Filed under: History, Military, The United States | Tags: John Phillip Souza, July 4th, Tradition, US Army Field Band
The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus :
The Stars and Stripes Forever
John Phillip Souza’s most famous march.
To see the lyrics please turn on your closed captioning starting at 1:04
Filed under: Freedom, History, The United States | Tags: All Men Are Created Equal, Declaration of Independence
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln’s Fourth of July speech looked back for 82 years to the Declaration of Independence and at its meaning:
We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men, they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity that we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves—we feel more attached the one to the other, and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live for these celebrations. But after we have done all this we have not yet reached the whole. There is something else connected with it.
We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe—German, Irish, French and Scandinavian—men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration [loud and long continued applause], and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.
Filed under: Capitalism, Freedom, The United States | Tags: Economy, Liberty, The Revolution, Trial and Error
from
Hamilton’s Blessing
The Extraordinary Life and Times of
Our National Debt
by John Steele Gordon
But there can hardly be a poorer credit risk than a newly formed government in rebellion against a Great Power. Such governments vanish with defeat, the leaders are hanged, and their debts become uncollectible. More, the American colonies had had only rudimentary tax systems, and the new Continental Congress, established in 1775, had none at all. The Congress was able to borrow something over $11 million from the French government and Dutch bankers — both countries soon went to war with Britain hoping to take advantage of this situation — mostly for purchases in those countries. And Congress and the states sold bonds to wealthy patriots who were willing to risk the loss of their capital for the cause. But the money raised was not nearly enough. Thus the nascent United States had no choice but to resort to every financial expediency at its disposal in order to feed, equip, and pay the state militias and the Continental army.
The main source of revenue was in fact, the printing press. Congress issued massive amounts of so-called continentals, paper money that was backed by nothing more than a declaration that it was legal tender. By the end of the war these issues amounted to more than $200 million at face value. But this fiat money had quickly depreciated, as fiat money always does. Before the war ended, Congress had been forced to revalue earlier issues at only 2.5 percent of face value, and the phrase “not worth a continental” would be part of the American idiom for a century. Further, the state governments and Continental Congress used what were, in effect, forced loans, requisitioning food and supplies from citizens and paying for the goods with IOUs. These also quickly depreciated as they passed from hand to hand.
Filed under: Freedom, History, The United States | Tags: Independence Day, July 4 2015, The Texas Tenors
Filed under: Freedom, Heartwarming, Military, Music | Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Jenny Oaks Baker, Lovely
Amazing Grace
Condoleezza Rice and Jenny Oaks Baker
All proceeds will be donated to the Wounded Warriors Project
American Elephants 