Larry Arnn commemorates America's 250th Independence, analyzing the Declaration of Independence's principles of natural rights and consent of the governed. He traces the Revolution from the April 19, 1775, skirmishes at Lexington and Concord to George Washington's appointment on June 14, 1775. Arnn details the pivotal Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River on December 25, 1776, which led to the victory at Trenton after defeats at Long Island and Fort Washington. Ultimately, the narrative frames these events as a rational argument for liberty, culminating in the pledge of lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to secure self-governance against King George III. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Spirit of Liberty and God Bless00:15:18
Since 2001, as so many of us so vividly remember, Mayor Rudy Giuliani ran toward the towers to help the disease.
He's now breathing on his own with his family and primary medical care provider at his side.
Mayor Giuliani is the ultimate fighter to win this fight.
His family deeply appreciates you.
They are helping in a big way, and we feel it.
God bless America.
Hello, I'm Larry Arn, president of Hillsdale College, and I'm honored to commemorate just means to remember together.
First, we have to know the thing.
And we can't remember.
You should read it again and again.
You should memorize the beginning of it.
It's very beautiful.
It is grand and eternal and eloquent, and it proclaims the rights of us all.
It begins universally.
When in the course, that means anytime.
One people, that means separation of powers, consent of the governed, representation.
Those things are the very structure of the Constitution of the United States, later made to defend the principles and institutionalize the principles of the Declaration of Independence, according at least to those who wrote it and to later the very great Abraham Lincoln.
If you learn those things, it's a sort of guide to the understanding of American politics.
After the charges against the king comes a particular, also very beautiful, final section that becomes so particular it is confined at the end.
To defend it.
That, I think, is the foundation stone of America right there.
In the course of the American Revolution, in April of 1775, in two villages in Massachusetts, a bunch of people, first about 70, then maybe 3,500, were called out to fire the shot heard around the world.
Several hundred British regulars were coming down the road to seize an arms depot.
You might say, assert the might of the British Empire.
And they gathered to stop them.
And they did.
And think about your liberties and their structure and the Declaration of Independence.
This first lecture is about that shot heard around the world.
It was April 19th, 1775.
and Bill MacLea will tell us about it.
And militiamen in the New England towns of Lexington and Concord.
On April 19th, 7th is an indication of the extent to which the Patriot side of this conflict had organized and was prepared, as indeed it was.
The success of Gage's operations depended on secrecy, surprise, and sound.
They encountered a group of 70 or so minute men gathered in the midst of them.
It was more of a skirmish than a full throated battle.
But blood was shed on both sides and deaths on the Patriot side.
News spread quickly throughout the countryside of what was already being called the massacre at Lexington.
Then the British went on to Concord, where they encountered half empty storehouses, as the Patriots' excellent advance intelligence had indicated a move against Concord was coming, and they cleared out most of their arms and armaments and ammunition and burned the rest.
The regular side of Paul Revere on the 18th of April in 75.
Hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year.
To be sure, the poem does not provide a fully accurate rendering of the period of 76 and their heroic forebears.
So, the people that will continue to manifest themselves if we have the willingness to call on those memories, the capacity to respond to darkness with light.
To peril with energy and determination, void by the knowledge that others have done these things before us, and in a sense, for us.
What was done before can be done again.
Thank you.
America's colonial leaders assembled in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress.
The meeting had been called to address long standing grievances with Britain's imperial government.
But the recent bloodshed at Lexington and Concord fundamentally changed the purpose of the gathering.
Until then, many colonists had hoped for reconciliation with their mother country.
It was increasingly clear that freedom would not be possible without war.
The reasons for a united resistance were growing.
Among other offenses, the British Parliament had earlier passed the Intolerable Acts, which had closed the Port of Boston to all trade, forced colonists to house and feed British soldiers, and restricted the colonists' right to public assembly, allowed British officials to be tried in England instead of the colonies, and effectively put Massachusetts under martial law.
In April of 1775, they fired on American colonists.
