History may be seen as a series of trying and tumultuous events—tragic times of loss and sorrow.

The United States has certainly had its share of such experiences. And each time our people have responded with resolve and resilience.

Nothing reflects that resilience more than our Constitution, signed by 39 of the Framers on Sept. 17, 1787—a day now celebrated nationally as Constitution Day.

It is a remarkable document.

It set forth a series of guiding principles that organized power so that we have a workable government that would not unduly encroach on our liberties but would, instead, preserve freedom and order for generations to come.

To that end, it limited the powers vested in the federal government, divided those powers among several branches, and incorporated a series of checks and balances to limit the power of each branch, and established an independent judiciary that would ensure that those boundaries were observed.

Once the Constitution was drafted, people took the time to study and debate it in town halls, public squares, and ratifying conventions in the 13 states. There was profound civic engagement as they discussed the pros and cons of the document that had been sent to them for their consideration.

That debate, while surely contentious, was also a blessing. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” The clear corollary of this statement, also noted by Jefferson, is that a civilized nation cannot expect to be both “ignorant and free.”

If Jefferson is correct (and we believe he is), then America today is in trouble. A 2017 poll conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center revealed the American people know precious little about even the most essential elements of our government and the Constitution that formed it.

For example, only 37% of Americans can name any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Barely a quarter (26%) can name all three branches of the federal government.

In modern America, more people know more about the Kardashians than they do about those who govern them or would seek to govern them. Imagine going to the polls with only the faintest of ideas about the powers exercised by those we are voting for and the control they have over our lives.

Ignorance and complacency foster a feeling of powerlessness. Over time, this can lead to acquiescence to an expanded role for government—and an undue reliance upon government—at the expense of our freedom and individual liberties.

Widespread ignorance of how the Constitution helped establish “a more perfect Union” designed to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” is a dangerous development which must be corrected. Samuel Adams once wrote that our nation would be free and prosperous “[i]f virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people.”

To provide for the general welfare, is an abstract proposition, which mankind differ in the explanation of, as much as they do on any political or moral proposition that can be proposed; the most opposite measures may be pursued by different parties, and both may profess, that they have in view the general welfare; and both sides may be honest in their professions, or both may have sinister views. Those who advocate this new constitution declare, they are influenced by a regard to the general welfare; those who oppose it, declare they are moved by the same principle; and I have no doubt but a number on both sides are honest in their professions; and yet nothing is more certain than this, that to adopt this constitution, and not to adopt it, cannot both of them be promotive of the general welfare.

It is as absurd to say, that the power of Congress is limited by these general expressions, "to provide for the common safety, and general welfare," as it would be to say, that it would be limited, had the constitution said they should have power to lay taxes, &c. at will and pleasure. Were this authority given, it might be said, that under it the legislature could not do injustice, or pursue any measures, but such as were calculated to promote the public good, and happiness. For every man, rulers as well as others, are bound by the immutable laws of God and reason, always to will what is right. It is certainly right and fit, that the governors of every people should provide for the common defence and general welfare; every government, therefore, in the world, even the greatest despot, is limited in the exercise of his power. But however just this reasoning may be, it would be found, in practice, a most pitiful restriction. The government would always say, their measures were designed and calculated to promote the public good; and there being no judge between them and the people, the rulers themselves must, and would always, judge for themselves.

By rewriting America’s history and 'recontextualizing' her founding documents, Biden’s National Archives is seeking to undermine our country's founders. //

Words matter, and few words have mattered more in the history of the United States than those contained within the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and other founding-era documents stewarded by the National Archives.

Protecting and celebrating the most important works in U.S. history isn’t only important because the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as other documents in the National Archives, are still legally binding, but also because they tell a story of who we are as a nation and what it means to be American. Today leftists, including many officials in the Biden administration, are actively working to rewrite that story, and to undermine every part of America’s exceptional past. //

Since the National Archives contains more than 100 million records, there are bound to be some that are offensive. But rather than identify prominent documents that are indeed offensive as such, the Archives chose to issue a “Harmful Language” warning across the board, knowing full well the documents read most often on its website and in its halls are founding-era materials like the Constitution.

