I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album:
1. The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword
2. The Shot Heard ‘Round the World
3. Declaration Signer and Sons
4. The Glorious 56
5. When I Fight for Liberty
6. George Washington Found it Abhorrent to be King
7. All Honor to Thomas Jefferson
8. The Gettysburg Address
9. O Captain! My Captain!
10. Thinking
11. Perfect Freedom
12. 99 Percent
13. Pay the Freedom-Debt Forward
14. The Pursuit of Happiness
Extra songs:
15. Born Free
16. God Bless the USA
17. Philadelphia Freedom
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 1st song:
The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
As to be purchased
At the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
But as for me,
Give me liberty or give me death!"
"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable;
That all men are created equal & independent,
That from that equal creation
They derive rights inherent & inalienable,
Among which are the preservation of
Life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;
That to secure these ends,
Governments are instituted among men,
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed..."
"The time is now near at hand
Which must probably determine
Whether Americans
Are to be freemen or slaves;
Whether they are to have any property they can call their own;
Whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed,
And themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness
From which no human efforts will deliver them.
The fate of unborn millions will now depend,
Under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.
Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us
Only the choice of brave resistance,
Or the most abject submission.
We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."
Eternal reverence, my Heroes! Honored and adored!
The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword.
The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
As to be purchased
At the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
But as for me,
Give me liberty or give me death!"
"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable;
That all men are created equal & independent,
That from that equal creation
They derive rights inherent & inalienable,
Among which are the preservation of
Life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;
That to secure these ends,
Governments are instituted among men,
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed..."
"The time is now near at hand
Which must probably determine
Whether Americans
Are to be freemen or slaves;
Whether they are to have any property they can call their own;
Whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed,
And themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness
From which no human efforts will deliver them.
The fate of unborn millions will now depend,
Under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.
Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us
Only the choice of brave resistance,
Or the most abject submission.
We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."
Eternal reverence, my Heroes! Honored and adored!
The Voice, The Mind, and The Sword.
The Shot Heard ‘Round the World
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 2nd song:
The Shot Heard ‘Round the World
“Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year….
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
On April 19, 1775
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
The American Revolution began,
The fight for the right to bear arms.
Listen to the wisdom of George Washington:
“The very atmosphere of firearms
Anywhere and everywhere
Restrains evil interference –
They deserve a place of honor
With all that's good.”
“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined,
But they should have sufficient arms and ammunition
To maintain a status of independence from any
Who might attempt to abuse them
Which would include their own government."
Hear wise Benjamin Franklin:
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb
Voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb
Contesting the vote!"
Do you remember these words?
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...
Disarm only those who are neither inclined
Nor determined to commit crimes...
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
And better for the assailants;
They serve rather to encourage
Than to prevent homicides,
For an unarmed man may be attacked
With greater confidence than an armed man."
“A strong body makes the mind strong.
As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun.
While this gives moderate exercise to the body,
It gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind.
Games played with the ball and others of that nature,
Are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.”
These gems are from Thomas Jefferson.
On April 19, 1775
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
*
References:
Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Shot Heard ‘Round the World
“Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year….
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
On April 19, 1775
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
The American Revolution began,
The fight for the right to bear arms.
Listen to the wisdom of George Washington:
“The very atmosphere of firearms
Anywhere and everywhere
Restrains evil interference –
They deserve a place of honor
With all that's good.”
“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined,
But they should have sufficient arms and ammunition
To maintain a status of independence from any
Who might attempt to abuse them
Which would include their own government."
Hear wise Benjamin Franklin:
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb
Voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb
Contesting the vote!"
Do you remember these words?
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...
Disarm only those who are neither inclined
Nor determined to commit crimes...
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
And better for the assailants;
They serve rather to encourage
Than to prevent homicides,
For an unarmed man may be attacked
With greater confidence than an armed man."
“A strong body makes the mind strong.
As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun.
While this gives moderate exercise to the body,
It gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind.
Games played with the ball and others of that nature,
Are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.”
These gems are from Thomas Jefferson.
On April 19, 1775
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
*
References:
Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Declaration Signer and Sons
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 3rd song:
Declaration Signer and Sons
The Declaration Signer from New Jersey
Two sons in the Continental Army
Thomas and Aaron had to endure
Capture and torture, oh hellish torture!
