Independence Day

Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776  Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

Excerpt from a letter to Abigail 

by John Adams

The second day of July, 1776, 

will be the most memorable epocha 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 God Almighty. 

It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, 

with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, 

from one end of this continent to the other, 

from this time forward forevermore.

     

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. 

I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure 

that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration 

and support and defend these states. 

Yet, through all the gloom, 

I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. 

I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. 

And that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, 

even although we should rue it, 

which I trust in God we shall not…

     

It may be the will of Heaven 

that America will suffer calamities still more wasting, 

and distress yet more dreadful. 

If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least. 

It will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, 

and correct many errors, follies and vices 

which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us. 

The furnace of affliction produces refinement, 

in States as well as individuals...

But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, 

in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.

February 22, 1732

Washington Crossing the Delaware  Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

George Washington Poem 

by the Boston Gazette

Great hero! whose illustrious actions claim

Eternal blessings and an endless fame--

Of every virtue and each gift possess

Religion reigns triumphant in his breast.

Grant him, almighty God! thy aid and health

Ever to rule these states and guard their wealth.

What power of Language can enough extoll

A Son of Liberty and friend to all--

Saviour and patron of Columbia!

Her sons revere thee and exult this day--

In thee, their Favourite and firm support--

Nations applaud thee and thy friendship court.

Generous deliverer of thy Country's right!

Thou hast prov'd victor over lawless might.

Of all the Conquerors in the historic page,

None have surpass'd this Phonix of the age.

February 6, 1911

Ronald Reagan  Alton Tobey

Above all, we must realize 

that no arsenal, 

or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, 

is so formidable 

as the will and moral courage 

of free men and women. 

It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. 

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. 

We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. 

It must be fought for, 

protected, 

and handed on for them to do the same, 

or one day we will spend our sunset years 

telling our children and our children's children

what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

The government's view of the economy 

could be summed up in a few short phrases: 

If it moves, tax it. 

If it keeps moving, regulate it. 

And if it stops moving, subsidize it. 

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 

'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

The ultimate determinant

in the struggle now going on for the world 

will not be bombs and rockets 

but a test of wills and ideas-

a trial of spiritual resolve: 

the values we hold, 

the beliefs we cherish 

and the ideals to which we are dedicated.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We will preserve for our children this,

the last best hope of man on earth, 

or we will sentence them to take the first step 

into a thousand years of darkness. 

If we fail, 

at least let our children and 

our children's children 

say of us 

we justified our brief moment here. 

We did all that could be done.

Inflation is as violent as a mugger,

 as frightening as an armed robber

 and as deadly as a hit man.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall! 

Man is not free unless government is limited.

Protecting the rights 

of even the least individual among us 

is basically the only excuse the government has 

for even existing.

We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. 

We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.

 We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, 

society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. 

It is time to restore the American precept 

that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, 

the need for its own existence.

We should measure welfare's success 

by how many people leave welfare, 

not by how many are added.

Freedom prospers 

when religion is vibrant 

and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Images of Warmth and Happiness

Bay of Naples 1830  Rober Walter Weir

from Stanzas Written in Dejection near Naples 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley 

The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might:
The breath of the moist earth is light
Around its unexpanded buds;
Like many a voice of one delight—
The winds', the birds', the ocean-floods'—
The city's voice itself is soft like solitude's.

I see the deep's untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore
Like light dissolved in star-showers thrown.
I sit upon the sands alone;
The lightning of the noontide ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion—
How sweet, did any heart now share in my emotion! 

Since the title of this poem does not match the verses I chose to share, I would add that the verses following this excerpt show Shelley's dejection, end with him imagining his cold dead body on the lovely ocean shore described above. 

I thought the cold days we've been having around much of the country warranted the image of sunshine in the verses I included.

November 19, 1863

The Gettysburg Address  Mort Kunstler

The Gettysburg Address

by Abraham Lincoln

Four score and seven years ago 

our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, 

a new nation, conceived in Liberty, 

and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 

testing whether that nation, 

or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, 

can long endure. 

We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. 

We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place 

for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. 

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - 

we can not consecrate - 

we can not hallow this ground. 

The brave men, 

living and dead, 

who struggled, here, 

have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. 

The world will little note, 

nor long remember, 

what we say here, 

but can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, 

rather to be dedicated here 

to the unfinished work which they have, 

thus far, so nobly carried on. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated 

to the great task remaining before us - 

that from these honored dead 

we take increased devotion to that cause 

for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - 

that we here highly resolve 

that these dead shall not have died in vain; 

that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; 

and that this government of the people, 

by the people, 

for the people, 

shall not perish from the earth.