You might be tempted to chalk up the Archives’ warning label to pure laziness. Being woke and accurate is hard when you’re in charge of maintaining millions of records, I’m sure. But it’s worth noting that the warning label emerged from the National Archives’ radical Task Force on Racism, which has developed dozens of other plans meant to give the impression that America’s history is full of racism, hatred, and violence, rather than highlight the nation’s incredible achievements.

In a 105-page report issued by the task force in April 2021, the National Archives suggested it, like the United States, is full of “structural racism,” including “a Rotunda in our flagship building that lauds wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC [black, indigenous, people of color], women, and other communities.” Since the report’s release in April, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero has “accepted the recommendations in full.” //

Additionally, the Archives will transform its famous Rotunda to “create a more inclusive and historically accurate tribute to the nation’s founding.” Its “Reimagine the Rotunda” plan includes “contemporary views on the men who framed the founding documents and their participation in and positions on slavery,” new sculptures, and a “recontextualizing” of the murals now in the Rotunda.

Chris Stigall
@ChrisStigall
I’d love to tell you this is a @GOP ad…I’d love to tell you that.

https://youtu.be/LamRwl5Z2qk //

It juxtaposes all the troubling things we’re presently seeing in radical leftism – the wokeness, the defund the police movement, the riots, the moral decay and the effort to attack America, complemented by the warning words of Ronald Reagan. The only thing more powerful than that threat, so succinctly put forth, is the rest of the video, with Reagan declaring the freedom and the greatness of America. //

“I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result in an erosion of the American spirit,” Reagan says. “If we forget what we did, we wouldn’t know who we are. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across, that America is freedom. Freedom is special and rare. Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Freedom of enterprise. As long as we remember our first principles, and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with these three little words: We The People. We the people are free. Once you begin a great movement, there’s no telling where it will end.”

Yes, it’s an ad for wine, from conservative winemakers, We The People, and great job, guys. Good name too. The GOP guys who are behind ads should see whoever did this and solicit those folks to do their ads. It puts everything into such sharp focus and grabs the heart. It’s so riveting. And it so clearly notes that we have to do a better job at teaching the young coming up what America is and that we were behind on that teaching even when Reagan said those words. The words of Reagan are from his Farewell Address, as he left the presidency in 1989, and remind us of how great he was, how well he could put forth the Republican message.

As events unfold in Afghanistan with thousands of Americans and allies tragically needing rescue, 245 years ago this week, an American general successfully executed an extraordinary rescue–an “American Dunkirk”—that saved the Revolution. Washington’s army faced potential annihilation–all could have been lost. However, leadership, daring, and initiative transformed that critical moment into one of the greatest evacuations in history. //

The extraordinary story of how a small unit of men from Marblehead, Massachusetts transported Washington’s men and matériel across the East River under the cover of darkness is now told in the new bestselling book, The Indispensables: Marblehead’s Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware. The book is a Band of Brothers-style treatment of this unique regiment, a largely unknown group of Americans who changed the course of history.

Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech explained that children and the families who raise them are the bedrock of our communities and make our country great during Fox News “Primetime” on Wednesday.

Domenech began by pointing out that “today’s woke leftist hate many, many things: the Constitution, Donald Trump, Fox News, comedy, and, of course, you.” Domenech continued, “There was really one thing that woke socialist progressives seem to hate more than anything else,” before answering: “That’s babies.”

Domenech decried “the industrialized murder of 60 million unborn infants” and said “the left just doesn’t take their problems out on America’s kids. Their problem seems to be that there are American kids at all.”

“Radical environmentalists regard children as enemies of the climate. Corporate elites see babies as expensive competitors for the time, attention, and creativity of professional women, which they apparently feel should belong exclusively to them. Critical race theory con men suggest that babies become racist as early as three months old,” Domenech said. “Radical feminists have built their entire brand around de-prioritizing family life and shaming happy moms as sellouts to the patriarchy.”

