This glorious July 4th more than ever... we are a republic 'if we can keep it'
Alan Keyes
On July 5, 1776, John Adams wrote, "Yesterday was decided the greatest question which was ever decided among men. A resolution was passed unanimously 'that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.' The day is passed. The 4th of July '76 will be a memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God."
Given this year's shockingly debased election cycle, for many of us our Independence Day weekend risks seeming but a pale shadow of glorious Fourths of our youth. Our joy and celebration marking the 240th year since the birth of these United States has been shrouded, muted, deeply grieved.
The vainglorious vulgarity and false representations of those seeking our votes, aiding those already in power with blatant usurpations and attacks upon the rights and powers of We the People and our sovereign States stagger the nation...and demoralize it. We see liberty receding before our very eyes; we feel its withdrawal from our lives – and we are uncertain of our course to remedy its loss.
We are saddened by the grotesque abuses perpetrated against our Republic by those entrusted with public office in the Judicial and Executive Branches especially, and by the feckless and impotent response of the Legislators we have elected to stand in our stead.
In the summer of 1787, as Benjamin Franklin emerged from a session of Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention, he was queried by Mrs. Elizabeth Willing Powel about the new United States Constitution. "Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?" Franklin responded: "A Republic, madam, if you can keep it."
This commission to the American People is timeless, and I implore my fellow Americans to trust in God, and refuse to withdraw from the fray!
The power to restore responsible self-government and sustain our Republic is ours, if we retain and exercise it!
The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776. What we celebrate on the glorious Fourth is the revolutionary founding of a nation of liberty immutably bound to the self-evident, God-given rights and truths enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. Its absolute ideals of justice and human equality gave birth to the greatest and most free nation in human history, and distinguished our American Revolution from all other rebellions against tyranny.
The revolutionary ideals we rightly celebrate are self-evident truths "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." In order to protect these rights, We the People are sovereign – entitled to form a government that derives its powers "from the consent of the governed." The Declaration concludes "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence," for our Framers' success in ordaining and sustaining this new nation erected upon the foundation of God-given rights.
All subsequent crafting of institutions of liberty and republican government in the Constitution by the Founders was based entirely upon the principles of the Declaration. The construction of subsequent law even today must not countermand any of the self-evident truths expressed in our sacred charter and "organic law" that declares our Independence.
Where government now has gone rogue, seeking to be master instead of servant over We the People – it MUST be tamed! We CANNOT surrender to tyranny.
Although accelerating, this struggle is not new. President Calvin Coolidge battled "progressives" in his day. In commemoration of the Declaration's 150th anniversary on July 4, 1926, Coolidge famously stated that even though the Founders knew human knowledge and American society would over the years see dramatic change, our Republic's founding principles were timelessly, immutably true. He said:
Not only has our republican form of government been hijacked by those who despise true republican principles, America's present ruling factions have bastardized these very principles to justify their emerging "New World Order" – an ideology utterly antithetical to the self-evident truths of nature and nature's God.
Above all is their hatred of the Supreme Judge of the World, and their determined effort to extirpate all recourse of our nation to His Protection, and obedience to His Will...America's "firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence."
Today, remembering our glorious Fourth of July, rejoice in the soundness of America's founding, and do not be weary in well-doing. As we commemorate this, our nation's great Independence Day – join in redoubled efforts to "keep our Republic." Faithful America MUST NOT surrender to Godless government now.
Keep Faith,
Ambassador Alan Keyes
Honorary Chairman, RenewAmerica
July 4, 2016
On July 5, 1776, John Adams wrote, "Yesterday was decided the greatest question which was ever decided among men. A resolution was passed unanimously 'that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.' The day is passed. The 4th of July '76 will be a memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God."
Given this year's shockingly debased election cycle, for many of us our Independence Day weekend risks seeming but a pale shadow of glorious Fourths of our youth. Our joy and celebration marking the 240th year since the birth of these United States has been shrouded, muted, deeply grieved.
The vainglorious vulgarity and false representations of those seeking our votes, aiding those already in power with blatant usurpations and attacks upon the rights and powers of We the People and our sovereign States stagger the nation...and demoralize it. We see liberty receding before our very eyes; we feel its withdrawal from our lives – and we are uncertain of our course to remedy its loss.
We are saddened by the grotesque abuses perpetrated against our Republic by those entrusted with public office in the Judicial and Executive Branches especially, and by the feckless and impotent response of the Legislators we have elected to stand in our stead.
In the summer of 1787, as Benjamin Franklin emerged from a session of Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention, he was queried by Mrs. Elizabeth Willing Powel about the new United States Constitution. "Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?" Franklin responded: "A Republic, madam, if you can keep it."
This commission to the American People is timeless, and I implore my fellow Americans to trust in God, and refuse to withdraw from the fray!
The power to restore responsible self-government and sustain our Republic is ours, if we retain and exercise it!
The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776. What we celebrate on the glorious Fourth is the revolutionary founding of a nation of liberty immutably bound to the self-evident, God-given rights and truths enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. Its absolute ideals of justice and human equality gave birth to the greatest and most free nation in human history, and distinguished our American Revolution from all other rebellions against tyranny.
The revolutionary ideals we rightly celebrate are self-evident truths "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." In order to protect these rights, We the People are sovereign – entitled to form a government that derives its powers "from the consent of the governed." The Declaration concludes "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence," for our Framers' success in ordaining and sustaining this new nation erected upon the foundation of God-given rights.
All subsequent crafting of institutions of liberty and republican government in the Constitution by the Founders was based entirely upon the principles of the Declaration. The construction of subsequent law even today must not countermand any of the self-evident truths expressed in our sacred charter and "organic law" that declares our Independence.
Where government now has gone rogue, seeking to be master instead of servant over We the People – it MUST be tamed! We CANNOT surrender to tyranny.
Although accelerating, this struggle is not new. President Calvin Coolidge battled "progressives" in his day. In commemoration of the Declaration's 150th anniversary on July 4, 1926, Coolidge famously stated that even though the Founders knew human knowledge and American society would over the years see dramatic change, our Republic's founding principles were timelessly, immutably true. He said:
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"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers."
Not only has our republican form of government been hijacked by those who despise true republican principles, America's present ruling factions have bastardized these very principles to justify their emerging "New World Order" – an ideology utterly antithetical to the self-evident truths of nature and nature's God.
Above all is their hatred of the Supreme Judge of the World, and their determined effort to extirpate all recourse of our nation to His Protection, and obedience to His Will...America's "firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence."
Today, remembering our glorious Fourth of July, rejoice in the soundness of America's founding, and do not be weary in well-doing. As we commemorate this, our nation's great Independence Day – join in redoubled efforts to "keep our Republic." Faithful America MUST NOT surrender to Godless government now.
Keep Faith,
Ambassador Alan Keyes
Honorary Chairman, RenewAmerica