We are a conservative minded group of individuals gathered together to promote conservative thinking, limited Government, adherence to the Constitution of the United States of America, and fiscal responsibility of our elected officials. We promote capitalism and decry socialism.
Lee Jessup sent this and we hope you enjoy reading it:
Today is the anniversary of the
birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to
whom we owe our freedom, Washington's
greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is
also the hardest to comprehend.
Take, for example, Washington's
contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington's mere presence lent the
undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that resulted in success. The
convention's first order of business was the election of a presiding officer. Washington was the
delegates' unanimous choice.
Presiding over the convention
during that fateful summer, Washington
said virtually nothing. In his wonderful
book on Washington, Richard Brookhiser notes: "The esteem in which Washington was held affected his fellow delegates first
of all...Washington
did not wield the power he possessed by speaking. Apart from his lecture on
secrecy, Washington
did not address the Convention between the first day and the last."
The esteem in which he was held
by his fellow citizens was similarly crucial to the implementation of the
Constitution during his presidency. In 1790 Rhode Island became the thirteenth state to
ratify the Constitution. To mark the occasion, President Washington made a
ceremonial visit to Newport
when Congress recessed in August. Newport
welcomed Washington
with open arms. In Newport on August 18, according
to James Thomas Flexner, Washington "completely fatigued the
company" by briskly walking, fortified by the wine and punch served in
four different houses along his route, from nine in the morning until one in
the afternoon.
In anticipation of Washington's visit to Newport,
the members of America's
oldest Jewish congregation prepared a letter welcoming Washington for presentation to him at a
public event on the morning of August 18. The letter was authorized by the
congregation's board and signed by its president, Moses Seixas. It is Washington's
magnificent letter responding to Seixas's that is known as a testament to
religious freedom and that has become famous as one of the classic statements
of religious toleration in America.
The congregation's letter to Washington is not so
well known. Ironically, however, the most famous line in Washington's
letter is an echo of the congregation's letter to Washington. By far the most striking feature
of the congregation's letter is its eloquent expression of sheer gratitude to
Washington himself and to America
for the freedom and equal rights the congregants have attained as American
citizens. Here is the congregation's letter:
Permit the children of the
stock of Abraham to approach you with the most cordial affection and esteem for
your person and merits ~~ and to join with our fellow citizens in welcoming you
to NewPort.With pleasure we reflect on
those days ~~ those days of difficulty, and danger, when the God of Israel, who
delivered David from the peril of the sword, ~~ shielded Your head in the day
of battle: ~~ and we rejoice to think, that the same Spirit, who rested in the
Bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel enabling him to preside over the Provinces
of the Babylonish Empire, rests and ever will rest, upon you, enabling you to
discharge the arduous duties of Chief Magistrate in these States.Deprived as we heretofore
have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense
of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events behold a Government,
erected by the Majesty of the People ~~ a Government, which to bigotry gives no
sanction, to persecution no assistance ~~ but generously affording to all
Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: ~~ deeming every one, of
whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental
Machine: ~~ This so ample and extensive Federal Union whose basis is
Philanthropy, Mutual confidence and Public Virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to
be the work of the Great God, who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and among the
Inhabitants of the Earth, doing whatever seemeth him good.For all these Blessings of
civil and religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal benign
administration, we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of Days, the
great preserver of Men ~~beseeching him, that the Angel who conducted our
forefathers through the wilderness into the promised Land, may graciously
conduct you through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life: ~~
And, when, like Joshua full of days and full of honour, you are gathered to
your Fathers, may you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to partake of the
water of life, and the tree of immortality.Done and Signed by order of
the Hebrew Congregation in NewPort,
Rhode Island August 17th 1790.Moses Seixas, Warden
Today, as we contend with the
contemporary equivalent of "the Babylonish empire," let us send up
our thanks to the Ancient of Days for this indispensable man. (First posted
February 2006.)
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free" - President Ronald Reagan.
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. You don't multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn't first take from somebody else. Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don't have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. - Adrian Rogers1931 - 2005
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato (Greekphilosopher 437 BC - 347 BC)
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We are a conservative minded group of individuals gathered together to promote conservative thinking, limited Government, adherence to the Constitution of the United States of America, and fiscal responsibility of our elected officials. We promote capitalism and decry socialism.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free" - President Ronald Reagan.