Will Part of Your Holiday Prep Be to Read our Founding Documents?

Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia - 1787

I'm starting to set up for our 4th of July celebration. We're having three families over to swim and cook out and look forward to the happy laughter of all the children. We'll probably all go over to the fairgrounds later for the wonderful fireworks display that rivals any we've ever seen except for Reagan's inauguration. 

Somehow I doubt that many families actually discuss the reason we celebrate. These days, you're more likely to see mobs of ignorant, woke millennials out tearing down the statues of the founding fathers than honoring them. And that's sad, because this country, that sees millions of illegals pouring in because of their desire for what America has to offer, was founded on godly principles. Unfortunately, they were primarily Protestant principles. Nevertheless, they got us off to a good start. 

How many young people know what Benjamin Franklin said, when a woman asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention gave us in 1787? Franklin replied, "A republic if you can keep it." Yes, a constitutional republic. Those founders gathered in Philadelphia wanted a government ultimately controlled by the people. One author describing the events of the convention titled her book Miracle at Philadelphia.

The question today is can we keep our republic? Have we kept it? The erosion of our rights as we sink into a state of tyrannical oligarchy should alarm any thinking American. How many men in the street could name even three of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention? How many know the price many of those patriots paid for signing and promulgating our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Few I'm afraid.

Today should be a bugle call to all parents to teach their children about the great men and women who suffered and died for this country, like Nathan Hale hanged as a spy with these words attributed to him: "My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country." The heroes of our founding paid a high price for our liberty. Many lost everything and died impoverished. They were white and felt privileged to sacrifice all in order to build one nation under God. 

Yes, some of them owned slaves which became a contentious argument at the convention. Some state delegates refused to ratify the Constitution if it eliminated slavery. Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, wanted the "peculiar institution" eliminated. As president in 1806 with the expiration of the slavery clause in the Constitution about to expire, Thomas Jefferson addressed these words to Congress:

“I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe.” 

Does it seem odd that a slave owner was supporting the expiration of the slavery clause that prohibited Congress from taking action against slavery? All the armchair warmongers who condemn the south completely and sanctify the north ignore the history of the times judging by today's, might I say, hypocritical standards. Are we better than those southern slave owners? Don't we have our own slaves today, literally in some parts of the world!

Face the truth! We have slaves in this country for those with eyes to see. Women and children sold into the sex trafficking trade, prostitutes controlled by their pimps, addicts owned by the drug cartels. 

Go to Monticello and read Jefferson's extensive documents about how he treated his slaves. Is that an argument for slavery? Of course not! But the immigrants working in the cattle yards and canning factories of the north lived and died slaves to immoral business owners. The muckrakers of the time, documented in fiction the horrendous living and working conditions for those families, worse in many cases than the what slaves in the south were experiencing.

Teach your children the real history of our country. Hillsdale College offers many free courses, certainly a gold mine for home schooling teenagers. Help them understand the truth about our founding and our history. And what better day to start than the 4th of July. Patriotism is a virtue. as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas. After God, he says, each of us is a "debtor chiefly to his parents and his country." Tomorrow we can pay on that debt to our country by honoring those who laid her foundations. We had a good start. What is our report card for keeping the republic established during that "miracle at Philadelphia?" Not great I'd say. But ignorance can be fixed. Let's all start by telling stories about our beginning.