Bleeding Edge

As the Head of the Lincoln Party — I want to wish all of You today a rather HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ONE & ALL!

God Bless our Veterans!

God Bless America!

Today in America, we celebrate Independence Day, and am sure as the day is long, that we’ll have picnics with flags, we’ll have family gatherings, and we’ll set off tricolor fireworks all through the night…

But few of us might question the origins of this Great Nation by asking the simplest of questions: Why Do We Celebrate The 4th Of July as Independence day?

The simplest answer would be that we celebrate the 4th of July as Independence Day, because Americans celebrate the Fourth of July, as the date our written demand for independence from Britain was released to the world.

In more detail, we celebrate because back in 1776, the American colonies who had already been in simmering conflict with England for over a year by the month of June — they fought even harder and with far more courage through limited resources, against unimaginable odds, they managed to win their freedom against the Mother country, and went on to create the first self-governing Republic of the modern era.

Indeed at that time, a Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia on June 7th of that year 1776, not to address the issue of War & Peace, but to set the course for the New Republic. This was the intellectual birth of the American Revolution that had been started earlier as a movement based on ideas, painstakingly argued by serious men in the process of creating what would become the freest, most prosperous Christian nation in the history of the world.

Christians were at the forefront of the American Revolution, and that is why King George of England, denounced the American Revolution as a “Presbyterian war.”

Indeed the American Revolution was powerfully shaped by the “Great Awakening” which was an evangelical revival in the Colonies in the early 1700s, led by famous Puritan and Presbyterian theologians, and Apostolic and Evangelical Christians. There are still books from that era, that are full of Christian sermons, chants, and homilies — all endorsing the American Revolution and guiding volunteers to take up arms for Liberty and Independence of this God fearing nation.
Among the most famous quotes from the American Revolution is Patrick Henry’s fighting Christian cry of “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Yet on the Continental Congress is where all these forces came together and through the mouth of Richard Henry Lee from Virginia, we were offered a simple resolution with these few words:

“Resolved: 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.”

Richard Henry Lee’s words spurred the drafting of the full text of Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. A committee of five was appointed to draft a statement making the case for the colonies, a statement to the world of the intent and the reason behind the American Revolution.

Members of the Committee were John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

Jefferson took on the task of actually drafting the declaratory document with the support and the textual corrections of Benjamin Franklin, still being visible in the drafts of the final text, as we have come to know it today.

The Continental Congress re-convened on July 1, 1776, and on the following day, the resolution for independence by Richard Henry Lee, was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, with New York abstaining from voting.

Some further major and minor changes were made to the Jefferson/Franklin final version of the Declaration and thus we arrive at the last form of this document.

Work on the document continued through July 3rd, and into the afternoon of July 4th, when the Declaration was put up to a vote, and was overwhelmingly approved, and thus officially adopted by the Congress of the representatives of these 13 original colonial states.

As a matter of fact, of the Thirteen original colonies, nine voted in favor of the Declaration, Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted No, while Delaware was undecided, and New York abstained.

This is what was decided, and it is a good task to read it again on Independence Day dinner time, each year we are still alive, because the Fourth of July also marks the death of two of our greatest Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died on the same day, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

And as it stands, we’ve made it for nearly 250 years after this Declaration of Independence first came into being.

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 British 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 complete list of those who signed were:

John Hancock (president of the Continental Congress) who made his signature large enough for King George to read “without his spectacles,” Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

Those are the facts about our Declaration of Independence, the history that we as school children have learned since the creation of this great nation that we celebrate, that we love and honor.

Usually we humans can’t adequately find words to express our own sentiments, let alone those of a nation and successive generations to come, but Jefferson and that Continental Congress did just that.

The words have stood throughout several centuries as a clarion call for freedom, for breaking free of tyranny, for men to put aside their individual causes and join together to battle for the right of every man, woman and child together to become a people united in goal and resolve.

Today as we celebrate, as we pledge allegiance to a flag that has gone from 13 stars to 50, and as we seek Peace within and without — may we remember not only the sacrifice, of those who have gone ahead of us, but may we also remember their utter resolve to the cause of Liberty and Independence.

May we honor not only the words, but the unity and the deeds of our forefathers.

And my fervent wish is that today, may each one of us, make an effort to understand and to comprehend that we need to dig deep into our hearts and work out our differences, if only, for the betterment of our nation and for the maintenance of our children and grandchildren as an Independent American People.

Say a prayer for America today.

Rekindle hope today.

Honor the past by determining the future.

Make Peace with your neighbors, friends, family and those others who may disagree with you but who are also Americans and hope for a better future for this country…

Please remember that today we are all, just American Citizens, honoring our country, remembering our forefathers, trusting our soldiers, and at long last — loving our veterans and each other.

Yet, as Christian Americans we also have some additional reasons to rejoice today, because of some other freedoms that we alone enjoy as the only Nation on Earth, living at Liberty in the Land of the Free & the Home of the Brave:

We have the truth that sets us free. Billions of people today don’t have access to the truth or even to God’s Word that liberates us (John 8:32).

We can have freedom from worry. Worry is a lack of faith, sometimes even an idol when we can’t let it go. As Christians resting in the arms of God, we don’t have to live that way.