Renounce your signature, or else, Signer
Precious sons remain in painful danger
Retract your pledge, secure sons’ return
Else: Aaron and Thomas would burn.
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
What the New Jersey father did?
He said, “No.” Courageously, he refused!
Uncommon valor, sacred honor, mighty good.
Do you know these heroes’ names?
Father and Sons in great pain
D’you remember what they fought for?
Perfect Freedom! Oh Liberty above all!
The glorious family from New Jersey
D’you honor their love of Liberty?
Continental Army Officers Thomas and Aaron!
Signer Abraham Clark owns this song.
In the early hours of July 4, 1776,
Abraham Clark wrote, "Our Congress Resolved
To Declare the United Colonies Free and Independent States....
It is gone so far that we must now be
A Free Independent State, or a Conquered Country...."
Ten days later Mr. Clark wrote,
"Our Declaration of Independence I dare say you have seen....
A few weeks will probably determine our fate -
Perfect Freedom or Absolute Slavery.
To some of us freedom or a halter.
Our fates are in the hands of an Almighty God,
To whom I can, with pleasure, confide my own…”
Signer Abraham Clark’s epitaph reads:
“He loved his Country and adhered to her cause
In the darkest hours of her struggles against oppression."
Indeed! At all cost, Abraham Clark and Sons honored the Declaration!
The glorious family from New Jersey
D’you honor their love of Liberty?
Continental Army Officers Thomas and Aaron!
Signer Abraham Clark owns this song.
Declaration Signer and Sons
The Declaration Signer from New Jersey
Two sons in the Continental Army
Thomas and Aaron had to endure
Capture and torture, oh hellish torture!
Renounce your signature, or else, Signer
Precious sons remain in painful danger
Retract your pledge, secure sons’ return
Else: Aaron and Thomas would burn.
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
What the New Jersey father did?
He said, “No.” Courageously, he refused!
Uncommon valor, sacred honor, mighty good.
Do you know these heroes’ names?
Father and Sons in great pain
D’you remember what they fought for?
Perfect Freedom! Oh Liberty above all!
The glorious family from New Jersey
D’you honor their love of Liberty?
Continental Army Officers Thomas and Aaron!
Signer Abraham Clark owns this song.
In the early hours of July 4, 1776,
Abraham Clark wrote, "Our Congress Resolved
To Declare the United Colonies Free and Independent States....
It is gone so far that we must now be
A Free Independent State, or a Conquered Country...."
Ten days later Mr. Clark wrote,
"Our Declaration of Independence I dare say you have seen....
A few weeks will probably determine our fate -
Perfect Freedom or Absolute Slavery.
To some of us freedom or a halter.
Our fates are in the hands of an Almighty God,
To whom I can, with pleasure, confide my own…”
Signer Abraham Clark’s epitaph reads:
“He loved his Country and adhered to her cause
In the darkest hours of her struggles against oppression."
Indeed! At all cost, Abraham Clark and Sons honored the Declaration!
The glorious family from New Jersey
D’you honor their love of Liberty?
Continental Army Officers Thomas and Aaron!
Signer Abraham Clark owns this song.
The Glorious 56
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 4th song:
The Glorious 56
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
Do you honor what they did?
D’you care to sing and ponder?
The Declaration of Independence, every Signer?
From Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read.
From Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, John Morton,
James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross, Benjamin Franklin, and James Wilson.
From Massachusetts: Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
And the President of the Second Continental Congress –
He attended Harvard College for a business education
And graduated at age 17: Mr. John Hancock.
From New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, and Matthew Thornton.
From Rhode Island: William Ellery attended Harvard College and graduated at age 15.
During the war, he saw his property and home looted and burned to the ground.
Stephen Hopkins, self-educated, age around 69, and with cerebral palsy,
Signed the Declaration of Independence with a shaking pen
But declared: ‘My hand trembles, but my heart does not.’
From New York: The homes, estates, and fortunes of Francis Lewis,
William Floyd, and Lewis Morris were plundered.
Philips Livingston’s great holdings were confiscated.
From Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.
From Virginia: George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton,
Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson…
Richard Henry Lee remarked on July 4, 1776:
“Let this most happy day give birth to the American Republic.
Let her arise not to devastate and conquer
But to re-establish the reign of peace and the laws….
The names of the American legislators will be placed, by posterity,
At the side of … all those whose memory has been
And will be forever dear to virtuous men and good citizens.”
