"For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
By: Linda Case Gibbons
British soldiers came ashore, pillaged her home, destroyed precious papers and books and killed all the animals on the property. She herself was captured and incarcerated, living in inhumane conditions for three months, without a bed, adequate food or clothing.
She was finally released after Gen. George Washington interceded, but by that time her health was broken and she died shortly thereafter.
She was a patriot.
There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and a more interesting group of men you will never find.
The youngest was Edward Rutledge, 28, the oldest Benjamin Franklin, 70, the majority were in their thirties and forties.
There were two future presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, eight were foreign born, four were preachers and many were sons of clergymen. More than half were lawyers and others were planters, merchants, doctors and educators.
They were intelligent, religious and ethically minded. They were active churchgoers of many denominations and contributed to their churches, yet the document they crafted was non-denominational in nature while recognizing God as the source of the rights stated in the document.
Most of them were men of property. As such, they had more to lose from the revolution than they stood to gain.
Because they were still under British rule, all fully knew the risk they were taking by affixing their names to the document. It was treason. If they signed and if captured, the penalty would be death by hanging.
And indeed, all were persecuted in one way or another during their lifetimes because they stood up for freedom and liberty, many losing farms and family and fortune. They paid the price, but did it willingly because liberty was more important to them than anything else.
One signer Samuel Ward, chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court signed proudly while holding his shaking left hand, afflicted with palsy. He said, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not.”
They were men of conviction.
As Election Day draws near, it is a good time to reflect on the history of our democratic republic and the citizens who had the courage to transform an idea into a reality.
As we contemplate for whom we will vote, it is a good time to reflect on the fact that we are free to vote and worship and speak our minds and to ask ourselves whether the candidates measure up to the Founding Fathers.
Their passion and courage can be a useful yardstick.
Do they possess the fortitude of our forefathers? Can they react to turbulent times and hold the country together? Can they do "the right thing” for the country instead of out of personal belief, concern for party or for personal gain?
Our Founding Fathers lived in a day and age where travel was difficult and journeys between towns and colonies were long and arduous, but they all travelled to convene the Second Continental Congress in 1776 in Philadelphia to focus on what they considered important: the nation’s business.
And they stayed until it was finished.
How can we then explain a president who does not have time to meet with world leaders now at the United Nations in New York, when he is in New York, and yet makes time to hold hands with his wife on The View, gabbing with the "girls” there and guffawing, calling himself "eye candy?”
So we must ask ourselves, are we satisfied with this president’s reaction to the death of Ambassador Stevens and three Americans in Benghazi when 15 days after the event he has no details, when he discusses this and foreign policy on a late night comedy talk show?
Do we have faith in him and his protection of this nation and its Americans abroad?
Do we feel pride when he appears before an assembled United Nations and denies responsibility for the ambassador’s death and blames religious conflict and an anti-Muslim video when the White House press secretary has said it was a planned terrorist attack?
What do we think when he tells 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft that supporting the Arab Spring was a decision he would make again even in view of the assassination of Ambassador Stevens and recent unrest around the globe where our flag has been burned and our embassies attacked?
How do we feel about our president when he grabs credit for himself for the success of the Navy SEALS in the raid against Osama bin Laden and pumps up his public image at the cost of the security of the country and its military operatives by opening up the War Room to every Tom, Dick, Harry and the New York Times?
Our Navy SEALS took exception.
And we have to explore how it is that a people who fought for freedom – of the press, of speech -- now have a media biased in such a sickening fashion, one that blindly supports this president to such a ludicrous extent that a foolish, insulting question could be asked on Situation Room such as the one posed by CNN’s Jim Acosta to Obama’s opponent, Gov. Romney.
"African-Americans have a tremendous sense of pride that there is the first African-American president in the White House. If you were to somehow beat the first African-American president, what would you say to the black community to assure them that you would be their president also?”
Does any of this behavior remind you of the men who attended meetings in Philadelphia and who faced down the most powerful country in the world in the 1700’s and won?
So it is a good time to reflect on the dignity of the Founding Fathers, on the values which they embodied in fashioning our country. It was good and we want to keep it.
President George Washington is an excellent role model. As the first president, he knew he was establishing precedents and a concern for him was that he would not allow a disregard for the rule of law. He quelled the Whiskey Rebellion because he believed if one man or group was allowed to disobey the law "there is an end put at one stroke to republican government and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter.”
How does our president measure up in protecting and enforcing this country’s rule of law?
Washington was greatly loved and admired by his countrymen and was elected unanimously by the Electoral College, a never to be repeated event in our country’s history, but he never used his popularity and power for his own advantage.
Urged by his men many times to become king, he rebuked them and consistently demonstrated his respect for the rule of law by deferring to the elected Continental Congress. The experiment in self-government became a unique success in the history of the world.
How does our president measure up in deferring to Congress, in respecting the separation of powers?
So as Election Day draws near, contrast our current president’s words and actions against those of the men and women who created this great country and weigh them carefully. We need the passion and commitment which was evident during revolutionary times.
We know our president can be committed and passionate. We heard it in his 2009 Cairo address.
He was positively giddy in his praise for Islam and Egypt, speaking in Arabic, quoting from "the Holy Koran” and incorporating references to the United States’ history, and not in a good way.
His attention to detail regarding Muslims and Islam and their rights was the detail-mindedness Americans missed from him when Ambassador Stevens was killed and our president, our secretary of state and our State Department had nothing to say to us.
To him the deaths of three Americans was "a bump in the road.”
His passion for Islam was the passion Americans missed when our flag was burned in some twenty countries around the globe.
And finally we wondered: Where were the words of praise for the country of which he is the president?
Does any of this behavior remind you of the men who attended meetings in Philadelphia and who faced down the most powerful country in the world in the 1700’s and won?
So as you stand in the polling booth on Election Day, choose a candidate of quality, a man who has courage, a man who loves America, because this great country of ours deserves nothing but the best.
Hold the line, America.