for absolute independence is on the floor, and is urging his reasons for dissenting from the declaration.
"Let us pause! This step, once taken, cannot be retracted. This resolution, once passed, will cut off all hope of reconciliation. If success attend the arms of England, we shall then be no longer Colonies, with charters and with privileges; these will all be forfeited by this act; and we shall be in the condition of other conquered people, at the mercy of the conquerors. For ourselves, we may be ready to run the hazard; but are we ready to carry the country to that length? Is success so probably as to justify it? Where is the military, where the naval power, by which we are to resist the whole strength of the arm of England, for she will exert that strength to the utmost? Can we rely on constancy and perseverance of the people? or will they not act as the people of other countries have acted and, wearied with a long war, submit, in the end, to a worse oppression? While we stand on our old ground, and insist on redress of grievances, we know we are right, and are not answerable for consequences. Nothing, then, can be imputed to us. But if we now change our object, carry our pretensions farther, and set up for absolute indpendence, we shall lose the sympathy of mankind. We shall no longer be defending what we possess, but struggling for something which we never did possess, and which we have solemnly and uniformly disclaimed all intention of pursuing, from the very outset of the troubles. Abandoning thus our old ground, of resistance only to arbitrary acts of oppression, thee nations will believe the whole to have been mere pretence, and they will look on us, not as injured, buut as ambitious subjects. I shudder before this responsibility. It will be on us, if, relinquishing the ground on which we have stood so long, and stood so safely, we now proclaim independence, and carry on the war for that object, while these cities burn, these pleasant fields whiten and bleach with the bones of their owners, and these streams run blood. It will be upon us, it will be upon us, if, failing to maintain this unseasonable and ill-judged declaration, a sterner despotism, maintained by military power, shall be exhausted, a harassed, misled people, shall have expiated our rashness and atoned for our presumption on the scaffold."
It was for Mr. Adams to reply to arguments like these. We know his opinions, and we know his character. He would commence with his accustomed directness and earnestness.
"Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? Are not you, Sir, who sit in that chair, is not he, our venerable colleague near you, are you not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or to give up, the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston Port Bill and all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to poweder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We shall never submit. Do we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into men, that plighting, before God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting forth to incure the dangers of war, as well as the political hazards of our times, we promised to adhere to him, in ever extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know there is not a man here, who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted fiath fall to the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you, that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces raised, or to be raised, for defence of American liberty, may my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him... "
And now, fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this occasion without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties which have developed upon us. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to come hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes; all, conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain.
We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us; but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good principle and every good habit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing, through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are and of what we possess we owe to this liberty, and to these institutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hand of industry, the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies, to civilized man, without society, without knowledge, without morals, without religious culture; and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us, there is not one of us here present, who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience, in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits, of this liberty and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing, let us feel it deeply and powerfully, let us cherish a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain; the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted.
The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world around us, a topic to which, I fear, I advert too often, and dwell on too long, cannot be altogether ommited here. Neither individuals nor nations can perform their part well, until they understand and feel its importance, and comprehend and justly appreciate all the duties belonging to it. It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light and empty feeling of self-importance, but it is that we may judge justly of our situation, and of our own duties, that I earnestly urge you upon this consideration of our position and our character among the nations of the earth. It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This era is distinguised by free representative governments, by entire religious liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by a newly awakened and unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge through the community, such as has been before altogether unknown and unheard of America, America, our country, fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great interests. If they fall, we fall with them; if they stand, it will be because we have maintained them. Let us contemplate, then, this connection, which binds the prosperity of others to our own; and let us manfully discharge all the duties which it imposes. If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path. WASHINGTON is in the clear, upper sky. These other stars hae now joined the American Constellation; they circle round their centre, and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illumination let us walk the course of life, and at its close devoutly commend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the Divine Benignity.