By the end of reports that British troops would soon arrive in great numbers in New York, The Continental Congress directed that if the British were to commit hostilities and invade private property, the inhabitants should defend themselves and their property and repel force by force.
Ultimately, the delegates decided they had only one path forward.
It was time to create a national army.
On June 14th, the Second Continental Congress voted to establish the Continental Army.
The official record read Resolved.
That six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia.
That each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates.
That each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the army near Boston.
To be there employed as light infantry officer in the army.
The message to the British was clear.
This was not a regional outbreak of violence.
It was a unified act of defiance.
The colonies intended to join together to defend their freedoms and, if necessary, to fight for independence.
The very next day, the Continental Congress unanimously appointed George Washington of Virginia as Commander in Chief.
The Congress wrote We, reposing special trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by these precepts, Constitute and appoint you to be General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies for the defense of American liberty and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof.
And you are hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and welfare.
That same day, Massachusetts leaders discovered that the British planned to occupy Boston's Charleston Peninsula.
On June 16th, General Artemis Ward sent Colonels Richard Grindley.
And William Prescott, with about 1,200 soldiers, to fortify the summit of Bunker Hill, overlooking Boston Harbor.
The soldiers labored through the night to build a defensive barrier.
By early morning, they had erected a strong earthwork position and were joined by New Hampshire Colonel John Stark and his troops.
As the sun rose on June 17th, the British noticed the Americans occupied the high ground.
The British ships opened fire but could not reach the hastily constructed. American positions.
British Major General William Howe ordered his troops to assault the hill.
The fierce battle that ensued was a tactical victory for the British, but a painful one, and the British sustained twice as many casualties as the Americans and pulled back to Boston, where American forces encircled them.
American morale was high, and men streamed in from towns and farms volunteering to join.
On July 3rd, General George Washington traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
To assemble his officers just off the central yard of Harvard College, where he formally took command of the army.
The next day, he wrote It is hoped that all distinctions of colonies will be laid aside so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole, and the only contest be who shall render on this great and trying occasion the most essential service to the great and common cause in which we are all engaged.
Washington.
Then began building the new army.
His task was not just about assembling men willing to fight, it was about a nation.
Courage alone was not enough.
Washington worked tirelessly to instill good order and discipline, secure supplies, and institute rigorous training to produce soldiers who could fight toe to toe with the British Army, then the best army in the world.
Washington wrote, Is the soul of an army.
It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
As the army took shape, each battle told a story of audacity and sacrifice.
Washington won his first victory at Boston in 1776, but suffered heavily at Quebec.
When the British returned that year to New York, In full force, the Army fought doggedly from Long Island to New Jersey, and independence was won by ordinary people.
The gallant soldiers of Washington's Continental Army answered the call of liberty and rushed into battle not only for their own freedom, but for ours as well.
Their story defines us all.
It tells us what we stand for and who we are as a nation, born through the sacrifice of our first heroes who gave their lives for the greatest experiment in self government the world has.
Ever known.
Today, every soldier who dons the uniform guards that sacred legacy, ensuring that the ideals of freedom, duty, honor, and country continue to shine brightly for the whole world to see.
The heroes of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill are not long forgotten ancestors.
They are brothers in arms standing to the left and to the right of us in our formations.
To this day, the courage of the Revolutionary War soldiery.
American soldier.
These individuals strive every day to build a future that embodies the extraordinary spirit of our nation's very first citizen soldiers.
As defined by George Washington in 1775, when he said, When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen.
The formation of our army is a testament to the power and enduring spirit of a people determined.
To secure their destiny of liberty.
As your Secretary of Defense, I'm profoundly grateful to every individual who has served.
From the courageous patriots of the American Revolution who won our freedom to the soldiers currently serving around the world, defending our Constitution and way of life.
Today, on this momentous 250th anniversary of America's Army, committing ourselves to building a future worthy of their sacrifice.
May we always remember that in our unity, there is strength.
In our courage, there is hope.