“Progressives hate babies because they’re crying, drooling, pooping refutations of everything woke leftists believe,” Domenech continued. “Boys and girls are the answer to the left’s every argument, and the antidote to their poisonous lie.” For instance, he said, “parents learn the hard way that sex is not a social construct. Social constructs don’t pee on you while you are giving them a bath.”

Children possess many virtues and are much more than the “helpless timid victims the leftist people say they are,” and so are we, Domenech said. “That’s the left’s real problem with children.”

Children make families. Boys turn into men. Couples turn into parents, and women become “the archangels we call moms.” Just as the founders envisioned, America is a place where every child, no matter where they started, “has limitless potential and spark of divine.”

Children are also crucial for building communities. “The more attention we pay to our families, the more time we spend with other families at playdates, little league games, church picnics, school plays — children don’t just turn individuals into families, they also pull families into communities.”

“Leftism is an ideology of fear, grievance, and affected helplessness,” Domenech continued, explaining why leftism is so hostile to families. “Every year on Mother’s Day the media is filled with one article after another by childless writers defending their childlessness. … “On Father’s Day, dads have long been similarly held up as objects of correction and ridicule. These sad people protest too much, and they are not convincing anyone.”

“Kids love America, and they inspire us to make her ever more worthy of their love. Parents teach their children how to be good. The children teach their parents how to be great. Together they make America both,” Domenech concluded. “This is not something you have to do. This is something you get to do.”

How could our society be so callous to children as to make them the link to welfare payments? Do people know what it feels like to grow up in a relationally chaotic home? //

Democrats are announcing defeat in their half-century “War on Poverty.” They’re just too good at propaganda to put it that way. Instead, they’re taking to mouthpiece outlets like The Atlantic to gush over the latest expansion of the United States’ social welfare state: monthly checks to parents taken through federal deficits straight from their kids’ futures. //

The Atlantic article exists to amplify naive excitement about this program, but it is in reality an announcement of despair. Democrats are admitting their socialist welfare state doesn’t work and they have no effective ideas for addressing the fact that Americans have spent more than $28 trillion on welfare since 1965, yet at least the same proportion of Americans is considered poor today as when the “war” started.

“[T]he War on Poverty has cost the taxpayers nearly three and a half times the combined cost of all military wars in U.S. history,” notes a different Heritage analysis. Not only can Washington not win real wars anymore, Washington can’t win pretend wars, either. So the party of unlimited entitlement is just openly admitting their new plan is… throwing taxpayer money out the window.

Economist Veronique de Rugy notes that the last time the United States promoted mass welfare detached from work, it made children the worst off: Before 1996, “we also had welfare payments with no work requirement. The result was that nearly 9 in 10 families on welfare were workless, unwed births rose significantly, and most of these families were stuck in long-term poverty, creating a trend in intergenerational child poverty. That cycle was broken with the 1996 reforms requiring welfare recipients to work or prepare for work. The great news is that this led to a historic reduction of child poverty.”

She further writes that if Biden’s “guaranteed income for kids” is extended, “we’re at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past by increasing the number of single-parent families in which no one is employed and reversing the gains the nation has made since the welfare reforms of the 1990s—all at great cost to taxpayers.”

It is imperative to understand that programs like this are perhaps the single greatest cause of misery to American children, because they unequivocally increase family chaos. Social welfare programs effectively subsidize family separation. Democrats have been silent about their policies working to separate American children from their parents for more than a century.

Paying people to pop out children with no attention to the circumstances such children will be born into will cause living nightmares for the weakest among us.

Hillsdale College is a small institution with lofty values: “Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.” Now, the college is expanding its pursuit of the truth to grade schools with an American history curriculum for grades K-12, “offered for free to all who wish to learn.”

