Crossposted at ePluribus Media and ProgressiveHistorians
I spent a few days in the Boston area this weekend, and took the opportunity to visit Faneuil Hall, better known to history buffs as the Cradle of Liberty.
Standing in the center of the room where Nathan Hale, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and other members of Boston's Sons of Liberty first argued against the Stamp Act and the Tea Taxes which eventually led to the Declaration of Liberty and the Revolutionary War, I was struck by where we are as a nation today, and I wondered what Hale, Adams and Co. would have to say about where we are today.
Methinks their rhetoric might be unseemly to our leaders today...
Samuel Adams:
"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"
Patrick Henry:
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
James Otis:
"It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own”
Samuel Adams:
"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks."
Dr. Joseph Warren, who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill:
"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution"
Samuel Adams:
"Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty."
Patrick Henry:
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
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Of course, these are all good words of wisdom, and still hold true today.
But can we?
Can we -- who far outnumber those who wore the mantle of "Sons of Liberty" -- become the "Grandchildren of Liberty" and take back the country from those who have wrested control of it?
Can we restore the liberties that Adams and Hale and Revere so bravely fought and died for?
I hope so. And I'm willing to work just as hard -- and yes, die in the process if necessary -- to ensure that the Sons of Freedom' legacy is not a doomed one. As Thomas Jefferson plainly said, ""The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." That tree is looking awfully parched these days. What do you say we give it a drink?