Tag Archives: Patrick Henry

Articles of Interest

A Missed Opportunity This Past July 4th

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By Spiritof76

Declaration of Independence SC A Missed Opportunity This Past July 4th

July 4 refers to the day the Declaration of Independence from the British monarchical yoke was issued by some 56 noted individuals who risked their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor for it. Several thousand American colonists fought and perished over a seven year period so that their posterity will live in a free nation governed with the consent of the people to secure their rights as free people.

The first ten amendments to the US Constitution ratified in 1791 contained the Bill of Rights that prohibits transgressions by the federal government into individual life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

In 2013, some 237 years later, the people have lost most of what was enshrined in the US Constitution. The federal government, instead of being limited in scope as intended, has become a dictatorial national government. Patrick Henry opposed the adoption of the Constitution as he feared the uncontained growth of the federal government by destroying the sovereignty of the individual states. He was right!

The American people lost their way in the early 1900s and allowed the concept of big government to come to fruition and to destroy the core principle of federalism during the Woodrow Wilson administration with the enactment of direct federal government taxation of Americans and the simultaneous removal of state representation in Congress by instituting the direct popular election of the Senators.

Article 1, Section 1 is in tatters as Congress has illegally delegated its legislative powers to such unelected agencies as the EPA, IRS, FCC, FDA, and the other hundreds of agencies with the full approval of the US Supreme Court. People did not bother to punish those politicians but accepted the despotic bureaucratic rule that we find today.

The First Amendment is just about erased. Political correctness depending upon the whims of the favorite political groups is allowed to override that right of free speech and declare it hate speech. There is no religious freedom today. If you do not practice what the national government dictates appropriate, you and your group will be punished with the help of the myriad of agencies it controls.

How about the freedom of the press? The government spies on the reporters, tries to intimidate their families, and prevents them from reporting anything unfavorable to it. Wilson jailed some of them for being against the American entry into WWI. Lincoln also did so in the Civil War.

The Second Amendment, whose presence in the Bill of Rights is for preserving freedom (not for hunting or sports shooting), is under severe assault. A national government that has gone rogue will disarm the citizens so that they can be turned into subjects.

The Fourth Amendment is extinct. Americans gave that up in the name of security. The US government with the guidance of the Supreme Court has eliminated the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures without the required warrants based on probable cause. The president maintains a kill list that includes American citizens, deploys armed …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

Ending ‘Too Big To Fail’

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By Richard W. Fisher

Ben Bernanke 3 SC Ending Too Big to Fail

Editor’s note: Below is the text of a speech given by Mr. Fisher at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 16th, 2013:

Thank you, Chad [Barth].

I gather you all held a big dinner last night in honor of Ronald Reagan. My father-in-law, the late Congressman Jim Collins, was a good friend of the president. During the Convention of 1984, which was held in Dallas, Congressman Collins invited me to join a handful of family and friends to visit with Mr. Reagan. The president was in remarkable form and, great raconteur that he was, told this story:

Paddy McCoy, a hardworking Irish farmer, received a visit from an inspector of the Department for Works and Pensions.

“Tell me about your staff,” he asked of Paddy.

“Well,” said Paddy, “there are the farmhands. I pay them 240 a week and they have use of a free cottage.”

“That’s good,” said the inspector.

“Then there’s the housekeeper. She gets 190 a week, along with free board and lodging.”

“That sounds fine,” said the inspector.

Paddy went on to tell of the rest of his staff, all to the pleasant reception of the inspector. And then he said, “Now, there’s also the half-wit. He bears all the risk of this business, works a 16-hour day, nets about 25 a week when all is said and done, but takes down a bottle of whiskey and, as a special treat, occasionally gets to sleep with my wife.”

“That’s disgraceful, Paddy,” said the inspector. “I need to interview the half-wit.”

“Well,” said Paddy, “you’re lookin’ at him.”

Paddy McCoy was no half-wit: He simply represented the plight of the hardworking souls who want to be left alone to labor day and night to put food on the table for their employees and family. They ask for no advantage, just a level playing field and fair treatment. I am here today to speak of the plight of hardworking Main Street bankers who simply want to be given a level playing field and fair treatment in competing with megabanks.

Chad, the last time I spoke to an audience here in the nation’s capital, I was introduced by a descendant of the iconic patriot Patrick Henry.

