The sacrifices of America's Founding Fathers

On this Independence Day week-end here in the US, many feminists would still have us believe that the Founding Fathers of the United States were simply "privileged oppressor white males" who decided paying taxes was too much to bear and for this reason started a hugely-destructive war all so they could live in continued comfort but without paying taxes. The truth is much different. Their reasons were laid out in the Declaration of Independence, so if anyone bothers to read it, they can find the reasons there. Now what happened to the Founding Fathers after the war started, that is another matter. Most people have no idea.

Regardless of what you may think of his son, Rush Limbaugh III (ie, the radio personality), his father, also a radio personality and public orator, wrote and spoke about what happened to the Founding Fathers after they declared war on Britain. (I am not attributing the foregoing discussion to his authorship, since I cannot say if he was the author or not; I am simply saying that according to his son, he used to deliver the foregoing as a speech.) I also want to stress to our British readers that this is not a dig at you or your wonderful nation, as the US's Founding Fathers themselves were quick to point out that their quarrel was with the King of England reigning at the time, not with the people of England. (As we all know, a nation's government, especially if that government is a single individual, and its people are usually if not always different in character and disposition. This is a problem that for millenia Mankind has been trying to resolve, all to disappointing effect.)

A discussion of what happened to the Founding Fathers is here. Excerpt:

'Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.

He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."

The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."'