Thank you Dr. Eowyn for this great post and for playing the Stars and Strupes Forever! John Philip Sousa’s piece is so wonderful! My dad used to play it on his harmonica and he played it beautifully while his foot was a going!
An aging William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, sympathetic with the plight of the Colonies, presented the following speech in Parliament in 1766:
“Gentlemen, sir, have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it… The gentleman tells us America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest…. The gentleman asks, ‘When were the colonies emancipated?’ I desire to know, when were they made slaves?’”
Samuel Adams summed up the essential point in 1772:
“It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection and defense of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty and Property. If men, through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”
Seeing that you’re in Hamburg, Germany, I have this to say to you:
I just wish the Germans could have defended the millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled against Adolf Hitler and all those Nazis. Too bad that didn’t happen and all those millions were slaughtered.
Thank you Dr. Eowyn for this great post and for playing the Stars and Strupes Forever! John Philip Sousa’s piece is so wonderful! My dad used to play it on his harmonica and he played it beautifully while his foot was a going!
An aging William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, sympathetic with the plight of the Colonies, presented the following speech in Parliament in 1766:
“Gentlemen, sir, have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it… The gentleman tells us America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest…. The gentleman asks, ‘When were the colonies emancipated?’ I desire to know, when were they made slaves?’”
Samuel Adams summed up the essential point in 1772:
“It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection and defense of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty and Property. If men, through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”
Happy Birthday America!!
I’m sorry everybody, but I just ain’t feeling it this year.
It is getting to the point I actually dread this day’s approach.
Just what, exactly, are we supposed to be celebrating?
-Dave
I’m remembering and celebrating the amazing men and women who fought and sacrificed so much for Independence and founded America.
You and me both… USN and American Legion… also could join the VFW but can’t affort both in my small town..
Also was the sound engineer for their concert in the mid ’80′s at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City…
I just wished the indians could have defended against all those intruders. Too bad.
Hey, jkmen,
Seeing that you’re in Hamburg, Germany, I have this to say to you:
I just wish the Germans could have defended the millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled against Adolf Hitler and all those Nazis. Too bad that didn’t happen and all those millions were slaughtered.
Good grief, get over it. The Native Americans have and maintain rights in their tribal sovereignty.
So you are in Germany, huh? Too bad the Holocaust victims couldn’t defend themselves against Hitler.