And through our service, There is an unbreakable promise to defend freedom for all.
As we celebrate this rich history, I invite you to reflect on the enduring spirit that began humbly in 1775.
A spirit that, against all odds, forged our nation's independence, freedom, and liberty.
This spirit remains the backbone of our nation today.
No matter what challenge we may encounter, this spirit will propel us into the future with unwavering resolve.
Thank you for joining me in celebrating our shared heritage.
God bless you.
God bless the United States Army.
Godspeed to our warriors.
And God bless America.
The spring of
Bunker Hill Rebel Clash00:15:24
1775, 250 years ago, was a tenuous tipping point that could have gone either way.
After the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts petitioned the Second Continental Congress to create a national army.
As the army now collecting from different colonies is for the general defense of the right of America, we would beg leave to suggest.
You're taking the regulation and general direction of it.
This was a bold step toward the unification of the 13 colonies into a national government.
While it waited for an answer, Massachusetts appointed French and Indian War veteran Artemis Ward to command the growing assemblage of troops surrounding Boston.
His loosely organized command included regiments led by William Prescott from Massachusetts, Israel Putnam from Connecticut, and John Stark from New Hampshire.
With little command and control structure, decisions were frequently reached by consensus or sometimes by force of personality.
Such was the case on whether to occupy Bunker Hill on the Charleston Peninsula that pointed like a dagger toward British occupied Boston.
Whoever controlled these heights controlled Boston, but for weeks both sides had left them unoccupied.
Finally, General Thomas Gage, the British commander, decided to act.
The British plan was to seize the hills at Dorchester to the south and then launch an assault against Bunker Hill.
The Dorchester attack was planned for the morning of June 18th without much concern as to what General Ward's troops might be doing in the interim.
For two days before this planned attack, at the urging of Prescott and Putnam, Ward agreed to fortify the Charleston Peninsula and its 110 foot high point of Bunker Hill.
Putnam, who was itching for an all out fight with the British, pushed for the construction of the main fortifications on a slightly lower knoll closer to Boston that would later be called Breed's Hill.
On the rebel side, Ward's soldiers were still less an army than a loose band of partisans, hardy in the cause, as one termed it.
Few had uniforms, most were in everyday work clothes, all carried muskets brought from home.
Some of the weapons were older than the men who shouldered them.
Almost no one had bayonets.
The crude earthworks they dug on Breed's Hill were relatively small, about 130 feet square.
The main weakness was that its northern slopes fell gently toward the Mystic River, offering an avenue from which an attack could surround the position and cut it off.
When the British discovered the rebel position on the morning of June 17th, General Gage postponed his Dorchester plans.
And expedited his attack against Bunker Hill.
Cannon from Royal Navy ships in the Charles River and batteries atop Copse Hill in Boston pummeled the newly constructed rebel positions.
And General Gage ordered General William Howe to attack that very afternoon.
Watching from atop Copse Hill, General Gage handed his telescope to Abijah Willard, a loyalist who had sought safety in Boston.
And asked if he recognized anyone among the rebels who might be in command.
Willard did.
William Prescott was a fellow soldier from the Colonial Wars, as well as his brother in law.
Will he fight? Gage demanded.
He could not answer for Prescott's men, Willard replied, but Prescott will fight you to the gates of hell.
Now came the stuff of legend Howe ordered 1,500 men to cross the Charles River.
They landed unopposed on the beach below Bunker Hill.
Prescott's men in their trenches were content to watch because they were short of gunpowder.
Howe formed his troops on a rise about 100 yards inland, but what he saw next gave him pause.
Colonel John Stark's 1st New Hampshire Regiment, about 400 men, had taken up positions behind a rail fence and a hastily erected stone barricade on the Mystic Beach, anchoring Prescott's vulnerable left flank.
Seeing this massing of rebel troops, Howe sent for reinforcements.
By the time they arrived, he had about 2,200 men in the field against likely half that number in the immediate vicinity.
