Great Quotes from Great People About Freedom

As we commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and our independence from Great Britain, here are some great quotes from great people about FREEDOM.

 

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.” John Basil Barnhill

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell

“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” Adlai Stevenson

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Nelson Mandela

“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.” Woodrow Wilson

“Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.” Hubert H. Humphrey

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” George Bernard Shaw

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Winston Churchill

“When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it.” Frédéric Bastiat

“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”  Ronald Reagan

“None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.”  John Milton

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”  Abraham Lincoln

“Freedom can be preserved only if it is treated as a supreme principle which must not be sacrificed for particular advantages.”  Freidrich Hayek

“The truth shall make you free.”  Jesus

“To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.”  Andre Gide

Indepenence Day in America!

Did you know John Adams believed that July 2^nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American Independence, and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4^th events in protest?

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical.  By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine’s bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in January 1776.  Originally published anonymously, “Common Sense” played a remarkable role in transforming a colonial squabble into the American Revolution.  This 47-page pamphlet sold some 500,000 copies (the population was estimated to be 2,500,000 in 1776), powerfully influencing American opinion when Paine wrote the following:  “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America.  This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.  Hither they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.”

On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence.  Amid heated debate, Congress postponed vote on the motion and appointed a five-man committee – including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York – to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.

On July 2^nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively).  On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and parade…games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”

On July 4^th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.  Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2^nd, from then on the 4^th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.
In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4^th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees.  Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.

Note of interest: The population in America in 1776 was estimated to be 2.5 million.  In President George Washington’s first term in office, he had only 5 Cabinet members and about 1,000 federal workers in his employ.  Today almost 2.5 million Americans work for the federal government with a total U.S. population of approximately 317 million.

Sources:  http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th; http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-paine-publishes-common-sense;

What Does Independence Day Mean to You?

By Mrs. G

My husband I were watching one of those cable shows about antiques when a gentleman presented a rifle that surprised everyone. They discovered it was made in 1776. Oh! That was the year of our Independence! Technically the rifle was a musket, but what a piece of Americana he had!

I decided I need to brush up on my history, specifically Independence Day, to remind me of why we celebrate. This also made me want to re-read the Declaration of Independence since, ahem, it had been a while. So, I am sharing my journey of learning with you!

1776 is the official beginning of our nationhood, with the Declaration of Independence being signed by Congress on July 4, 1776. Of course the official date has been disputed. This document announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as independent states and were no longer part of the British Empire. The thirteen colonies included Province of New Hampshire (New Hampshire), Province of Massachusetts Bay (Massachusetts and Maine), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Rhode Island), Connecticut Colony (Connecticut), Province of New York (New York and Vermont), Province of New Jersey (New Jersey), Province of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania), Province of Maryland (Maryland), Colony of Dominion of Virginia (Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia), Province of North Carolina (North Carolina and Tennessee), Province of South Carolina (South Carolina) and Province of Georgia (Georgia and sections of Alabama and Mississippi).

The original handwritten Declaration of Independence was lost, but an original copy is what is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. All other copies have been derived from this original copy document.

One of the best known sentences in the English language comes from the Declaration of Independence:

“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.”

Pretty powerful stuff.

The Declaration of Independence also includes a list of charges against King George III, including cutting off colony trade with all parts of the world, Quartering large bodies of troops against colonies, depriving colonies of the benefits of Trial by Jury, and the most famous of all, imposing taxes without consent.

It has been said King George III suffered from recurrent and eventually permanent mental illness. He is often remembered as “The Mad King” and the “King Who Lost America”.

236 Years later, what does Independence Day mean to you? What American ideals do you hold dear? What do you think makes this country great?