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July 4, 2007 -- American Minute with Bill
Federer July 4, 2007.
The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776.
John Hancock signed first, saying "the price on my
head has just doubled."
Benjamin Franklin said "We must hang together or most
assuredly we shall hang separately."
Of the 56 signers: 17 lost their fortunes, 12 had their homes
destroyed, 5 became prisoners of war, 1 had two sons imprisoned on the British
starving ship Jersey, 1 had a son killed in battle, 1 had his wife die from
harsh prison treatment and 9 signers died during the War.
As Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said:
"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient.
He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His
kingdom come."
John Adams said: "I am apt to believe that it will be
celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought
to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty.... I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that
it will cost to maintain this Declaration... Yet through all the gloom I
can see the rays of ravishing light and glory...
[Comment: The general Biblical foundations
of both Sam and John Adams is clear from the above. Sam Adams was an open
and unabashed Christian. John Adams was not a trinitarian, more likely a
unitarian. But neither was he a deist. He understood with all the
rest, including Franklin, that we are both personally and corporately
accountable to God. The American revolution would never have happened
apart from the fervent support of the Presbyterian clergy, preaching the
sovereignty of God over all, including King George III.
America is, by original design and intent, a democratic
republic under God. Either we recover our Biblical foundations and submit
ourselves willingly and joyfully to God, or we lose our freedoms. Only God
can supply and guarantee them -- civil government cannot.
E. Fox]
July 5, 2007 -- American Minute
with Bill Federer
Once political enemies, they became close friends in later
life. Both served in the Continental Congress. One was
elected the second President and the other elected the third. An awe
swept America when they died on the same day, JULY 4, 1826, exactly 50 years
since they both signed the Declaration of Independence.
Their names were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
In his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 5, 1826,
President John Quincy Adams [son of John Adams] stated:
"Since your last meeting at this place, the fiftieth
anniversary of the day when our independence was declared...two of the principal
actors in that solemn scene - the hand that penned the ever-memorable
Declaration and the voice that sustained it in debate - were by one summons, at
the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All to
account for their deeds done upon earth."
President John Quincy Adams added in an Executive Order, July
11, 1826: "A coincidence...so wonderful gives confidence... that
the patriotic efforts of these...men were Heaven directed, and furnishes a
new...hope that the prosperity of these States is under the special protection
of a kind Providence."
[Comment: John Quincy was apparently a more orthodox Christian in his religious beliefs than his father, John. In a later Fourth of July speech, he made direct reference to Jesus. E. Fox]
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