God bless America. Today, we celebrate American audacity — the willingness to take bold risks in the face of fatal outcomes. It is a characteristic of a man not all men possess.
More than 245 years ago, a handful of American men decided they had had enough preditations from an English king who possessed the largest and most powerful army and navy in the world to enforce his edicts against his subjects.
After careful deliberations, these audacious men declared independence from their king deciding that their rights were “unalienable” and were granted by God and that the power of governments should be derived from those who consented to be governed — not from kings.
These brave men — subjects of no other mortal man — declared their freedom from their king, sharpened their bayonets, saddled up, and went to war with the king with their freedom in the balance.
It did not go well at first and the Colonials suffered on the battlefield until they slowly mastered their new craft, until they wintered over at Valley Forge and learned the hard art of soldiering. And, then, having paid full tuition to learn their craft they began to win.
In the most unlikely military outcome imaginable, the Americans (led by George Washington) at great personal sacrifice and cost fought the Brits to a standstill and wrested their freedom — our freedom — from the king and that freedom has prevailed for 245 years.
Today, we celebrate those audacious men and that audacious act — a fight to the death with the most powerful king in the world and his powerful army and navy.
Signers paid a price, an enormous price
A total of fix-six men signed the Declaration of Independence:
Nine signers of the Declaration of Independence died of combat wounds
Five signers were tortured to death for being traitors
Five signers were captured and imprisoned by the Brits
Two signers lost sons killed in action
One signer lost two sons
Twelve signers lost homes that were burned to the ground by the Brits
Seventeen signers lost their fortunes and died bankrupt
One signer’s wife was jailed and died in jail
Wives of signers and their children were mistreated and left penniless during and after the war
NOT ONE SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SURRENDERED OR DEFECTED TO THE ENEMY. Not one signer said the price of freedom was too dear.
Who were these men, these audacious men?
The signers were:
Lawyers and jurists — 24
Merchants — 11
Farmers — 9
The balance were musicians, scientists, ministers, doctors, surveyors, and printers.
They were well educated men and knew that if they were captured the penalty for treason was death, but still they acted because they were audacious men.
They risked everything.
At the final battle of the Revolution, one signer watched as British General Lord Cornwallis occupied the signer’s home for his headquarters. When asked by General Washington what he should do, this signer quietly urged Washington to shell his home to the ground, to destroy his life’s work, in order to deny Cornwallis of its refuge.
Washington followed the man’s urging and the home was destroyed and the man died bankrupt.
Today, we honor those men, those audacious men, these Americans who created America. I pray their blood still flows in our national veins and that we could do this again if we had to.
God bless America and our Founding Fathers. God bless us all, free men and women, because our audacious Founding Fathers made it so.
Tonight, as you turn back the sheets to seek your full-bellied repose, say a prayer of thanksgiving, of gratitude that such men existed and that they fought for and won our freedom.
Happy 4th of July. Is this a great country or what?