© 2020 Don Pinson | [Download]
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One of America’s greatest men spoke these sobering words:
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them.
“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die. Our own country’s honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.
“Let us rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.”
(Washington, George. July 2nd, 1776, from his Headquarters in New York the General Orders were issued to his troops. Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 12 Volumes (Boston: American Stationer’s Company, 1837; NY: F. Andrew’s, 1834-1847), Vol. III, p. 449 | Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg’s Heart’N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.18.)
The great American who spoke those words was George Washington. He spoke them to his ‘ragtag’ army on July 2nd, 1776, the day when the Declaration of Independence was first approved in Congress. Looking at their natural assets, that little army didn’t have Continue reading