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By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled Farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson from "Concord Hymn" |
Artist's vision of the Concord
fight, published 1904 |
| There are many symbols
of American life and culture shaped out of the sacrifice and blood of Patriots
that continue to have great significance to us today. We are a diverse nation
of individual States, ethnic groups and races from all over the world.
Some say that government grants our liberties. But as one man, “American by
birth, Southern by the Grace of God, “ I claim my freedoms and liberties as
God-given and protected. July 4, 1776 was a resounding day in the annals of American history. May we never forget the courage and determination of those men who secured, through the grace of God, the Independence and liberties we enjoy today and may we each, newly resolve to vow as they did, so that future American generations will never taste the slavery, oppression and tyranny they knew. JULY 4th 2003 On this Independence Day, I will remember the fire of liberty that burned in the Virginia House of Burgesses, when Patrick Henry, a Southern man, rose to proclaim, "Give me liberty or give me death." I will remember the patriots who stood at Concord's "rude bridge that arched the flood" and fired the "Shot heard 'round the world." I will remember the cold, threadbare, hungry, frostbitten men who suffered the winter at Valley Forge because they embraced liberty before the comforts of home and hearth. I will remember the men who met and defeated the King’s army on the fields of Cowpens and Kings Mountain and showed the Despot what Southern men are made of. |
I will remember General Washington
and Light Horse Harry Lee, Southern men who grasped the horn of Liberty and
refused to let it go. I will recall that it was Harry Lee who said that Washington
was "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
I will remember the “Great Experiment” of the Republic those men carved from 13 colonies into a new and bold contract of united but sovereign independent states. I will remember that it was Liberty for which they stood against the army of the king - not social equality that plagues our culture today and, like a parasite, lives off the sweat and blood of honest hard-working Americans. I will remember the War of Northern Aggression that was fought in 1861 and I will remember that the Republic of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison died in that struggle. I will remember my Confederate ancestors who suffered great personal loss; some in property and health, others with their very lives. I will remember that they were willing to submit to the ultimate trial in life in spite of overpowering odds and the sure consequence of their actions. I will remember the centralization of a nation and the slow but sure attrition of individual constitutional rights in the name of welfare. I will remember that Southern God-fearing men established this Republic and that godless Northern men presided over its demise. I will remember those who fought against over-whelming odds at Manassas, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and proved they could prevail against the invaders. I will remember the Southern people of Vicksburg who would not capitulate even under the strains of starvation. I will remember that they desired only to preserve the liberty, secured by their ancestors in 1776 and that they too pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for that principle. |
I will remember that no man today
is really free to pursue his own economic course - that federal mandates,
city, county, state and federal taxes weigh upon his shoulders until he stoops
beneath their burden. I will remember the freedoms so frivolously surrendered
by those who prefer to wear the chains of welfare than to bravely walk in
the free air of liberty.
On this Independence Day, I will remember and mourn for fallen heroes who lie in unknown graves, forgotten battle fields of Europe, tropical jungles of the Pacific, on lonely Korean hills, the rice paddies of Vietnam and the deserts of the Middle East, answering the call of duty without question. And I will think hard about present politicians who would trade our freedom and the blood of America's martyrs to line their own pockets and satisfy their own greed. God bless the memory of those Southern men who secured our liberty and watered its tree with their own blood. As the dream they established fades further into the shadows of history, I shudder when I consider the fetters that are cast for my grandchildren by those who love ease more than liberty. DEO VINDICE |