We can be free from the slavery of bondage and sin, by choice. God the Father made us His children and Jesus the Son broke the power of the enemy through His cross (Col 2:15), so the shackles of sin are already broken.

We’re freed from the chains of death. That’s a crucial part of our faith: because Jesus paid our sin debt and conquered death, we don’t need to fear death any more. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).

We can be free from bitterness and anger.  The world holds on to its anger, harming relationships and breaking hearts. Believers have the Spirit of God in us – the Spirit that empowers us to forgive others. If we stay angry, we do so sinfully.

We’re free to love even the most unlovable people. We really are. We can love the biggest headaches and the most arrogant knuckleheads because God loved us when we were probably both.

We’re free from the guilt of yesterday’s sin.  We must be free, if we accept God’s Word as truth. He forgives our sin (Rom 4:7), remembering it no more (Jer 31:34), dropping it to the bottom of the sea (Mic 7:19), blotting it out (Isa 43:25), and separating sinners from that sin as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12).

We can worship together freely without threat on our lives. Many believers have no such privilege. Some of our brothers and sisters around the world have amazing internal freedom, but they’re living under a totalitarian state regime, akin to a vast prison or a modern concentration camp.

We have God’s given Free Will that we should all guard and enjoy the fruits of it as his children.

We live in the land of the Free & the home of the brave.

We have Liberty of Thought, Creed & Religion.

We have Liberty from want.

And we even have Liberty from Tyrannical Government to boot…

We have much to thank God for today, but the Independence Day celebration is always a Day to Remember because we’re Free!

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

Those who won our independence believed Liberty to be the secret of Happiness and Courage to be the secret of Liberty, because in the truest sense, Freedom cannot be bestowed.

Freedom must be achieved…

And it is good to fully and outwardly Celebrate our Independence Day, yet we should also be introspective amongst the many visits and salutes to the colors of the flag!

In order to understand and appreciate the great achievements of the American Revolution — Independence, our Democratic Republic, our National Identity, our Exceptionalism and our ideals of liberty, equality, and our divine, natural and civil rights, along with responsible citizenship — we ought to recall that Independence always comes first.

Independence comes ahead of all others, because without it, all other rights simply wouldn’t exist. This is exactly what the Revolutionary Americans of 1776 believed, and that is why they cherished their Independence above all else. Because at that time, we had to win our independence, before we could create a Republic and a nation of People at Liberty.

It was the Spirit of Independence the “Spirit of 76” that made it possible to dedicate our Republic to the high ideals that have defined our National history, and our original sense of American Exceptionalism.

Independence was the essential achievement of the American Revolution.

At the Lincoln party, we are working to ensure that Americans understand and appreciate that brave men and women armed with Courage, won our independence in a long and difficult war — a war that reached every part of the new nation, that touched every family, and that eventually transformed every aspect of the American life and experience.

The Lincoln party works to free the trafficked children, the trafficked women, and all the bondaged men; the modern day slaves, who are all around us — invisible to the rest of us, and yet very much in need of the help the rest of us can provide.

We need to liberate the slaves of today that are far more numerous than the day of our National Independence in 1776, and even during the 1860s when the Great Emancipator liberated the Slaves during the Civil War; and that is why the Lincoln party is working hard to ensure that Americans understand and appreciate that independence meant far more to the revolutionary Americans than the simple independence from the British rule. It meant personal independence as well. The American Revolution set all individuals free from the authoritarian rule of monarchical government, from serfdom, and from slavery of any kind.

And it was the aim of that Independence to make All Men Equal and thus FREE the SLAVES all over AMERICA and all over the WORLD.

Happy Independence Day for these United States, will be even happier when we are truly united. Yet in these difficult times I’d like to offer the best words of wisdom from a great person from the past. A person that loved this country deeply, and tried to bring us together in trying times, so that we can learn to live together, to work towards excellence together, and to get along in Peace:

Because it is our Independence that makes us United, yet it also sets us Free to be and behave as Americans, to build, to create, and to enjoy the fruits of our own labor. And that was the Independence from the bondage of slavery, that released the energy of the American people, and made American society the most productive, dynamic, and creative society, in the history of the world.

Whatever else you do today — whether watching parades, having a cookout or listening to a band play Sousa marches and lighting fireworks amidst patriotic song; please give thanks for our Independence, because it is our Greatest Asset, this Independence that has made possible all that we do, and all that we are.

We are living in the greatest country in the history of the world, built on the simple ideals of God-given rights and individual virtue, protected by a limited, & purpose built government, of enumerated powers; in order to allow the people the maximum freedom to own their country, instead of being owned by the State…

The innovation here as opposed to old England, was the the Americans are Citizens whereas the Englishmen are still subjects of the Crown.

Please allow this to sink in.

For this ideal, the founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, took up arms, fought, bled and died to maintain it and to give rise to self government for eternity.

We need to always be ready to fight and if necessary to die for, Government by the people, from the people, and for the people; and for the Liberty and Justice that encompasses our Republic.

And if we are to keep it… and if we are to keep our unique place in human history and the leadership position we occupy in the cause of freedom, that is the link between natural law, natural rights, faith, freedom, and the Founders’ emphasis on virtue and morality that is necessary in order to sustain a free system of limited government.

To achieve that, we must always stand ready to fight in the same way, and to die if need be, in the cause of Liberty of Man.

Happy Independence Day!