Do you remember the other Virginian?
Who ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire?
Do you know the reason for the uncommon order?
General Cornwallis had his headquarters
At the home of Thomas Nelson Jr.
At the battle of Yorktown,
He ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire.
From North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper.
From South Carolina: Thomas Lynch Jr.,
1st South Carolina Regiment Company Commander,
Fell ill shortly after becoming a Declaration Signer.
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr. and Arthur Middleton
Lost their vast landholdings and estates while in prison.
As Signers of the Declaration of Independence
They were singled out for indignities and brutal treatment.
From New Jersey: Francis Hopkinson.
John Hart’s farm was raided by British and Hessian troops.
Hunted down, the elderly Mr. Hart hid in the Sourland Mountains.
Richard Stockton was brutally beaten upon capture.
He was starved and subjected to freezing cold weather.
After nearly six weeks of brutal treatment,
He was released, his health ruined.
His belongings, crops, and livestock taken or destroyed,
His library, one of the finest in the colonies, was burned.
The British nearly destroyed the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton,
Rebuilt at great personal and financial difficulty by Dr. John Witherspoon.
To an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence,
Dr. Witherspoon replied that it “was not only ripe for the measure,
But in danger of rotting for the want of it.”
Dragooned to renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence
For the release of his two sons, officers in the Continental Army,
Captured and tortured by the British:
Abraham Clark refused, honoring his country and solemn pledge:
“We mutually pledge to each other
Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
From Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott, Roger Sherman,
William Williams, and Samuel Huntington.
From Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase,
William Paca, and Thomas Stone.
Uncommon thinkers and sons of Liberty
They risked life, fortune, and family.
Do you honor what they did?
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
The Glorious 56
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
Do you honor what they did?
D’you care to sing and ponder?
The Declaration of Independence, every Signer?
From Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read.
From Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, John Morton,
James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross, Benjamin Franklin, and James Wilson.
From Massachusetts: Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
And the President of the Second Continental Congress –
He attended Harvard College for a business education
And graduated at age 17: Mr. John Hancock.
From New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, and Matthew Thornton.
From Rhode Island: William Ellery attended Harvard College and graduated at age 15.
During the war, he saw his property and home looted and burned to the ground.
Stephen Hopkins, self-educated, age around 69, and with cerebral palsy,
Signed the Declaration of Independence with a shaking pen
But declared: ‘My hand trembles, but my heart does not.’
From New York: The homes, estates, and fortunes of Francis Lewis,
William Floyd, and Lewis Morris were plundered.
Philips Livingston’s great holdings were confiscated.
From Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.
From Virginia: George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton,
Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson…
Richard Henry Lee remarked on July 4, 1776:
“Let this most happy day give birth to the American Republic.
Let her arise not to devastate and conquer
But to re-establish the reign of peace and the laws….
The names of the American legislators will be placed, by posterity,
At the side of … all those whose memory has been
And will be forever dear to virtuous men and good citizens.”
Do you remember the other Virginian?
Who ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire?
Do you know the reason for the uncommon order?
General Cornwallis had his headquarters
At the home of Thomas Nelson Jr.
At the battle of Yorktown,
He ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire.
From North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper.
From South Carolina: Thomas Lynch Jr.,
1st South Carolina Regiment Company Commander,
Fell ill shortly after becoming a Declaration Signer.
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr. and Arthur Middleton
Lost their vast landholdings and estates while in prison.
As Signers of the Declaration of Independence
They were singled out for indignities and brutal treatment.
From New Jersey: Francis Hopkinson.
John Hart’s farm was raided by British and Hessian troops.
Hunted down, the elderly Mr. Hart hid in the Sourland Mountains.
Richard Stockton was brutally beaten upon capture.
He was starved and subjected to freezing cold weather.
After nearly six weeks of brutal treatment,
He was released, his health ruined.
His belongings, crops, and livestock taken or destroyed,
His library, one of the finest in the colonies, was burned.
The British nearly destroyed the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton,
Rebuilt at great personal and financial difficulty by Dr. John Witherspoon.
To an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence,
Dr. Witherspoon replied that it “was not only ripe for the measure,
But in danger of rotting for the want of it.”
