Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor

Monday, July 4th, 2022 is the 246th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an event unparalleled in the annals of history. Sadly, for many of us it is just another holiday that we take for granted.

I know many of you are familiar with the part of this document that reads:

"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."

But how many of you are familiar with the last sentence in the Declaration of Independence? It reads:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." (Emphasis added)

Below this were the signatures of the signers of the Declaration. The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence are:

GEORGIA

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

NORTH CAROLINA

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

SOUTH CAROLINA

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

MASSACHUSETTS

John Hancock

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

MARYLAND

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carrol of Carrolton

VIRGINIA

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

PENNSYLVANIA

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

DELAWARE

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

NEW YORK

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

NEW JERSEY

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Matthew Thornton

RHODE ISLAND

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

CONNECTICUT

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

This year, I ask each of you take time to pause and reflect on what the Declaration of Independence really means and why it is so important, and understand what our Founding Fathers were facing by writing and signing this document.

These men knew, that by signing the Declaration, they were also signing their death warrants. They knew that the British would consider them traitors and would execute them if captured, and yet they signed it anyway.

Such was the price these men were willing to pay so that we may celebrate the freedom that they helped give us every Fourth of July. I wonder how many of us living today would have been willing to pay such a high price for freedom.

Based upon what I've seen happening over the past few years, not very many.

Too many of us are content to sit on our ample backsides and pretend that everything will be alright, that our benevolent leaders in Washington, DC will take care of us and protect us from those who would destroy what our Founding Fathers fought and died for.

Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.

No longer do we have men and women of high moral character who represent the will of We the People. Instead, we have corrupt politicians who are beholding to Super PACs, lobbyists and special interest groups.

In just four short years our country will be 250 years old - if we make it. I wonder what our Founding Fathers would think if they could see what the country they fought and died for has become.

I hope and pray that there are still men and women among us, among We the People, who will stand up and fight for what is right - not with bullets but with our voices and our votes.

I hope you will join me on this Fourth of July in pledging to fight for our rights and liberties so that Government of the People, by the People and for the People shall not perish from this Earth.

Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor just may depend upon it.