“This curriculum is a work of education,” Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn said. “It seeks to teach the truth of American history and to cultivate in students the knowledge and virtue necessary to live good lives as citizens.” //

Hillsdale College
@Hillsdale
An abiding truth. That’s what you’ll find in Hillsdale’s free and downloadable 1776 Curriculum—the ideas, words, deeds, and events that have most significantly shaped the world into which we were born and thus form the fabric of America. Download today! https://k12.hillsdale.edu/Curriculum/
//

Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education of the BCSI, noted many truths that grounded the curriculum. A few are listed below:

• That truth is objective, according to the first law of logic, the law of contradiction: that something cannot both be and not be at the same time in the same way. The first object of the human mind and the first end of education is this objective truth about the world.
• That the good is that at which all actions however misguided or distorted, aim. The good shows us how we ought to act, which we call right moral conduct.
• That individuals should be judged based on their specific actions tending toward a certain character instead of their label, group identity, sex, religion, or skin color.
• That although the United States of America is by no means perfect, it is unprecedented in the annals of human history for the extraordinary degrees of freedom, peace, and prosperity available to its people and to those who immigrate to her shores.

That for these reasons, the list concludes, America is an exceptionally good country. //

“The 1619 project has nothing to do with history. It’s a construct by which people can fight current political battles,” Spalding said. “It does what I like to call history backwards — it uses history as a foil to make current arguments.”

Another celebration of the founding of the United States of America has arrived and, as always, it is yet another reflection upon the history of this nation. This year, Independence Day comes amid heightened racial tensions, a raucous debate over a controversial election, and an increasingly noxious political discourse. //

Echoes of abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ speech asking “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” continue to reverberate more than 150 years later. While addressing an audience in 1852, he said:

The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. //

So how do I, as a black American conservative, reconcile these realities?

I recognize that the pain and oppression that my ancestors suffered is an inexcusable part of America’s story. In addition, I do not deny that black Americans – descendants of slaves especially – have a unique and complex history, much of which still has an impact today.

However, I can also acknowledge that from this great evil came a people and culture that has stood strong against what was inflicted upon us. In many cases, we have thrived despite it all. We have a strong culture that has influenced the evolution of American society.

As black Americans, we are an embodiment of the sentiment expressed by Joseph after confronting his wicked brothers who sold him into slavery:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.

I love being black. I love my culture. I love being an American. To me, none of these things are mutually exclusive.

It is for this reason that I can celebrate the Fourth of July, despite the fact that it did not always apply to my ancestors. Like every other nation in antiquity, America has sins. But she has worked and fought vigorously to move closer to the ideals upon which she was founded.

These selected writings are provided here specifically to support the teaching materials provided elsewhere and to meet the needs of a University of Rochester course, "Lincoln, Douglass and Black Freedom." A companion page is available on the Lincoln and his Circle website examining the issues below using speeches and writings of Abraham Lincoln.

Until Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, recently stood up as the voice of reason, and blocked a museum dedicated to those Americans the government hives off as “Hispanic” or “Latino,” it looked like conservatives had learned all the wrong lessons from their recent success with those voters.

“I understand what my colleagues are trying to do and why. I respect what they’re trying to do. I even share their interests in ensuring that these stories are told. But the last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation with an array of segregated, separate-but-equal museums for hyphenated identity groups,” said Lee in a statement from the Senate floor about the Smithsonian Institution museum that up to that point seemed all but a fait accompli, having gathered bipartisan support.

“At this moment in the history of our diverse nation, we need our federal government and the Smithsonian Institution itself to pull us closer together and not further apart,” the Utah Republican went on.

The Smithsonian, a taxpayer-funded institution, “should not have an exclusive museum of American Latino history or a museum of women’s history or museum of American men’s history or Mormon history or Asian American history or Catholic history. American history is an inclusive story that should unite us.”

ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852.

Published by Request
ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING.
1852.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS ESQ.:

I am amazed the Levine and his ilk can so cavalierly skip over the over 4,900 words Douglass wrote which precede the paragraph that they love to use as a cudgel. Douglass spoke about the country’s founding as an arbiter and source for good. That the foundation of America is a blueprint for liberty, and this is why that foundation must be made true by ending slavery in the United States. Douglass rightly expounded that slavery is antithesis to the heart and soul of a great nation, and if America was to continue to be that, it must change its ways.

