Posted on 07/04/2013 9:19:04 PM PDT by JSDude1
We all know the story of American independence, don't we? A rugged frontier people became increasingly tired of being ruled by a distant elite. A group calling themselves Patriots were especially unhappy about being taxed by a parliament in which they were unrepresented. When, in 1775, British redcoats tried to repress them, a famous Patriot called Paul Revere rode through the night across eastern Massachusetts, crying 'The British are coming'. The shots that were fired the next day began a war for independence which culminated the following year in the statehouse of Philadelphia, when George Washington and others, meeting under Betsy Ross's gorgeous flag, signed the Declaration of Independence.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
It was these ideals that, as I blog over at ConservativeHome, were set to paper in a small secular miracle at Philadelphia's old courthouse. As the Virginia-born Lady Astor later put it, the war was fought “by British Americans against a German King for British ideals.”
Don't take her word for it: look at the primary sources. The resolutions of the Continental Congress are a protracted complaint about the violations of traditional British liberties. The same is true of the Declaration of Independence itself. As that great Anglo-American, Winston Churchill, put it:
The Declaration was in the main a restatement of the principles which had animated the Whig struggle against the later Stuarts and the English Revolution of 1688.
Indeed it was, often in the most literal way: the right of petition, the prohibition of standing armies, the protection of common law and jury trials, the right to bear arms – all were copied from England’s Glorious Revolution.
Sooner or later, Britain would not have wanted the colonies any more, just like Canada was released to go free. However, the stormy separation was an opportunity for the foundation of a government system on better principles than the existing British one.
Of course it was! Our Founders were geniuses.
Great relevant article. I sometimes forget that Paul Revere never said ‘the British are coming’. 3 years from now, I’m sure someone in some southern city drive along the road and yell ‘The Feds are coming’..
Would you rather be ruled by King Obama or Queen Elizabeth?
Daniel Hammonds understanding was shared by Winston Churchill but not, alas, by Franklin Roosevelt. Churchill, a Victorian of the 19th century whose vision was broad enough to make him the greatest man of the 20th century, saw the British Empire as an agent of good around the world. Roosevelt, infected by leftism, saw the British Empire as evil and was loathe to support Britain and defend an Empire against communists who would destroy it. Roosevelt, and his advisers such as Alger Hiss, saw the communist empire as benign, even desirable.
Churchill, to his everlasting credit, was an anti-Communist from the beginning of his political career and was much-maligned for sending troops to Russia after World War I in an effort to overthrow the Bolsheviks. For this, as for Gallipoli, he was maligned as a war monger. The point is that Churchill, better than Roosevelt, understood the American Revolution and its meaning for mankind as outlined in this blog by Daniel Hannan. Roosevelt was given over to a Marxist analysis of the American Revolution, seeing it as a class revolt rather than according to the terms laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Churchill had in his own words, "the root of the matter in him" and was the man to defend the principles of Anglo-American freedom against the left, then the right, and once again against the left.
Radio talk jocks yesterday inquired why Pres. Obama makes no effort celebrate the Fourth of July or to associate the three-day battle at Gettysburg with the Declaration of Independence, as did Abraham Lincoln. I think the reason is simple, Obama is a disciple of Roosevelt, or rather of Alger Hiss, and simply does not revere the American Revolution for the great gift to mankind that it in truth represents. He sees the American pageant as one injustice piled on the next which must be rectified by radical transformation. Any homage to American history, to the special role of America, often in partnership with Great Britain in guaranteeing a measure of freedom to the world, is repugnant to that worldview and must be repudiated.
Thanks for posting.
Ahem, they may have been smart men but the wisdom came from the bible.
Full article at link. Excellent piece. Thank you for posting! Love the tone of it entirely especially the last paragraph:
The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution that followed, distilled and fortified the principles on which British exceptionalism was held to have rested since the Great Charter. No Briton can be unmoved when he stands in the room where those sublime documents were signed. Their promise is why large parts of the world remain prosperous, free and self-governing. That is the gift of the English-speaking peoples to the rest of the human race. It is why, taking the bad along with the good, we none the less say, on this of all days, God bless America.
He was only one of twenty or so doing the ride that night. And he was the only one that never made it.
Great posts from you both. Thank you.
#1 “That obama guy? We’ve got NOTHING to do with him, yanks - you own that one...”
I believe the proper response is this: No king but King Jesus!
Barack 0bama seems more like King George III or perhaps Louis XVI of France.
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