We the People
7/2/2024
I have been pondering what I should write for the blog this week. I got thinking about Thursday being the 4th of July and what it means.
In preparation for this blog, I have spent this evening reading the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution with the Articles, and then The Bill of Rights with all the Amendments. I haven’t read these since high school Civics class.
It was very interesting rereading these documents with an eye that is older, more experienced in life, and hopefully a little wiser than when I was a teenager.
Reading the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence was almost like reading the current news. They were dissatisfied with the way their government was treating them and wanted change. I hear many people talking the same way today about our government. How they have forgotten the people they are sent to office to serve.
But don’t worry, this blog isn’t going to be political in nature. I have friends on both sides of the political fence. And I know other people who think the other side is totally wrong and their side is totally right.
Guess what? We are all totally right and totally wrong sometimes. Neither side has the market on stupidity or super-smarts.
The purpose of this blog is to help us all appreciate the great privilege we have as Americans. Privileges the rest of the world wishes they had.
The Constitution
I want to start with the Constitution tonight. It was ratified with the first seven Articles in 1787, 13 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
It starts with the Preamble:
‘’We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.’’
WE THE PEOPLE of the United States. Who are these people? It is you and I. Your neighbor, your brother, your sister.
Yes, we were not there to form the initial Constitution. But isn’t it our job as citizens of this great country to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity?
Or have we as citizens become too complacent thinking it is someone else’s job to try to uphold these standards set before us by our forefathers? Or do we turn a deaf ear toward all the noise made by various groups that we disengage from the debates?
The founders of the Constitution wanted the government to be for the people. That seemed to be a good idea for their time and I think it is for today.
They wrote these things to prevent what they had fought with England about. It was their intention with the Bill of Rights to protect citizens of that day and today.
I think it is important for us to remember that in our current day. We hear various groups fighting and arguing about this or that cause.
But reading through the various documents tonight, I see how wrong and right we all are.
The Preamble, Constitution, and Bill of Rights were written for all of us. Not just some of us and not the others. It isn’t for this group we agree with and not for groups we don’t agree with. And that is from both sides of the table.
What is the First Amendment? The right to free speech.
That is one of the best things that the USA has going for it. We have the right to say what we want when we want to. Although, good manners help most of us hold our tongue when we should.
The rest of the world’s countries wish they had the free speech we have here. Most don’t. People are jailed or killed in other countries for expressing themselves.
But we are free to have our own opinions. Does it matter if I don’t agree with your opinion? Not at all. Does that mean if you don’t agree with me, I should have the right to shut you up? Absolutely not!!!
If we are truly trying to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity shouldn’t we be able to agree to disagree?
Too many people today are running around trying to shut down the voices of those who don’t agree with them. Isn’t that the opposite of what the Preamble states? And the opposite of the First Amendment?
So, what about the document that led to our founding fathers to write the Constitution? That document drafted and signed 13 years earlier was the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence
‘’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.’’
This is the beginning paragraph of the Declaration. It was a UNANIMOUS declaration. Those 55 men who signed it were convinced in their minds that this was the right course of action for the founding 13 colonies to take.
It was time to quit being under the control of England and become our own country.
Many of these men suffered loss or were killed for their part in signing this document. These men were from all walks of life. Pastors, lawyers, shopkeepers, farmers, soldiers, newspapermen. They weren’t all the elite of the time. Mostly just common men.
So, what did these men believe? The second paragraph starts with the following:
‘’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.’’
They said these truths to be self-evident. All men are created equal. One man isn’t better than another. God gave each of us certain unalienable rights. It wasn’t just for certain people or a certain group. Again, it was for all mankind.
Those rights were Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Notice it didn’t say Life, Liberty, and Happiness.
Sometimes these days it feels like if some people aren’t happy then no one should be happy. They want to push their agendas onto everyone else so they can be happy.
But happiness is not guaranteed. But according to the Declaration of Independence, we have a right to the Pursuit of Happiness. What we do with that is up to us. We can choose to be happy or not.
These are the things we celebrate this Thursday. This document which offers us these freedoms.
But as a Christian, I know that true Life, Liberty, Joy, and Happiness come from Christ and the sacrifice He made on the cross for all mankind. In Him is Life eternal. Liberty to live in peace in the midst of troubles. And the joy and Happiness that you can spend eternity in Heaven with Him after death.
Many of our founding fathers knew Christ as their Savior. That is why they knew that God had given these rights to all mankind.
I hope you know how blessed you are to be born in a country such as ours. But more so may you know the true Life, Liberty, and Happiness of Life in Christ and have Him as your Savior.
It may have been a while since you have read the whole Declaration of Independence for yourself. Following is the complete copy of it. Keep in mind, that many of these men lost their lives, businesses, or families by taking a stand.
Note the declaration they made in the final sentence of this document:
‘’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.’’
They took this seriously.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, 2024!!!!
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Declaration of Independence
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.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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.
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts
John Hancock
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton
Memories, Musings and Stories by Mike Grawvunder 
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