Douglass debunks the 1619 Project blather that America’s founding is rooted in systemic racism and slavery with this insightful phrasing:

Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it.

[…]

Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.

Far-leftists have despised America for decades. Members of Congress who call themselves progressives decry the ills of American society like police brutality, poverty, and all kinds of injustice. Activists march and protest in the streets and on college campuses for equity. However, despite governing most of the areas in which the afflicted masses reside, they have done little to nothing to affect significant change.

In light of this reality, it is appropriate to ask: What exactly do these people want? What has to happen before the adherents of wokeism finally develop at least a modicum of respect and – dare I say it – love for the United States?

Leftists who rail against America are conspicuously quiet when it comes to laying out specific objectives. Take racism, for example; since racial bias can never truly be wholly extinguished, how much will it need to be decreased before these people acknowledge that the country is worthy of respect? Furthermore, if they care so much about racial disparities due to racism, why have they not pursued real solutions? Finally, why have they not encouraged productive conversations on these matters instead of just lazily accusing everyone with whom they disagree of being slobbering bigots? //

The hard left will never love America – at least not in its current incarnation. The America these people would love is one in which the government has the most control and influence over our lives. Affection for the U.S. can only come after their pipe dreams of a western utopia are realized.

To put it another way, those on the hard left will not be satisfied until they have destroyed America and then, from the rubble, rebuild it in their own image. Marxism must rule the day if America is to be worthy of respect. //

It is important to remember this when watching how the hard left moves. Their objective is not to improve America, it is to remake America. They will not stop until they finish what President Barack Obama started when he declared they would “fundamentally transform America.”

Colin Kaepernick
@Kaepernick7
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”

• Frederick Douglass

12:03 PM · Jul 4, 2019

Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points:

(1) This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.

(2) Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows:

“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.

“There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain.

“I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”

Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice: https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2945

The bottom line is that the objective of folks like Touré is to foster more racial division and to intimate that the U.S. is irredeemably racist. What they fail to acknowledge is the fact that the narrative they perpetuate is an affront to Americans – black and white – who have done the work to move America forward.

Yes, there is still more work to do in the quest for equality. I acknowledged as much in my earlier piece on Independence Day. But the notion that we cannot celebrate the legitimate advancements we have made, because some issues still exist, is not only absurd but counterproductive to what they claim they wish to achieve. Perhaps they are not as serious about their mission as they would have us believe.

There are many reasons. I love the principles upon which it was founded. I love the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution — the words themselves and the ideas enshrined in them.

I love that the men who authored those documents valued liberty and recognized the perils of concentrated power enough to attempt to guard against them in a way that, while imperfect, has enabled millions of people to thrive and prosper, while enjoying a degree of freedom previously unknown.

I love that we elect our leaders — as imperfect (and frustrating) a process as that often is.

I love that millions of people have made a point to come HERE because of the opportunities this country holds.

I love that we have a beautiful country full of wonders both natural and man-made and we can travel about it freely.

I love that American ingenuity has led to a wide array of discoveries, inventions and innovations.

I love that you and I can see things totally differently and express that freely.

I’m well aware that our country is far from perfect. I don’t agree with everything we’ve ever done as a nation. I know there’s more than ample room for improvement. But — I guess I see it sort of like many of us regard a family member — imperfect, flawed, but beautiful and beloved.

By May 1776, eight of the colonies had already decided they would support independence, but the National Archives says it wasn’t until June 7, 1776, that the clearest call for independence came when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia read what is now known as the Lee Resolution, proposing independence for the Thirteen Colonies from Britain.

Before Congress recessed for three weeks, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement that would declare the colonies' case for independence to the world. The committee included John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Thomas Jefferson.