For one fleeting moment, the difference between Lexington and what was about to occur below Bunker Hill stood in sharp relief.
This could not be called an accidental encounter.
As General Howe's troops advanced toward Prescott's and Stark's positions late on the afternoon of June 17, 1775, it was clear to any observer that the outcome would be a pitched battle.
As British troops advanced uphill in two long lines and in column against Stark's position, the bulk of the American line stood silent.
Keenly aware of its limited gunpowder.
Hold your fire, commanders reminded their men.
The quote, most associated with the Battle of Bunker Hill, is Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
Now, who said it, perhaps William Prescott, or how often it was repeated, is uncertain.
Another account claims that behind the stone barricade, John Stark admonished his men not to fire.
Until they could see the enemy's white colored gators.
Onward, then, Howe's regulars came.
At perhaps 50 yards, the command fire resounded, and the entire rebel line exploded with a thunderous roar.
The British troops staggered and fell back in disarray.
Howe ordered them to reform and move forward again.
Armchair strategists have faulted Howe for marching his troops directly up Bunker Hill.
But this throttle maneuver was not Howe's initial intent.
He had placed great faith in his light infantry to turn the left end of the rebel line and create havoc along it.
After that, the heavy grenadier companies were to bulldoze through with fixed bayonets.
Eleven companies of light infantry, about 350 men, rushed headlong in a column of fours against the stone barricade, where Stark's New Hampshire men stood three deep.
Their first volley decimated the attacking column.
As other companies moved forward to take his place, they gained no more than a few yards before more volleys rent the air.
The British infantry struggled onward, but the New Hampshire lads stood firm as granite.
The grenadier companies on the slope above heard these musket volleys without seeing the results.
How indeed intended for the grenadiers to sweep through the rebel line and circle behind the trenches.
But as the light Infantry attack collapsed.
The grenadiers, too, were thwarted by concentrated fire.
After the second attack also failed, Howe ordered a third charge directly against the earthen fortifications.
By now, the rebels were dangerously low on gunpowder.
Many had withdrawn to the higher hilltop of Bunker Hill.
Prescott was down to about 150 men.
What ended resistance there? Was neither a lack of courage nor unstoppable British resolve, but rather a shortage of gunpowder.
The remaining defenders lost their lives to British bayonets.
By evening, the Charleston Peninsula was in British hands, but the rebels had fought a fighting withdrawal and established defensive lines.
On the British side, there was a dazed sense of disbelief.
The slopes were littered with red uniforms of the dead and dying.
General Howe was in denial.
He had won the field, but at a staggering cost.
The Battle of Bunker Hill was, his fellow General Henry Clinton opined, a dear bought victory.
Another such would have ruined us.
After Bunker Hill, there was no doubt that this was all out war.
Some suggest the military importance of Bunker Hill is overstated.
American history has long celebrated it, and the public recognized it with the same reverence accorded to Yorktown, the Alamo, and Pearl Harbor.
If one counted only control of the battlefield, Bunker Hill was a British victory.
But for the rebel psyche of 1775, the battle was a huge morale boost.
As the first major clash between rebel forces and British regulars, Bunker Hill showed that those who would increasingly call themselves Americans could hold their own.
The American Revolution was not begun on Bunker Hill.
It certainly was not decided at Bunker Hill.
But the Battle of Bunker Hill proved that the fight for American independence and a new nation was truly begun in the American Spring of 1775.
5.
By September
of 1776, the cause of independence looked.
Though Washington had miraculously escaped the British after the Battle of Long Island, the defeat of the American army had been a humiliating rout.
Washington had made a number of mistakes, and some began to speak about replacing him, whether with General Charles Lee or with Horatio Gates.
And what followed in the next three months only confirmed.
This assessment.
The worst of it came on November 16th when American forces were defeated in the northern end of Manhattan at Fort Washington.
Washington ought to have abandoned Manhattan entirely, but for some reason he took the advice of Nathaniel Greene and left 5,000 men there.
From across the Hudson River, through his spyglass, Washington watched their awful defeat.
