I posted this magnificent essay by Rush’s father on July 3, 2023 and felt a reprise would be welcome and useful due to its obvious timeliness and the fact that it is an invaluable source of the brief history of those providential men we refer to as Our Founding Fathers. If I may be permitted a personal note, My Lady and I miss Rush terribly and we still say, from time to time as the clock starts heading toward 11 a.m. CST, words to the effect of- wouldn’t it be nice if we could hear Rush’s take on [here insert the grotesquerie du jour; lately of course the debate debacle]? It’s hard to believe he died over three years ago. So this re-post is in his memory. May he rest in peace.
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I was reminded by a comment of @eherring [a colleague at Ricochet]of the speech Rush Limbaugh, RIP, greatly missed, would read each year which had been given many times by his father about the indescribably courageous men who risked immediate execution by signing the Declaration of Independence.
I only wish I could copy out the entire speech but as it is copyrighted I can only set out a couple of highlights here. That said, short of reading and re-reading the Declaration itself, I know of very few writings which better capture the bravery of these men and the sacrifices they endured to that we could have the benefits of the greatest Nation ever created by the mind of man. The entire speech can be found here; I cannot recommend it too highly.
Here’s the opening:
“Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor”
It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the Southeast. Up especially early, a tall bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home.
Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72.5 degrees and the horseflies weren’t nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today.
The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that “the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stockings was nothing to them.” All discussing was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks.
On the wall at the back, facing the president’s desk, was a panoply — consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”
He follows with a description of who these men were and the crushing odds they were fighting in taking on the King of the most powerful nation in the world at the time:
What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?
I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.
Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56 almost half – 24 – were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, nine were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians.
The stories which follow are, in the true sense of the word, nightmarish in their brutality and savagery in describing what happened to our Founding Fathers and their families.
It should be required reading in every single school in America. It is just one more indicator of the slow, painful but clear decline of our Nation that so few of our young citizens will ever know these stories and what was given by so many so they could be free.
But for those who do, as most of us do, one could never read these words and see them as just symbols on paper; they are the words that spell out what these men were willing to risk— and did:
“Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor.”
Yes, wonderful and Rush is greatly missed.