It is good to remember, at least once a year, that Independence Day is more than an old movie with Will Smith.
“The enemy fleet was nearing Philadelphia,” Bob Morrison, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council writes. “Many delegates to the Continental Congress knew that if they were arrested, they would be tried for treason against the British Crown.”
“The punishment for treason was hanging, drawing and quartering. Massachusetts’ Samuel Adams was not afraid. He moved that the delegates pray for God’s protection and guidance. But we are not all of one denomination, responded the devout young New Yorker, John Jay. Sam Adams said he could pray with any man who sought his country’s good. With delegates from all the other colonies, Sam Adams prompted America’s first national prayer session. We might even term Adams’s motion the original call to fall (call2fall) on our knees before God.
“Within two years, Sam Adams and his cousin John had pressed those delegates toward Independence. We celebrate their Signing with our July 4th holiday.
“The Signers put their lives on the line when they affixed their often beautiful signatures to that parchment. ‘We had better hang together, or we shall all hang separately’ is a bit of gallows humor long attributed to wise old Ben Franklin. They vowed to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
“How many of us on this two hundred thirty-fourth birthday of our nation can truly say that we would rather be killed than give up the sentiments embodied in that ancient Declaration?”
As well, it is good to remember, now and then, that Sam Adams was more than just a really popular beer. It’s a good idea, at least once a year to get to know who the founders were. It’s an even better idea, always, to get to know your country.
