The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 4-19-2017

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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 4-19-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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The British continued to Concord, where they divided and searched for armament stores. Later in the day, the second confrontation between regulars and militiamen occurred as British light infantry companies faced rapidly growing ranks of militia and Minutemen at Concord’s Old North Bridge. From depositions on both sides, the British fired first on the militia, killing two and wounding four.

“Fire, for God’s sake!”

This time, however, militia commander Major John Buttrick yelled the order: “Fire, for God’s sake, fellow soldiers, fire!”

And fire they did, commencing with “the shot heard ‘round the world,” as immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. With that shot, farmers and laborers, landowners and statesmen alike, brought upon themselves the sentence of death for treason. In the ensuing firefight, the British suffered heavy casualties and in discord retreated to Concord village for reinforcements, and then back toward Lexington.

During that retreat, British regulars took additional casualties, including those suffered in an ambush by the reassembled ranks of John Parker’s militia — “Parker’s Revenge,” as it became known. The English were reinforced with 1,000 troops in Lexington, but the king’s men were no match for the militiamen, who inflicted heavy casualties upon the Redcoats along their 20-mile tactical retreat to Boston.

“What a glorious morning this is!” declared Sam Adams upon hearing those first shots had been fired.

Indeed, the first shots of the eight-year struggle for American independence were in response to the government’s attempt to disarm the people.

Thus began the American Revolution — a revolution in support of Liberty not just for the people of Massachusetts but for “all people4.” As Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”

Indeed, such rights are not temporal, they are eternal5.

And these rights are not granted by the written words of brilliant men. As Alexander Hamilton noted, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

The oaths of the Lexington and Concord minutemen were the earliest American pledges to defend Liberty. The spirit of their oaths is vibrantly alive today as honored by millions of Americans who have taken similar oaths, and whose “obligations to our country,” in the words of John Adams, “never cease but with our lives.”

However, American Patriots6 of all generations have understood that, while our obligations may end, our mission is one that we must extend to the next generation. As a wise colleague once advised, “If your primary mission in life can be accomplished in your lifetime, then your mission is much too small.”

I have never been under the illusion that the full endowment of Liberty was something to be achieved during my lifetime, or that of my children and beyond. No, that endowment is a continuing process, and the singular blessing that we must, as Patrick Henry warned, “guard with jealous attention” for all of human history.

Like many of you reading these words, I have devoted my adult life to the fulfillment of my own solemn oath “to support and defend7” our Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” From the day I first took that oath at age 19, my obligation to abide by and fulfill it has never ceased.

Of course, you need not have sworn that oath in order to fulfill it!

In 1776, George Washington8 wrote in his General Orders, “The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves. … We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.”

Of that resolve, President Ronald Reagan9 asserted, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Please help us extend Liberty to the next generation.

The Patriot Post has been an effective and reliable touchstone for Liberty since our inception. It has also been a force multiplier for the growing ranks of American Patriots across our nation — and an effective recruiting tool for new Patriots of all ages.

Thank you for your steadfast devotion to Liberty, especially over the last eight years, which were among the most challenging in our lifetime (to date) in terms of “enemies domestic.”

Today is the final day to support Liberty with a donation, however large or small, to our 2017 Patriots’ Day Campaign10, or you can mail your support with our printable donor form11.

“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.” —Thomas Jefferson (1775)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776