When the first settlers arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 at Plymouth , they had hopes and dreams to found a Nation free of Religious persecution and constraints of the then King of England, King James.
Their voyage was funded by the group The London Group of Merchant Adventurers.
They were bound for Virginia, but, due to stormy weather, they instead were forced to anchor in what is now Provincetown Harbour, Massachusetts. On November 11th, 1620, their intent was spelled out in the document known as the Mayflower Compact; written and signed by the passengers on board. This document laid out a basic form of democracy that would bind them.
An exploration party set forth to find a suitable place to create a new settlement and the settlers remained on board to suffer the scourge of disease.
Pneumonia, scurvy and tuberculosis savaged the settlers and crew.All winter, the Mayflower stayed at anchor and, when the shocking diseases had run their course, only 53 passengers and only half of the crew had survived.
On March 21st, 1621, the survivors disembarked and moved in to the simple huts constructed along the shore.
Because they landed in Massachusetts rather than Virginia, they felt less bound to the dictates of the financiers of the trip and declared that they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them"
On November 22nd, 1621, "the Plymouth colonists and the local Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. " source
From this humble and tragic beginning, the creation of the United States of America began.
Over the course of the next 100 years, the settlers grew in numbers as ships brought more and more settlers to the New World and offered the poor and disenfranchised of the British Isles and Europe a hope that they could achieve something impossible in their countries of origin: hope and a future created from hard work and faith in themselves.
By 1765, the colonists had become American and were no longer refugees from their former lives. But trouble was brewing: the British Crown, still overlord to the American Colony, saw their hard work and diligence as an object of plunder. Taxes were levied without consultation with the new Americans. The Crown saw the Americans as easy prey and would not involve them in the governance of their new home whereby they could contribute opinion and insight. All that the British Crown wanted was the contribution of their money.
In 1773, the group known as the Sons of Liberty, sworn to silence in terms of their membership, staged the first real open protest to the taxation without representation. They destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbour.
The British were quick to respond, shutting down Boston Harbour and in 1774, passed the Intolerable Acts so as to punish the Government of Massachusetts. On September 7th, 1774 the Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves whereby they declared that they would form a shadow Government and boycott imported goods from Britain unless the British repealed the Intolerable Acts.The Americans formed the Continental Congress, formed by the States with the objective being to control resistance and seize power.
On April 19th, 1775, American Militia Forces besieged Boston.
The American War of Independence had begun.
The British were forced to abandon Boston.
In March 1776, the Congress had appointed Mr George Washington to command the Continental Army. On July 4th, at Independence Hall in Pennsylvania, the Congress declared Independence from Britain.
With the famous words that appear at the beginning of the declaration of Independence, a tone is set.
"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."
The How, What, When, Why and Who
The When
July 4th 1776
The What.
"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."
In this opening statement, the founding Fathers of America set out their intent. They would now have to explain what they mean and how they intend it to play out.
In the preamble, the Founding Fathers set out what they believe.
The Who
"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."
The Why
"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 of 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 harass 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 benefit 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 British 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."
The How
"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."
As Thomas Jefferson said some time later "Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion."
It is now 2018.
Conclusion.
Some things have changed.It is not the King of England who wishes to bring savagery to the inhabitants of America, but the United Nations.
"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.
"Today, it would read "The United Nations has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless followers of Jihad whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
In all other respects, I read this as a document and proclamation that is as valid and real today as it was when it was written over 240 years ago.
Wars have been fought and lives lost to defend those unalienable to Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, here we are today, in 2018, ruled by Governments divided and media divided. We are ruled by opinions from tweets, facebook posts and lobby groups that seek to further drive wedges between people, groups of people, communities and families.
In my opinion, the United Nations has no place in America, American Politics, American Ideals or American Culture.Like every Nation on Earth, America is founded on a foundation of Nationalist Pride and Ideology. To deprive a Nation of its Nationhood and Nationalism is to destroy the Nation. which, after all, appears to be the goal of the United Nations.
Any Nation that values its individuality should withdraw from the United Nations and reclaim its right to be independent, free willed, self governing and without shackle to an overlord whose interests do not reflect their own.
When you have fought and fought so hard, surely it is wrong to surrender that for which you have sacrificed so much?
BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS