Our Revolutionary Constitution

 

How the world’s oldest functioning governing document was built to last.

The British constitutional system from which the American colonists separated in 1776 was not what Americans today understand as a written constitutional system. It was “unwritten”: There was no superintending written constitution that limited the power and controlled the acts of the legislature. In 18th-century Britain, Parliament was supreme. Whatever Parliament enacted with royal assent was the supreme law, which Parliament could always undo. “[T]he legislature, being in truth the sovereign power, is…of absolute authority,” William Blackstone wrote in his influential 18th-century Commentaries on the Laws of England. “[I]t acknowledges no superior upon earth.” “The power and jurisdiction of parliament…is so transcendent and absolute,” he reiterated, that Parliament “hath sovereign and uncontrollable authority in the making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of” all the laws of the realm.

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Virginia’s Resolution on Independence

 #OTD 250 years ago, Continental Congress convened that Friday morning June 7, 1776 in the Pennsylvania State House. Delegates waded through reports about the compensation due a ship owner whose sloop was impressed into military service and about defective gunpowder produced by a local mill.

Then, with neither thunderclap nor fanfare, Richard Henry Lee stood and introduced Virginia’s resolution on independence, declaring the colonies “free and independent states … absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.” Over the next month Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee and their allies in Congress would work to persuade the undecided and unwilling that the most consequential act of political self-determination the Atlantic world had yet witnessed was, in truth, the only choice that now made sense. It was no longer a question of whether the colonies would be free, but only whether that generation would have the steel to claim and defend independence. They did.

Congress adopted Lee’s resolution for independence on July 2, 1776, and after Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris settled the question by force and diplomacy, now came the difficult work of achieving for all the new world of unalienable rights our founders envisioned.

#OnThisDay #ThisDayInHistory #StratfordHall #StratfordResearch #VirginiaResolved #History #AmericanHistory #VA250 #America250 #AmericanRevolution #AmericaMadeInVirginia

THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM

 

Let us celebrate America250!

THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM (words and music composed by Daniel Abbott/Songer)

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]

In the dawn of a new land, where dreams take flight,

A leader arose, guided by heavenly light.

George Washington stood, with courage so bold,

Against the mightiest army, a story unfolds.

With faith in the heavens, he charted the course,

Through valleys of struggle, he drew on divine force.

His vision was clear, for a nation of gain,

To free every soul from the shackles of pain.

[Chorus]

Oh, the light of freedom, shining bright,

A beacon of hope in the dark of the night,

With God's hand guiding us, we rise and we stand,

A nation united, free in this land.

[Verse 2]

Through battles and hardships, he weathered the storm,

With valor that kindled, a spirit reborn.

From the fields of Virginia to the shores of New York,

His courage ignited, a country's proud lark.

With every small victory, the heart of a land,

Where opportunity flourished, united we stand.

From the prayers of the faithful to the cry of the free,

A legacy born, an unwavering decree.

[Chorus]

Oh, the light of freedom, shining bright,

A beacon of hope in the dark of the night,

With God's hand guiding us, we rise and we stand,

A nation united, free in this land.

[Bridge]

With wisdom and strength, he forged a new path,

Leading with honor, unyielding in wrath.

A nation emerging from shadow and strife,

With faith as our armor, and courage as life.

We sing of his triumph, of the battles he won,

For every lost dream, a new day begun.

From the mountains and valleys, let freedom resound,

With God on our side, true peace will be found.

[Chorus]

Oh, the light of freedom, shining bright,

A beacon of hope in the dark of the night,

With God's hand guiding us, we rise and we stand,

A nation united, free in this land.

[Outro]

So let us remember, with hearts full of pride,

The faith of our leader, our nation’s great guide.

In the tapestry woven, with threads of the brave,

May we hold high the light for all the world to save.

Oh, the spirit of freedom, let it never fade,

For in this land of opportunity, our dreams are made.

Benjamin Franklin’s Join, or Die

 

Benjamin Franklin’s Join, or Die began as a call for colonial unity long before independence was declared. It reminds us that America was built not by perfect agreement, but by the courage to unite around liberty when it mattered most.

The Tree of Liberty

 

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” — Thomas Jefferson

James Madison- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

 

"An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others."

James Madison- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

Milton Friedman's greatest regret, payroll withholding tax

 

Milton Friedman's greatest regret.

The federal government discovered the perfect crime in 1943: make employers collect taxes before workers ever see their paychecks. You think you earn $60,000 per year, but you actually earn $75,000 and hand over $15,000 to politicians without ever touching it. The psychological difference is enormous.

Before payroll withholding, Americans wrote quarterly checks directly to the Treasury. Picture yourself sitting at your kitchen table, writing a $3,750 check to the IRS every three months. The pain was immediate and visceral. Politicians faced constant pressure to justify every dollar because citizens felt the extraction in real time.

Withholding transforms this concrete loss into an abstract accounting entry. Your employer becomes an unpaid tax collector, and you never experience the actual cost of government. Worse, most people celebrate their tax refunds as government generosity rather than recognizing them as interest-free loans they provided to politicians. The Treasury collects your money throughout the year, spends it immediately, then returns your own cash and receives gratitude.

This system enables the explosion in government spending you witness today. Defense contractors billing $640 for toilet seats, agricultural subsidies for corn syrup, and congressional salaries for 535 people who rarely show up to work. When taxation feels painless, voters stop demanding accountability for how their money gets spent.

Milton Friedman helped design withholding as a wartime emergency measure and later called it his greatest regret. Free market economists recognized that the psychological pain of direct taxation creates political pressure for fiscal restraint. The temporary always becomes permanent in government hands, and the emergency justification disappears while the extraction mechanism remains forever.