Wisdom from the Founders: Key Documents and Inspiration - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

I have included in this short volume what I consider to be key documents, writings, and speeches central to both the nation’s founding and our survival as a free nation and people. They were selected for both their obvious relevance – e.g., the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution – and their historic and inspiring nature.The Mayflower Compact, while of a much narrower application (that of a single ship or company of immigrants) than the Declaration and Constitution, is of key historical significance – as the first such recorded compact of self-government in the New World. (The First Virginia Charter of 1606, had been granted by England’s King James, some fourteen years earlier, rather than being composed by the People themselves. While it was a much lengthier document, it echoed the objective of supplanting the Christian religion to the New World spelled out in the much briefer Mayflower Compact.)While I considered including both the Magna Charta and Thomas Paine’s seminal Common Sense, as well as his less-known Rights of Man (published in both France and America in 1791), all proved too lengthy for this particular volume. While most who have heard or read Paine’s classic lines from The Crisis, published December 23, 1776, (“THESE are the times that try men's souls," etc.), they, like I, may have mistakenly believed that the words were from Paine’s more widely-known classic, Common Sense (published January 9, 1776, some ten and a half months earlier). The lines were, in fact, from his less-celebrated pamphlet, The Crisis (fully named The American Crisis), and have been included herein due to their brevity, as well as their inspiring nature and general familiarity.The text of Patrick Henry’s beloved “Liberty or Death” speech (though pieced together some time later from the recollections of a number of those present), some of the classic lines of which have inspired generations of patriots, is included in its entirety, along with the immortal words from President Abraham Lincoln’s beloved Gettysburg Address. It is my hope that each of these key documents will both educate and inspire all who read them. It is my further hope and prayer that we will embrace and live by the principles enshrined in them, as well as defend them, to both current and future generations of fellow Americans – to the end that both our freedoms and our inalienable rights might be preserved.Sincerely,T. M. Ballantyne, Jr.Snowflake, AZ11 July 2017

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.