In one of Patrick Henry’s greatest speeches, he noted that, “Different men often see the same subject in different lights.” And then he went on to appeal to all perspectives to do right: “This is no time for ceremony,” he said, for it “… is one of awful moment to this country.”

The great patriot was, of course, addressing the injustice of operating under the thumb of the British Crown. This morning, I am going to address what I consider the injustice of operating our economy under the thumb of financial institutions that are so large they are considered “too big to fail” (TBTF).

I will argue that these institutions operate under a privileged status that exacts an unfair tax upon the American people.

I will argue that they represent not only a threat to financial stability but to fair and open competition, that they are the practitioners …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

The Symbol Of The 2nd Amendment Is Holding Up “Old Glory” – Literally

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By D. Cox

blood of our forefathers The symbol of the 2nd Amendment is holding up Old Glory Literally

“Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero (Orator Ad M. Brutum, Rome, 46 B.C.)

The battle scene depicted above “Colonist defending the Liberty Pole, New York”, was not of a specific battle, but of one that represented a ten year conflict in which it was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.  Liberty may sometimes be a prize that is won in one battle, but it is only maintained through continual conflict.

The history of the struggle began with the Liberty Tree in Boston, where Samuel Adams’ “Sons of Liberty” would often congregate. For over fourteen years, the “Liberty Elm” tree was transformed from a common meeting place to a National Icon and beacon for liberty.  The New York Chapter of the Sons of Liberty erected a “liberty pole” fashioned from wood adorned with a cap upon the top, to mark their meeting location. The history of the liberty pole is significant, as it dates back to 44 BC when a group of Roman Senators assassinated Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Immediately after Ceaser was killed, a Phrygian cap, symbolizing the freedom of the slaves, was placed upon the pole to symbolize their freedom from tyranny. The pole was significant, as it was an instrument of war –a phalanx, a guidon, a spear. Since then, the liberty pole with a hat atop has been a symbol for freedom and representation of the people in government and can be seen in art and literature throughout Europe. It is a symbol of a war instrument adored with the freedom it provided. Most notably, it can be seen in the center of the Emblem of the Department of the Army where the Phrygian cap (often called the Cap of Liberty) is supported on the point of an unsheathed sword and the motto emblazoned on the scroll flying above it with the words “This We’ll Defend.”

During the Siege of Boston, a party loyal to the King of England cut down the Liberty tree, knowing what it represented to the Colonist, and then used the remnants for firewood. The fire that followed though was flames of revolution throughout the colonies. Liberty poles were erected in most towns and villages as far south as Georgia. Some were defiantly cut from white pine, which was prohibited for public use and reserved exclusively for masts of His Majesty’s navy. The caps traditionally atop the pole were replaced with various flags fashioned from either local militias or slogans of rebels’ cries, such as Ben Franklin’s depiction of a snake entitled “Join or Die” and the Navy’s “Don’t trend on me”. This became the birth of the flag pole in town squares.

Hearing the reverberations of revolution, the English moved to disarm the Colonists of their weaponry. While not everyone could fight and not all participated, most all were motivated to defend against tyranny. Each had their different motivations: some wanted independence, and others just wanted the British off their lands and out of their homes. The battle belonged to not just the citizen soldiers of the militias that sprang up; but as Patrick Henry stated to the Virginia Convention, “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” The people gathered together, but there was not yet a unifying flag. They gathered under many banners – the unifying factor was that they were flown from the masts of the liberty poles. The term “flag pole” cannot even be found in early American literature until the 19th Century; flags were flown from liberty poles. It was the one common thread that every early American fought for – liberty.

Our nation’s colors, the Stars and Stripes, are proudly flown from poles all across our Nation. They represent the struggle for the right to support freedom and the instrument of war that provided it. Today, we have replaced the Phrygian cap that adorned the top of our ancestors’ liberty poles with a ‘finial’. The most common is a ball, which many claim to represent the shot ‘heard around the world’, or an eagle, our Nation’s mascot representing freedom. Together, the pole, the finial, and the flag represent the blood and determination of our ancestors as they gave their lives to make a better place for their children. They fought for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – they fought for freedom.

The Declaration of Independence stated our claim to freedom. The Constitution provided a system of government so our freedom would never be taken away as a nation. The Bill of Rights was enacted so our freedom would never be taken away as individuals. We are all, individually, responsible to ensure we remain free. That’s what the 2nd Amendment was for, and that is what is represented by the pole – a symbol of the weapon that provided the freedom that is proudly displayed upon it.

Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.– Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism