After the American Revolution, many wanted George Washington to become king. He refused, saying, “I did not fight to free America from a king just to become one.”
-George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of the Nation for his role in bringing about American independence.
Washington set enduring precedents for the office of president, including republicanism, a peaceful transfer of power, the use of the title “Mr. President”, and the two-term tradition. His 1796 farewell address became a preeminent statement on republicanism: Washington wrote about the importance of national unity and the dangers that regionalism, partisanship, and foreign influence pose to it.
-Wikipedia
“When The Government fears The People, There is Liberty. When The People fear the Government, There is Tyranny.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809.
Jefferson’s advocacy for individual rights, including freedom of thought, speech, and religion, helped shape the ideological foundations of the revolution. This inspired the Thirteen Colonies in their revolutionary fight for independence, which culminated in the establishment of the United States as a free and sovereign nation.
Contemporary historians generally view the Declaration of Independence as one of the most significant and influential written documents in world history, and Jefferson’s preamble is regarded as an enduring statement on individual and human rights.
Jefferson’s phrase “all men are created equal” has been called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language”. Harvard University history chairman David Armitage has written that, “No American document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of Independence”, and historian Joseph Ellis has written that the Declaration includes “the most potent and consequential words in American history”.
-Wikipedia
Republicanism:
The values and ideals of republicanism are foundational in the constitution and history of the United States. As the United States constitution prohibits granting titles of nobility, republicanism in this context does not refer to a political movement to abolish such a social class, as it does in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Instead, it refers to the core values that citizenry in a republic have, or ought to have.
Political scientists and historians have described these central values as libertyand inalienable individual rights, recognizing the sovereignty of the people as the source of all authority in law; rejecting monarchy, aristocracy, and hereditary political power; virtue and faithfulness in the performance of civic duties; and vilification of corruption. Articulated in the writings of the Founding Fathers (particularly Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams), they formed the intellectual basis for the American Revolution – the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Constitution (1787), and the Bill of Rights (1791), as well as the Gettysburg Address (1863).
-Wikipedia
(I want to be clear that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and later, Abraham Lincoln believed in the above definition of republicanism.)
These three Presidents and the Founding Fathers clearly believed in, wrote, and bravely stated this interpretation of republicanism in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They all envisioned and fought for a United States of America that would eventually be an example of true democracy and freedom throughout the world…it was, and still remains so.
Unfortunately, too many people and regimes have neither accepted, upheld, or believed in the concepts of freedom and democracy.
This, my fellow citizens, residents, and visitors living in America- which President Ronald Reagan referred to as “the shining city on the hill”- are presently being threatened, intimidated, and/or persecuted, most often without just cause.
In our United States and throughout the world we are on the brink of falling, or being thrown into the abyss, encompassed by a darkness which light may never shine through.
This is a metaphor that may soon become a reality… if we the people of the world do not zealously resist this onslaught.
It no longer is enough to stand and be counted in this endeavor…we must gird our loins and face Goliath in his den.
DO NOT BE AFRAID!