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MrRodgers -> Veteran's day...recall our first 'veteran's.' (11/11/2011 5:32:59 AM)
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We and particularly those who have served, often on days like this, think of our
compatriots still with us and those who have fallen in battle.
I think of our entire past and it's always with me, I think back to our early history.
I then think of how it is that the ordinary people of settled mature country could
be inspired to go to war...against it.
Yes, there are questions as to just how the govt. often helped create such a war
feeling among the people but what about at a time when there was NO US govt.
yet 'we' went to war. Every thought of that ?
They couldn't really be fighting for country...a country that didn't even exist yet. NO !!
They were fighting for liberty...freedom. READ IT ALL
Those soon become thoughts of people who were truly unique among the world's 'war-makers.'
Think about this today.....they pledged...everything, everything they enjoyed and for what ?
For a prime example...here's a thought.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army,
another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners,
men of means, well educated. But they signed the
Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty
would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts,
and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he
was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress
WITHOUT PAY and his family was kept in hiding.
His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr.,
noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the
Nelson home for his headquarters.
The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire.
The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife,
and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives.
His fields and his grist mill were laid to waste.
For more than a year he lived in forests and caves,
returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.
These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians.
They were soft-spoken men of means and education.
They had security, but they valued liberty more.
Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:
“For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence,
we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
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