Throughout history, individuals have been forced to live for the benefit of others, whether the king, the clan, or the community. On July 4, 1776, America’s Founding Fathers rejected this premise, taking an unprecedented step in human history and declaring to the world “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Declaration culminated what John Adams would later call the “real American Revolution.” To Adams, “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people” in the fifteen years prior to the start of the War of Independence. During that period, the nation witnessed a “radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people.” From loyal subjects of the British King, the American people turned into revolutionary intellectuals, willing to fight the most powerful military on earth.
The “real American Revolution” was fundamentally a revolution of ideas; completing the work of the Founders must be equally so. Just as the Founders fought for the principle of individual rights, so must we. But we must carry their battle one step further. We must defend the rights of each individual to his own life, his own liberty, and the pursuit of his own happiness, not just politically, but also morally.
For the Founders to throw off the chains of a tyrannical king was an act of utmost courage. It required the conviction that their cause was just. It required an intransigent devotion to the principles for which they fought. They did not take their actions lightly, pledging to one another “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, and the other Founding Fathers knew that if they were captured, they would be hanged as traitors. During the war, many Founding Fathers lost their lives, their fortunes, or both. But none lost their sacred honor. They fought for the most noble cause the world has ever witnessed—the inviolate rights of the individual.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” as Thomas Paine wrote in the bleak winter of 1776. “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
The task of completing the work of the Founders will try our souls. The Founding Fathers identified the ideas necessary to create this great nation. It is now our turn to fight the battle of ideas. We, who love America, can restore America to its glory and its greatness.
The battle to save capitalism and America can be won. To do so, we must, as occurred in the years prior to the War of Independence, change the “minds and hearts of the people.” Those who love America must do more than protest the latest government “stimulus,” bailout, or “entitlement” program. We must protest against the ideas that make such policies possible. More importantly, we must spread the right ideas, not variations of the same worn out ideas that have led us to where we are today. America will not be saved by debating over the beneficiaries of government largesse. Capitalism and America will only be saved by defending the idea that government regulations and controls violate individual rights and are never moral, no matter the cause. America will only be saved by defending the idea that each individual has a moral right to his own life, his own liberty, his own property, and the pursuit of his own happiness.