The Hessian mercenaries even bayoneted men to death.
Who were trying to surrender.
Knowing that the responsibility for it all fell on him was crushing.
And a number of his officers saw Washington so overwhelmed that he turned away and wept like a child.
Four days later, Washington's troops were chased from Fort Lee, New Jersey.
But at this point, Washington knew that he must fight differently.
And he would.
The plan going forward was to retreat with his remaining army south.
Through New Jersey, never allowing the British to engage them in a full and open fight in which the British would have the advantage.
It would be what Washington called a war of posts, in which he retreated and retreated, trying to wear out the British as he did so.
If Washington and his men continued to retreat successfully, they would eventually make it to the Delaware River, which formed the westernmost border of New Jersey.
They could then escape across the Delaware where they would effectively be safe, having the wide river between them and the British, and also being able to keep the British from advancing on Philadelphia.
So, if Washington had any hope of reversing the fortunes of his Continental Army, he had to do it in the next few weeks.
It really didn't seem like things could get worse until Washington heard.
That General Charles Lee, whom he had again and again begged to come to his aid with his 2,000 troops, had been captured by the British.
In fact, the British were so thrilled by this tremendous coup that General Howe decided it was time to call it a year and retire to winter quarters.
The situation was that Washington and his ragged troops were huddled in Pennsylvania, and General Charles Lee, whom the British feared far more as a general than they feared the beleaguered Washington, Was their captive.
So Cornwallis made plans to sail back to London to see his wife, and Howe went to New York, where he expected to spend the winter with his mistress.
Trenton Surprise in Snowstorm00:05:50
A number of Hessian troops would, of course, be stationed in encampments along the Delaware on the New Jersey side just to keep an eye on Washington and his forces.
Over.
Washington was simply so defeated at this point that there was little reason to worry about him.
In the spring, the British could rouse themselves to end things finally, once and for all.
It was around this time of deepest desperation that Washington knew he must do something.
If he did nothing now, it really was essentially over for the cause of liberty and independence.
On December 31st, most of his men, having come to the end of their enlistment, would go home.
But what could Washington do?
He would, first of all, take advantage of the overconfidence of the British, who didn't dream he and his exhausted forces would do anything dramatic.
At this point, he'd also take advantage of the fact that, in their overconfidence, they had scattered their forces in a line along the river that was perhaps a little bit too thin.
For example, there were only 1,500 men at Trenton.
Over the past weeks, Thomas Paine, who was with Washington's army, began to write another essay.
This new one, titled The American Crisis, began with the famous lines These are the times that try men's souls.
The essay was so inspiring.
That Washington had it read aloud to all of his troops two days before the planned crossing of the Delaware.
The exact plan was, in fact, for three forces to cross the Delaware.
One force would cross many miles downstream to attack the Hessians who were stationed at Mount Holly in order to prevent them from coming to the aid of those he would be attacking in Trenton.
A second force would cross the river right.
At Trenton to hold the Assampink Bridge and prevent the Hessians from retreating.
And the third and largest force, with Washington and his generals Greene and Sullivan, would cross the river north at McConkie's Ferry.
The plan was to be across by midnight and then to march the nine miles to Trenton, where they would attack the Hessians at daybreak.
When they arrived at the river, wet and cold, Higher than usual and choked all the way across by huge and jagged flows of ice.
Washington's full force was not assembled on the other side until 4 a.m., four hours past schedule, meaning that with nine miles to march, they would not get to Trenton until well after daylight, destroying the vital element of surprise.
The snowstorm continued as they marched, and it was so cold that two men froze to death en route.
It was nearly 8 a.m. by the time they finally arrived at Trenton.
The snowstorm was still raging, so the Hessians were not expecting anyone to attack.
When Washington gave Nathaniel Greene the order to do so, the Hessians standing guard were overwhelmed and quickly retreated into the town.
A few moments later, from another direction, General Sullivan's troops attacked.
The Hessians could not have been more surprised.
