The following is a portion of the author’s current summer project: a modern version of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, designed to give those who value the Constitution a rallying cry and moral support for their conflict.
INTRODUCTION
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in his pamphlet, The Crisis, in 1776. He, of course was writing about the difficulties of a young America, struggling in its conflict for independence from Great Britain. George Washington’s troops, crestfallen by retreat after retreat, would take great comfort in Paine’s words.
The American Revolution truly was a trial of the ideals held by those patriots who fought for liberty and freedom in the face of incredible odds. Their sacrifice at places like Lexington, Concord, Breed’s Hill, Long Island, Saratoga, Trenton, Camden, Cowpens, and Yorktown, paved the way for their descendants to live under a government of their own making–a government which promised to secure the blessings of liberty for all those who would be called Americans.
Subsequent generations of Americans continued to preserve the freedom of limited government for which the Founding Fathers fought. Though those who penned the words and codified the ideals contained in the Constitution were gifted by their Creator with such incredible ability, even their great system could be, and has been, corrupted. The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787, in a culmination of the Age of Enlightenment, compiled the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and other philosophes into a document that was the evolutionary result of the English parliamentary system. Yet, they themselves knew the fragility of their work. According to American legend, as the delegates of the Constitutional Convention filed out of the Hall, their work complete, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin.
“What sort of government have you given us?” she asked the elder American statesman.
“A Republic, Madam,” Franklin responded. “if you can keep it.”
The author’s work, this exhortation to fight for our liberty, is not Republican in nature. It is not Democrat. It is not Libertarian. This document is designed to educate the reader in the ways in which our federal government, like the English monarchy in 1776, is on the pathway to tyranny and oppression. Some would claim it has already reached that destination. Regardless of your political party affiliation, you will find yourself, as you read, divided into one of two ideological camps: those who support the Constitution, and those who oppose it.
For those who support the Constitution, there is much work to be done. Forces are at work that, if allowed to succeed, will strip Americans of their God-given rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness by their own hand. For those who oppose our founding principles and look to subject the free citizens of the United States to a condition of indentured servitude to a debt-ridden federal government, be forewarned. The Minutemen are gathering.
Other sections will include:
Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the Constitution
Of Perpetual Growth and Educational Failure
Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs
Of the Present Unsustainability of America: with some Miscellaneous Reflections
Conclusion
Pingback: Sit Stay Fetch Review | Pet Supply Plus