"Where Are Today's Patriots Who Are Willing To Sacrifice Everything?"

by Chuck Ness

In the times we live, I am often reminded of the men who gave all, so that I can enjoy the freedom I do. I guess that is why I get so angry when I see what the current rulers of this country have in store for me, you, and our descendants. Men, greater than I could ever hope to be, offered everything they had in this world, because they wanted freedom for their descendants, us. Freedom that Obama and his socialist friends desire to take away from us all. Well, I have only one question to ask, "Where Are Today's Patriots Who Are Willing To Sacrifice Everything"?

What follows is a what many only read around July 4, but today is a good time to read it again. It is about the sacrifice 56 men offered so that we could be free. As you read what happened to them, consider how afraid we are to even talk about what we must do.

Of the fifty six patriots who signed and pledged their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor, nine of the fifty six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. Five men were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died, two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured, while another twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

What kind of men were these patriots?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. Thomas Nelson quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. His own home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

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Each one of us may be able to tell stories our families have handed down from generation to generation. Fathers, grandfathers, great grandfather, uncles, mothers, and grandmothers who sacrificed everything for a generation of people they would never meet. A generation of people who would one day spit upon their sacrifice, and give back to the king that which they sacrificed all for. God help us, because we don't seem to want to help ourselves like our ancestors did time and time again.

These patriots gave you and me a free and independent America. However, something that the history books never tell you, is that these men were not just fighting against the British Crown and King George. These men "WERE BRITISH SUBJECTS", fighting and willing to die rather than accept what the "ONE" of their day wanted done. Today, many of us have taken our freedom and liberties for granted while traitors like Obama, Kennedy, Ried, Pelosi, and others are prepared to take away the last vestige of freedom we will ever know.