1775 WAS THE REASON FOR THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=75124207697efe9a19ed9a724&id=694c1c6edf&e=2f4092cd69

This post was written by the Senate Conservatives Fund about 1775, a year prior to the Declaration of Independence. It's history, OUR history, that we need to remember, so that America doesn't slide from freedom to tyranny.

As we celebrate the birthday of our exceptional nation, I wanted to look back just one more year than Americans usually do today – back to 1775.

Of course, the Revolutionary War began in 1775, not 1776. Before we were ready to take the historic and dramatic step of birthing our own new nation in liberty, there were long and often painful attempts to accommodate the relationship between American colonists and the British Parliament and King.

Interestingly, one of the evolutions that happened during that year is that many Americans who started 1775 thinking of themselves as “British” did not finish the year that way. I hear from many Republicans who are having similar feelings this year. One year is a short time for such a change, and it was almost entirely driven by the British themselves. As much as some colonists, especially in Virginia, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Connecticut, were advancing toward independence in 1775, most colonists were not there when the year began.

What are some of the things the British did in 1775 to drive their subjects to rebel, you ask? There were many, and you may notice how history tends to repeat itself…

First, as the possibility of armed conflict increased from 1774 into 1775, the four leading states started removing stocks of gunpowder out of reach of Royal Governors, and they commissioned buyers around the world to buy more gunpowder and weapons for their colonial militias. Needless to say, the colonial bodies undertaking these steps weren’t approved or allowed by the Crown, nonetheless, they pressed on – at great personal risk.

The British did all they could, especially the Royal Navy, to interdict these shipments.

So, my fellow 2nd Amendment supporters will not fail to notice that one of the first “battles” of the American Revolution was for the citizenry to arm itself adequately to protect its own rights against the government itself. It is also no surprise that the first true battle of the Revolutionary War was sparked by a British effort to seize gunpowder stored at Concord, Massachusetts. On their way to Concord, the shot heard round the world was fired at Lexington, Massachusetts and the shooting war was on.

Second, it is very important to note that even after the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, many colonists, especially in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland – the so-called “middle colonies” were not enthusiastic to press the colonial case so aggressively. They generally preferred continuing to try to talk through colonial difficulties with the Crown and Parliament, without any pushing, threatening and certainly not attacking the British.

But the British Navy began what may literally be called the naval version of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in 1775. They started threatening, attacking and burning colonial seaside towns! Can you imagine? Their notion seems to have been to bully the colonists back into line.

The Royal Navy threatened Weymouth, Marblehead and Gloucester in Massachusetts. But the first town burned was Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Royal Navy fired red-hot cannonballs to start the fire, and later that day landed nearby to begin the fight we now know as Bunker Hill.

Next door in Rhode Island, Royal Navy Captain James Wallace had been threatening Newport for months. He threatened to burn or fire on their town if they didn’t provide supplies, or if they interfered with his men, or if they allowed Patriot troops into town, and on and on.

At that time, about half of Rhode Island’s population lived on the coast or islands along the coast, so they were very vulnerable to Wallace’s threats. Then he began cannonading Newport in the summer of 1775 and regularly thereafter. By the turn of the year, three quarters of the previous inhabitants had been driven from their homes.

Wallace’s flotilla bombarded Connecticut towns too, and stole their hay and livestock.

It should be no surprise that during the summer of 1775, both colonies were among the first to call for a colonial navy, and in fact, began fitting out their own navies!

The 64-gun line-of-battle ship Asia fired a full broad side into lower Manhattan near Wall Street! This led – as intended – to great fear among those in New York City, and within weeks, many began to leave rather than live under the threat of the Asia’s guns. By the end of the year, about half of the residents had left the city.

You can picture in your mind the trail of carts and wagons and families as refugees. Such treatment, or even just seeing the sad plight of fellow colonists, would have affected people strongly.

Rough tactics engender depression and sadness, but also resistance!

In Virginia, British Captain Montagu threatened to burn York – soon to become known as Yorktown. And the Royal Governor himself – Lord Dunmore – threatened to burn Williamsburg! Hampton Roads was fired upon and so was Jamestown – the original English foothold in America.

