Saturday, July 4, 2009

God Bless America

Land of the free, home of the brave.

image

image

This is an e-mail that was forwarded to me. Something I have never thought about before. God bless the founding fathers.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

-Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
-Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
-Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
-Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the
Revolutionary War.
-They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor.


What kind of men were they?
-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. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The 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.


So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they
paid.
Remember: freedom is never free!
It's time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a
sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and
baseball games.

--
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.  
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.  
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
William J. H. Boetcker (1873 – 1962)

 

Very interesting huh? We never hear about all the other men who signed the Declaration of Independence and yet they were the ones who suffered the most! Happy Fourth of July everyone. God bless America!

12 comments:

Tara said...

This is fantastic Alli! I didn't know ant of this. You only hear about Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and such. Not the other men. It was fascinating to learn about them, and so sad. I cannot imagine having to fight a war in the place you live, I think it would be devastating.

About the photos on my post today, it's all free my friend. I use a picture editing program called Picasa, which is free, just Google it and then download it. It's so much fun to use. I can spend hours playing with my pictures. Anyway, Picasa has an adjustment you can make where you can change the picture to make a small portion color only. I left the flowers and her dress in color (the dress actually had blue flowers on it), then uploaded it to Photobucket, also FREE(just set up an account) and adjusted the color to pink. Photobucket also has a lot of the same features as Picasa. You should check them out, they are an enormous amount of fun. You can crop pictures, make them B/W, adjust the color, add picture frames, tons of fun things.

Have a Happy 4th of July Alli and stay safe and well!

Fleur de Bee said...

Hey Doll!

It is just AMAZING to me to think on the sacrifices of those men and how very blessed we are!! I think we often forget and overlook those important details. What a wonderful post to remind us of what we need to be grateful for!

Sorry I have not been too active in responding to your visits. I have been so very busy, but thank you so much for your sweet remarks! You always make my day and I will put you on my list to visit more often!

Happy 4th!

xoxo Molly

bj said...

Thank you so much, Allison, for posting these interesting facts. I think I learned a little of it in school but hadn't thought of it in years.
I do hope you have a safe and wonderful 4th...bet you and Taylor will shoot off some fireworks. I will have 2 little grands with me for a week...we are going to the
4th of July parade this morning. Then, home for hot dogs and all the trimmings and then...fireworks tonight.
xo bj

The Quintessential Magpie said...

This is one of my favorite emails, Allison. I'm so glad you posted it. Happy Fourth to you!

XO,

Sheila :-)

Brenda Eason said...

Very good post girl. I love me some history.
Happy 2nd and 4th hehe

Lisa said...

Well Done You!! I love these type things! I need to get together a good informative post! I'm not that organized!!

Happy Independence Day!
Hugs, Lisa

{oc cottage} said...

FABULOUS POST!!!!!! And that post is amazing!!! And I cannot tell you how encouraged I am to find such sense in someone so young!!! You go, Alli!!!

Choose Liberty!

m ^..^

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

A bit of history! EXACTLY what I wanted to read! Thanks for this post Allison!
I loved it!!
Mona

Barbara Jean said...

Allison,
That was very interesting, and i have never even thought about what those men did and heat they lost in their efforts for us and for our country.

thanks for sharing it, and for all your visits.
'
blessings,
Barbara Jean

passion4pink said...

Loved to read your post Allison!I loved the history lesson!! happy 4th July to you all!! Guess what I am making a faux cupcake today and i am going to post about it this week sometime. cheers!!
vicki

xinex said...

I love this post! I especially would love to own that historial painting!...Christine

Its So Very Cheri said...

Amen sister-I have heard that several times and it still gets me every single time.

GIVE AWAY will be posted by tomorrow morning-there's a peak preview of one of the items-go check it out and send everyone over to get their names in Monday morning.
Cheri
www.itssoverycheri.blogspot.com

Cheri
www.itssoverycheri.blogspot.com