Today's vote will tell us a lot about the willingness of our countrymen to radically change their course in history. But the important work of preserving freedom still remains. Our Founding Fathers broke their political ties with England because they believed 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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men." (Declaration of Independence)
In other words, governments are instituted for one purpose … to secure rights. They are merely the vessel that contains and protects these God-given rights. Government is not the purpose unto itself. It is merely the carrying case for liberty, and when that carrying case becomes the object of our intent, rather than precious cargo of God-given rights being the object of our focus, we are in mired vexation. When our founders erected a new government to shelter their Creator endowed rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the object was not the institution, it was freedom. They did not create an idol for us to worship and call it government. Government was the shell that contained the egg. The shell has little value but to protect the contents.
Jefferson could not have made it any clearer. America's founders desired a land in which men might live in liberty. By declaring independence from the government of England and instituting a new government on this continent, they did not erect that government for the purpose of having a government, but rather, it was built as a bulwark to house those principles that secured our freedoms. They created a mechanism designed to carry and shelter our precious freedom and liberty ... government was an armored car to protect that, which they considered to be, irreplaceably precious …liberty. Even the independence they sought was not the object ... the object was liberty. Even the formation of the constitution in 1787, while a brilliant work, was not the object ... the object was freedom.
Now, look further at these words:
"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 affect their Safety and Happiness."
This is that time which is now upon us. It is time to abolish what has sprung up in the place of our government and institute new government, and laying again the foundation and purpose of our government ... namely, the protection of liberty and freedom. That is the hard work that lies ahead ... instituting a new government from within the hydra which has grown up in Washington D.C., state capitals around the country, the counties and cities from the hustings, to the monolithic metropolises coast to coast. We must build again, not a government that does for us what we don't want to dirty our hands doing, but a government which meets its singular goal as described by the Founders ... housing for liberty. Government is not the goal ... the goal is liberty. And it will be only, when we rebuild the bulwark of freedom, a government placed solidly on the foundation of constitutional precept, limited in size, scope and reach, to the 17 powers granted it to protect our freedom and liberty, that we will once again breathe free as a people.
I do not know if the mettle of the American people is sufficient to this undertaking. If we can strengthen their mettle with encouragement, or raise their spiritual sights to see beyond this skirmish to a brighter tomorrow, we will have accomplished a valuable service.
I am convinced that the battle will be pitched and the fervor of those who see government as the end all and be all, or the object of their intent, will not easily succumb to those of us who see liberty, not government as the object. I am convinced that this must be a spiritual battle that results in political action … not a political movement with a religious tone. Further, if we do not relearn and impart to America the values that made this country great, we may clean up the disaster that is this government, only to find ourselves unwittingly electing the same vile wretches back to office in but a very few years.
When I was young, I thought it was about winning. Now, I understand it is about fulfilling our destiny. It doesn't matter whether the perception is that we won or lost. What matters is that we are fought the fight because it was right. Then winning, losing, life or death become irrelevant; it's about the destiny of a nation, which was, by my understanding, antecedent even to the framing of the world. The question is this: Will we fulfill that great destiny - or - will we fall short?
By the grace of God you and I – we - have embraced the side of the light and truth, and perhaps this election will give us the proper lair from which we might surprise the enemies of freedom, begin to silence their lies, and roar the truth louder and longer than the world can imagine from city streets to strange lands of forests or sands around the world ... telling even foreign meddlers to beware. We will seek them out that we might render their malicious intent ineffectual and deliver them to the magistrate, seeking justice for their subversive stratagem.
The calling, dear friends, for all of us at this late and evil hour is to stand ... and having done all … to stand. What a privilege to be counted in that glorious company to have enjoined the fray in a late version of St. Crispin's.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
To this end, I commit this great cause, this august endeavor to recapture our land, our institutions, and to reawaken our people, to the saving of our Republic, the protection of our nation, and the restoration of that vision which will lead us through the fog of progressive pother, that we might sight again the shores of truth, and in setting anchorage, there become ... America Again!
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