The idea that Washington Would with all these men have crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in a snowstorm and marched through the snowstorm nine miles to Trenton was simply inconceivable.
So the Hessians tumbled out of their barracks and desperately tried to marshal a defense.
But Henry Knox's artillery were stationed at the head of the two main streets and blasted cannon fire, clearing them immediately.
Onto the side streets.
Eventually, the Hessians desperately retreated to an apple orchard, but were finally surrounded.
Only an hour had passed, and it was all over.
In the end, the Hessians counted 112 casualties, 22 killed and 90 wounded.
On the American side, only four were wounded and not a single life was lost in battle.
And the Americans had captured nearly 1,000 Hessian prisoners.
It was an astonishing victory.
The news spread quickly.
Those who had counted Washington out and who had counted the cause of liberty.
Out, he realized that his bold stroke, successfully executed despite monumental obstacles, had changed the momentum of the war as dramatically as possible.
Once more, the British knew that what they so assuredly believed was essentially finished was far from over.
And of course, when it finally would be over, seven years in the unimaginable future.
They would have lost the war and the colonies both.
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Goodness and Specially Ordered Cables00:05:08
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Here we are, pretty much at the beginning of the process here at this pristine, I call it a laboratory.
It's not like a factory, it's like a hospital.
This is the beginning of the process for roasting.
Deep green, very good quality.
Most people don't use this quality.
We deal with small farmers because they like to know who we're dealing with.
They give us the highest quality, all organic.
Non GMO.
You should know all Arabica beans.
No robusto.
All Arabica.
They're going to go into the roaster and it'll get roasted for about 20 minutes or so.
Oh my goodness.
Look at these.
My goodness.
They're going to want to specially order these.
This is what goes into Rudy's Coffee.
Hello, my name is Larry Arnn.
I'm the president of Hillsdale College, which is honored to be working with the White House to produce these videos in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the greatest political document in human history.
Our college was founded in honor of that document.
We encourage you to love it and to celebrate it.
And to celebrate it, you should learn about it.
We're going to talk about two things the meaning and the structure of the Declaration of Independence.
First question is what does it mean?
Laws of Nature and Common Sense00:11:01
Things have causes.
There's a classical account of the causes of things that include four.
The efficient cause means whoever made it.
The material cause means whatever it's made out of.
The formal cause means what does it look like and how does it operate.
And the final cause is what is it for?
What love produces it?
Declaration of Independence contains a lot of information about the formal cause of America in the middle, but its chief function is to provide the final cause of the country.
What is the country for?
And it begins very beautifully by explaining that.
It says that any time in history, any people in history have a right under the laws of nature and of nature's God to form a nation according to purposes that they adopt.
What are these laws of nature and nature's God?
What does that mean?
The Christian view is that God made nature, the classical view is that each being has a good, and the good and the being are the same thing.
Nature is full of things that are good, and it's wrong to violate the good of anything.
What do these laws say about people?
They say that they're all created equal.
Think what a remarkable thing it is for a people to adopt a standard like that as their purpose, as their governing purpose.
And we did that in opposition to a king who claimed that he was born to be our ruler, because he was better born than we are.
He was denying the proposition that all men are created equal.
If you recognize this principle of equality and you recognize it properly, it will give rise to the most amazing diversity and difference among people because it sets up a right of all of us to pursue our lives best we can.
Without impediment by kings and emperors, we said, in the laws of nature and nature's God, no one. Is born to rule anybody else.
That's beautiful, and it sets up an agitation in the country which goes on to this day to always try to recognize those principles.
And that's the final cause of the United States of America.
Now, a word about the structure of the document.
It begins with this universal claim that we're all created equal and that nobody may rule us except by our consent.
And in the middle bit, they claim, The king has done a bunch of bad stuff that justifies the revolution.
He took houses away from people and put troops in them.
That means they were dislodged.
They were driven out into the street.
He arrested people.
He put them on ships.
And the ships were not very comfortable.
They were in the hold of the ship.
