On this day, May 25, 2020, we honor those who fought and died in order to protect our rights and our freedom. From the Revolutionary War through all the wars our country fought to date, brave men stood the line to ensure that we as a nation would keep our values, our Constitution intact. Many thousands have died for us, and we as a nation owe them a debt that can only be repaid by honoring and protecting the freedom they died for.
Because of Covid-19 shutdowns, there will be no honors bestowed on their graves, no parades, no celebrations today, except in the hearts of patriots everywhere. Those of us that know history, and value their sacrifice will say silent prayers today, thanking those that gave everything they had for our country. It’s a solemn day, and a sad day because of our current situation.
Our founding fathers had it right when they began this country. Here are some of their quotes to ponder:
“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”
John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
“Is life so dear, or peaceful so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry, Speech at the Virginia Convention
“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.”
John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776
“The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field – the object is attained – and it now remains to be my earnest wish and prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.”
George Washington to the Reformed German Congregation of New York City, November 27, 1783
“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”
Edmund Burke, Speech at Country Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784
“God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, ‘This is my Country.’ ”
Benjamin Franklin, Letter to David Hartley, December 4, 1789
“Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe, until a trespass on the constitutional provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents an invasion of the dearest rights, until every citizen shall be an Argus to espy, and an Aegeon to avenge, the unhallowed deed.”
James Madison, Speech to Congress, 1792
“Timid men…prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, April 24, 1796
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, April 2, 1790
“The people…are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, 1787
“Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.”
James Madison, The Federalist Papers, 1788
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800
“Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”
Samuel Adams, Speech in Philadelphia, August 1, 1776
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
These men defined what it is to be an American. Their ideals are the reasons for the sacrifice our soldiers and sailors underwent. It also is the reason we have lived as free men for the last 244 years, and prospered because of the freedom we have that is lacking in most of the rest of the world. They gave us something precious that we have to protect at all costs, our Constitution. That leads us to the point for today. This pandemic has in effect crushed our Constitution, taken away freedom and liberty for all, and has brought to the forefront the tyranny of big government. As Americans, it is our duty to resist this infringement on our rights in every way possible. If we do not, these men, these hero’s have died in vain, and we will forever be lost!