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Show Julv 23 , 1970 THE UTAH INDEPENDENT Page 4 TTdffff (Qti America's Challenge AMERICAS CHALLENGE, an address given at the New England Rally For God, Family and Country, 194th Anniversary of American Independence, Statler-IIilton Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, 1970. Saturday, July 4, My fellow Americans, it is a privilege and humbling experience to once again stand before you on this memorable day at this noble rally dedicated to preserve and strengthen those three great and essential loyalties: Lovaltvr to God Loyalty to Family Loyalty to Country Not too many miles from here rests a large boulder on Lexington Green. Inscribed on this rock are the words wliich Captain Parker gave to his Minute Men on April 19, 1775 Stand your ground, dont fire unless fired upon, But if they mean to have a war Let it begin here. And it began. the future, as the sun in heaven. Said Webster, They poured We shall make this a glorious, an out their generous blood like immortal day. When we are in our water before they knew whether graves, our children will honor it. it would fertilize the land of freeThey will celebrate it with dom or of bondage. thanksgiving, with festivity, with But they aroused their fellow bonfires, and illuminations. On Americans. Within one year John its annual return they will shed Adams faced the body of men tears, copious, gushing tears, not who were deliberating on whethof subjection and slaver)', not of Iner to adopt the Declaration of agony and distress, but of exultadependence. With the inspiration tion, of gratitude and of joy . Adams of heaven resting on him, Sir, before God, I believe the declared: hour is come. My judgment apsurlive Sink or swim, or die, proves this measure, and my I and hand vive or perish, give my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we that I hope, in this life, I am now aimed not at independence. But ready here to stake upon it; and I theres a Divinity wliich shapes leave off as I began, that live or our ends. The injustice of Engdie, survive or perish, I am for the land has driven us to arms; and, Declaration. It is my living sentiblinded to her own interest for ment, and by the blessing of God our good, she has obstinately per- it shall be mv dying sentiment, now, and Indepensisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to dence forever. reach forth to it, and it is ours. Quest of a Hemisphere Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconTraveling here yesterday, I read ciliation with England?... further in the great current QUEST' OF A HEMIYou and I, indeed, may rue it. SPHERE, by Boyle, published by We may not live to the time when Western Islands, Boston. this Declaration shall be made I am grateful we have a textWe die Colonists; vol-um- e, may die; good. die slaves, die, it may be, and on the scaffold. igno-minious- ly Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready.... But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. But whatever may be our fate, be assured..: that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of book for our children, grand- children and their parents that restores that which has in many cases been removed by wolves in d ers sh e e p s clot who would surrender all we hold dear as true Americans. Chapter 8 is worth the price of the book. Here we read again, as some of us old enough to remember, the courageous and stirring words against the Navigation Acts, the Stamp Act of 1765 and taxation without representation. In this real American history we have, the record of Washington, Jefferson, and the record of Samuel Adams of Boston, who organized Com-mi- l ices of Correspondence and groups of young men banded to hing--one-wo- rl i gether as Sons of Liberty. We read again the words of James Otis that a law was void if it violated the human rights of man and a man who is quiet, is as secure in his house as a prince in his Islands, Boston, P. 113.) Chapter 7 closes with a discussion of Freedom of the Press and The colonists fought the threat of aggression as much as aggression itself. the famous lawyer, Andrew Hamilton from Philadelphia: The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death... The man who loves his country, prefers its liberty to all other considerations, well knowing that without liberty, life is a misery. (Ipid., p. 84.) castle.... Here we read: With grim determination, they opposed ever)' attempt to rob them of any liberty they had gained. benefacTo the colonists-o- ur tors- it was not so much the amount as the principle of taxation (without representation) that the colonists opposed. Here again in this new history are also the fiery words give me liberty of Patrick Henry of Vir-inia and also his words: If this be treason, make the most of it. John Hancock, George Mason, Paul Revere, John Dickinson and hi a letters from a farmer We cannot be happy without 0 being fre- eHere an; the words of the closing paragraph of Chapter 8: The British colonies were largely settled by people who had revolted against their living conditions in other lands. They were rebels, in a sense, who had the courage to flee from want and persecution, and face the perils of a wilderness to seek a heller form of life. When they found a better way, they fought to keep it. Their children, grandchildren, and n did not want any monarch to change their way of life. They had plowed their own lands, built their own homes, and made their own clothes. They had hunted in the forests, fished in the streams, and slept under the stars. Who was their master? (QUEST OF A HEMISPHERE. Donzclla Cross Boyle, Western great-childre- these stirring words inspired by Peter Zenger, The right to print the truth is a necessary part of political liberty. And these by And this closing paragraph: Thus, in colonial days, did the people of the colonies stand firmly against any form of dictatorship. Thousands of immigrants came to the settlements along the Atlantic seaboard, with only a vague idea of the freedoms they were seeking, because they had not known many of them. They were pursuing a vision. Freedoms sprouted in a wilderness like flowers on a vacant lot, because each person who came had broken the pattern of life in his old country and he was starling all over again. Something new began to grow in the New World-- a mere idea. People began to ques- tion the right of government to interfere with their freedom to come and go, to buy and sell, to own or lease, to talk or listen, to vote and elect. In other words, people began to think they had the right to govern themselves. Yet, a new nation had to rise in the Western Hemisphere before this idea gained the force of law. (Ibid, p. 84.) More Quality Textbooks Needed book of American History should be in everv school and in every home to be read by young and old. We will need more works of like quality in the days ahead. And so today on Lexington Green, you will sec a sacred old monument nearing two hundred years of age that covers the remains of those patriotic Minute Men and on this monument arc inscribed these words: Sacred to liberty and the rights of mankind! ! ! The freedom and indepen- dence of America Sealed and defended with the blood of her sons. This monument is erected By the habitants of Lexington, Under the patronage, and at the expense, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, To the memory of their fellow citizens, Ensign Robert Monroe, Messres. J onas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Jr.. Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington and John Brown of Lexington, and Asliael Porter of Woburn, Who fell on this Geld, the first victims to the Sword of British tyranny and oppression, On the morning of the every memorable 19lh of April, An. Dorn. 1775. The die was cast!!! The blood of these martyrs In the cause of God and their country, Was the cement of the Union of these slates, then Colonics; and gave the spring to the spirit, firmness And resolution of their fellow citizens. Reading and promoting the book, Quest of a Hemisphere, They rose as one man, to venge their brethrens will give you, as it has me, a warm, satisfying feeling. This excellent (Continued on Hie 5) re- |