The first draft, which was primarily written by Jefferson and edited by Adams and Franklin, was presented to Congress on June 28, 1776, a few days before it reconvened. On July 2, 1776, 12 of the 13 colonies — New York did not vote — adopted the Lee Resolution immediately before Congress began to consider the Declaration of Independence. After a few changes and revisions to the document, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was officially approved on July 9, 1776, by the New York Convention, Congress ordered on July 19, 1776, that the declaration be “fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile [sic] of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.” The National Archives says “engrossing is the process of preparing an official document in a large, clear hand.”

A journal of Continental Congress records shows that delegates began signing the engrossed Declaration of Independence on Aug. 2, 1776, in Philadelphia.

“One of the most widely held misconceptions about the Declaration is that it was signed on July 4, 1776, by all the delegates in attendance,” the National Archives says on its website. “John Hancock, the President of the Congress, was the first to sign the sheet of parchment. In accordance with prevailing custom, the other delegates began to sign at the right below the text, their signatures arranged according to the geographic location of the states they represented. New Hampshire, the northernmost state, began the list, and Georgia, the southernmost, ended it.”

While 56 delegates eventually signed the Declaration of Independence, according to the National Archives, not all of them were present on Aug. 2, 1776, and some of them never signed the document, including Committee of Five member Robert R. Livingston, “who thought the Declaration was premature.”

Copy of US Declaration of Independence - kept by the only Catholic Founding Father Charles Carroll in 1776 - sells for £3.2m after being found in Scottish attic of his descendants //

Charles Carroll of Carollton gave document to grandson-in-law John MacTavish
It then descended into the Scottish family and ended up in their attic
It was found by a specialist from Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull
The owners of the home where it was found wished to remain anonymous //

The signer's copy, one of only six known to still be in private hands, is a representation of the original 1776 document that declared the independence of Britain's 13 American colonies. //

After extensive research we confirmed it was indeed one of the 201 copies made by William Stone, of which only 48 of them are known to still exist. Being able to identify to whom the copy belonged made it even more exciting and rare.' //

The 200 first copies were made by printer John Dunlap on the night the document was signed.

It was then distributed throughout the North American colonies the following morning to be read aloud to the colonists and their militia. //

January 10, 1776: Thomas Paine published a booklet entitled Common Sense.

It outlined his vision of a government in which the people, through their elected representatives, would have supreme power.

Paine was the first to openly suggest independence from Britain.

Common Sense was read by many, including George Washington.

The work was to have a massive influence on Thomas Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration of Independence.

May: Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, receives Richard Henry Lee's resolution urging the colonies to become free and independent states.

June 11: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston are appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

June 12-27: Jefferson is chosen to write the first draft, of which only a fragment exists. Jefferson's clean copy - the 'original Rough draught' - is reviewed by the committee. Both documents are in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress.

July 1-4: Congress debates and revises the declaration.

July 2: Congress declares independence. John Hancock, President of the Congress and Charles Thomson, the secretary, signed the document.

July 4, 1776: The United States is officially born.

When FDR sent thousands of Americans to internment camps because their ancestors were Japanese, that was an ugly stain on America. Japanese Americans who suffered that fate deserved every cent of reparation, and frankly more for Roosevelt’s illegal and unconstitutional order. They were direct victims. Many are still alive today. They suffered the injury. Their great-grandchildren are not demanding their own reparations. Calling for reparations for Americans who are, in many cases, four or five or six generations removed from ancestors who were held in bondage is impractical, at best. Even its proponents like Ta-Nehisi Coates have admitted as much. I am all in for reparation for anyone held as a slave. None exist. //

I’m all in for Blacks who suffered a direct injury during Jim Crow suing for damages and bankrupting those responsible. Direct injury. Direct reparations.

Blaming all living Americans (with a large percentage having no antebellum connection to America) for the sins of long-dead ancestors makes no more sense than me demanding payment for Robert Thompson’s multiple years of torture at the hands of Confederates. The confederates who ruined his body are long since dust in the wind. I never met Robert Thompson. His bones are dust as well. My only “memory” of him is preserved in a shadow box. The box contains the flag cord he carried through Andersonville, his photo later in life, and the envelope on which he penned what happened 159 years ago.