President John Quincy Adams ~ Independence Oration
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed…
The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance or the most abject submission. This is all we can expect; we have therefore to resolve to conquer or die. Our own country’s honor…call[s] upon us for a vigorous… exertion.
Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them.
Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.” “The honor and safety of our bleeding country, and every other motive that can influence the brave and heroic patriot, call loudly upon us to acquit ourselves with spirit. In short, we must now determine to be enslaved or free.
If we make freedom our choice, we must obtain it by the blessings of Heaven on our united and vigorous efforts.” “Remember… that you are freemen, fighting for the blessings of liberty—that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like…”
General George Washington ~ Orders To The Army 1776
On July 4th1837 John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States and the first President who was the son of a President delivered a speech in Newburyport, Massachusetts at the request of that town’s citizenry.
He said in that speech delivered eight years after he left the Presidency, “Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? –
And why is it that, among the swarming myriads of our population, thousands and tens of thousands among us, abstaining, under the dictate of religious principle, from the commemoration of that birth-day of Him, who brought life and immortality to light, yet unite with all their brethren of this community, year after year, in celebrating this, the birth-day of the nation?
Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth?
That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. The Fourth of July celebration — next to Christmas, the most joyous and most venerated festival.
Political Vel Craft 