There was a small naval battle in Charleston Harbor, in South Carolina, in November of 1775, as patriots there tried to sink ships in the channel to protect their town from the kinds of bombardments and burnings that were taking place in New England.

Starting in October, the British issued orders to their Navy Captains to go to specific towns, e.g., Gloucester, Massachusetts to “burn, destroy and lay waste the said Town together with all Vessells and Craft in the Harbour.” They also began systematic bombardments of seacoast towns.

The most infamous town burning of them all was of Falmouth, Massachusetts in October of 1775. It was done as revenge for Falmouth’s resistance to the Royal Navy in May of 1775. After some threatening back-and-forth with the local leaders, the British Navy spent an entire day bombarding the town, and then went ashore to burn it. 130 homes were burned, along with the new courthouse, the fire station and the public library. It was an instant flashpoint across the colonies.

Then, near and dear to my heart, on New Year’s Day of 1776, Norfolk, Virginia was bombarded and burned. Ironically, it was a center of Tory sentiment.

Of course, such tactics drove undecideds to the Patriot cause and embarrassed (some) Tories. Other Tories thought even stronger measures were in order. You can imagine the Patriot response to such Tory neighbors!

The third tactic used by the British that so pushed colonists toward the independence that we celebrate today was the hiring of Hessian troops to suppress the colonists. This was seen as unleashing demons of war. The Hessians were known to take some of their pay in plunder, and it was a sign to the colonists that the British intended to treat them as “savages” and not “brothers.”

1775 was a lonely year to be a Patriot in many parts of America.

Why did they suffer such depredations and keep going? In their minds it came down to one word: Liberty.

They believed in their cause and they were willing to sacrifice everything to obtain liberty in America. At that time they didn’t know whether it would be by protecting their rights as Englishmen, or striking out alone as Americans – with the prospect of having to overcome the greatest military power in the world at that time – an imposing thought!

There is much to celebrate as we think back to 1776. The Founders of this nation were bold visionaries who stepped out on a path that had never been tried before in the history of the world. They lit a lamp for the world, and they knew the risks and confronted them boldly, closing the Declaration by saying: “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

America isn’t a place, and Americans aren’t a tribe, we are a people brought together by our mutual commitment to shared principles. Such a basis for a nation was utterly unique in the history of the world in 1776, and it is a special gift to which each of us are heirs.

We are truly blessed to be Americans.

Here at the Senate Conservatives Fund, we – you – back candidates that proudly carry forward the principles of the Founding Fathers against the odds and regardless of the tactics used against them. We believe that the gift we have received of America comes with a moral responsibility to preserve her, and we don’t just mean the territory of America, we mean her principled foundation.

Everything we do at SCF is to carry forward the Founders’ vision in the 21st century. The principles that built this exceptional nation are universal and timeless. That means they apply everywhere, and all the time. No exceptions.

We back candidates that share our commitment to the first principles of this country, and we ask you to sacrifice your property – your money – so that our candidates can have the gunpowder they need to fight back.

None of us – not me, not you, not our candidates – is being asked to put their head in a noose to advance the cause of life, liberty and the opportunity to pursue happiness, as the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence did. However, their cause must be our cause, and we need to remember that whatever our sacrifice from our “fortunes” – to use the same word the Founders used – none of us has any excuse to let up or to let long odds bring us down.

Did you know that George Washington had three wins and six losses in major battles in the Revolutionary War? He lost more battles, but he won the war.

And can you name five people who were at Valley Forge? How about three? How about two? We may not know who they were, but the whole world knows what they did! And their successors in uniform around the world continue to deserve our gratitude and respect today!

It took many unnamed heroes to make America, and it will take many more unseen heroes to return America to her foundational principles. That’s where you come in, though you may not have even realized your role.

On this day that we set aside to celebrate America and what she stands for, let me Thank You for carrying on the legacy of Valley Forge and sacrificing to put America back on a principled path of greatness once again.

God bless you and God bless America!

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - LISTEN TO IT TODAY

The Declaration of Independence - Eagle Rising

http://eaglerising.com/7159/declaration-independence/

A dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence performed in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA.

This is a reading of the Declaration of Independence. As you listen to these nine minutes, consider it was written in 1776 and started the Revolutionary War. Could someone write those same sentiments today? Would another war ensue?

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

ions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be 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, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country