Sometimes they sat around for weeks in the harbor.
And they were taken all the way to England.
Most of them had never been there before.
And they were put on trial in front of people who they never met before, not a jury of your peers.
This is the 25th paragraph.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He did kill people.
And then he'd talk about the mercenaries there.
Large armies of foreign mercenaries, those were the Hessians, to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
But then that leads us to the second thing about this structure point.
And that was some of them are direct violations of the best method.
The founders argued the only sure method to keep the government from doing things like that to you, to its citizens, to anybody, right?
And those methods are they provide the organizing principle of the Constitution of the United States, they are representation.
You know, the Continental Congress that passed the Declaration of Independence.
Took great pains to be a representative body.
That is to say, they're not acting according to their own wills.
Somebody else, those who will be governed under this new government that they're creating, have appointed us to do this.
We are acting for them.
We have government by consent.
And they say that the king is interfering with the legislatures that they had had before.
He dissolved several of them and he prevented others of them from meeting.
And those are all in these charges here, right?
He has obstructed government by consent.
Then he's messed around with the judicial branch.
And that means that the legislature has to pass a law, and then the executive enforces only the laws that have been passed.
And then when the law is applied upon any citizen, he has to be taken in front of a judge who's not dismissible by the legislature or the executive.
And then the judge.
Has to decide.
That's called the independent judiciary.
It's a terribly important thing.
So, the middle bit of the Declaration, these 28 paragraphs, is the second part of the structure of the Declaration of Independence.
And the third part is a formal legislative act that makes the nation.
It's passed by the Continental Congress.
I should mention that God appears four times in the Declaration of Independence.
He appears in the first sentence as the maker of the laws of nature and nature's God.
The legislator.
He appears in the beginning of the second paragraph as the endower of our rights as creator, the founder of everything.
The last paragraph is personal.
They refer to themselves for the first time.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States, the representatives of the United States, we, in general, Congress assembled.
And then they appeal to somebody.
To judge whether they're right.
And that person is not the King of England.
It's the supreme judge of the world, the judicial branch.
For the rectitude of our intentions, in other words, we swear we're doing what seems right and we ask God to judge.
In the name of the good people of these colonies, you can read it as a claim that the people of the colonies are good.
You can read it as a claim that we're acting for the good ones.
Or you can read it as the claim we have to remember to be good because we are assuming this authority now.
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.
Now we get to the hard thing.
Conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.
And then the beautiful last sentence.
This is where the executive branch comes in.
Because, see, now it's war.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence.
That's God as the executive branch.
We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Only in the hands of God would all the powers of government be combined.
Those men.
In that room, the same room where the Constitution would later be written by some of the same people, we mutually pledged to each other everything we've got.
We Americans today owe those people.
We should learn about them.
Thank you.
It's our purpose to bring to bear the principle of common sense and rational discussion to the issues of our day.
America was created at a time of great turmoil, tremendous disagreements, anger, hatred.
It was a book written in 1776 that guided much of the discipline of thinking that brought to us the discovery of our freedoms, of our God-given freedoms.
It was Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776.
One of the first American bestsellers in which Thomas Paine explained, by rational principles, the reason why these small colonies felt the necessity to separate from the Kingdom of Great Britain and the King of England.
He explained their inherent desire for liberty, for freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the ability to select the people who govern them.
And he explained it in ways that were understandable to all the people.
not just the elite.
Because the desire for freedom is universal.
The desire for freedom adheres in the human mind and it is part of the human soul.
This is exactly the time we should consult our history.
Look at what we've done in the past and see if we can't use it to help us now.
We understand that our founders created the greatest country in the history of the world.
The greatest democracy, the freest country.
A country that has taken more people out of poverty than any Country ever.
All of us are so fortunate to be Americans.
But a great deal of the reason for America's constant ability to self improve is because we're able to reason, we're able to talk, we're able to analyze.
We are able to apply our God given common sense.
So let's do it.
It's our purpose to bring to bear the principle of common sense.