Dragooned to renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence
For the release of his two sons, officers in the Continental Army,
Captured and tortured by the British:
Abraham Clark refused, honoring his country and solemn pledge:
“We mutually pledge to each other
Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
From Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott, Roger Sherman,
William Williams, and Samuel Huntington.
From Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase,
William Paca, and Thomas Stone.
Uncommon thinkers and sons of Liberty
They risked life, fortune, and family.
Do you honor what they did?
Do you remember the Glorious 56?
George Washington Found it Abhorrent to be King
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 6th song:
George Washington Found it Abhorrent to be King
George Washington led the brave Continental Army
Through eight years of war, privations aplenty.
He inspired a ragtag army, a fragile nation
Amid the threats of failure and disintegration.
At the war's end in 1783, he took affront
When asked to be king, to wear a crown.
George Washington replied, “Abhorrent!” Power-lust is for little fiends.
A moral man does not rule, nor can he be ruled by men.
Rejecting power, George Washington resigned his commission.
On Mount Vernon, the General retired to his plantation.
An incredulous King George III remarked, greatly awed,
“If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The Electoral College elected General George Washington
Unanimously in 1789, and again in the 1792 election.
The only president to get 100% of electoral votes, he refused a third term
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Thomas Jefferson honored George Washington:
“The moderation and virtue of a single character
Probably prevented this Revolution from being closed,
As most others have been, by a subversion
Of that liberty it was intended to establish.”
"His mind was great and powerful...
His integrity was most pure,
His justice the most inflexible I have ever known…
He was, indeed, in every sense of the words,
A wise, a good, and a great man....
The best horseman of his age,
And the most graceful figure
That could be seen on horseback....
On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect…
Never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great,
And to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies
Have merited from man an everlasting remembrance...."
“I served with General Washington
In the legislature of Virginia, before the revolution,
And, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress.
I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time,
Nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question.
They laid their shoulders to the great points,
Knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves.”
On the one hundred and tenth anniversary
Of the birthday of George Washington,
The man who found it abhorrent to be king,
Was reverently exalted by Abraham Lincoln.
“Washington is the mightiest name on Earth —
Long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty;
Still mightiest in moral reformation.
On that name a eulogy is expected.
It cannot be.
To add brightness to the sun
Or glory to the name of Washington
Is alike impossible. Let none attempt it.
In solemn awe pronounce the name
And in its naked, deathless splendor
Leave it shining on."
George Washington Found it Abhorrent to be King
George Washington led the brave Continental Army
Through eight years of war, privations aplenty.
He inspired a ragtag army, a fragile nation
Amid the threats of failure and disintegration.
At the war's end in 1783, he took affront
When asked to be king, to wear a crown.
George Washington replied, “Abhorrent!” Power-lust is for little fiends.
A moral man does not rule, nor can he be ruled by men.
Rejecting power, George Washington resigned his commission.
On Mount Vernon, the General retired to his plantation.
An incredulous King George III remarked, greatly awed,
“If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The Electoral College elected General George Washington
Unanimously in 1789, and again in the 1792 election.
The only president to get 100% of electoral votes, he refused a third term
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Thomas Jefferson honored George Washington:
“The moderation and virtue of a single character
Probably prevented this Revolution from being closed,
As most others have been, by a subversion
Of that liberty it was intended to establish.”
"His mind was great and powerful...
His integrity was most pure,
His justice the most inflexible I have ever known…
He was, indeed, in every sense of the words,
A wise, a good, and a great man....
The best horseman of his age,
And the most graceful figure
That could be seen on horseback....
On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect…
Never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great,
And to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies
Have merited from man an everlasting remembrance...."
“I served with General Washington
In the legislature of Virginia, before the revolution,
And, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress.
I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time,
Nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question.
They laid their shoulders to the great points,
Knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves.”
On the one hundred and tenth anniversary
Of the birthday of George Washington,
The man who found it abhorrent to be king,
Was reverently exalted by Abraham Lincoln.
“Washington is the mightiest name on Earth —
Long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty;
Still mightiest in moral reformation.
On that name a eulogy is expected.
It cannot be.
To add brightness to the sun
Or glory to the name of Washington
Is alike impossible. Let none attempt it.
In solemn awe pronounce the name
And in its naked, deathless splendor
Leave it shining on."
All Honor to Thomas Jefferson
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 7th song:
All Honor to Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln extolled:
"The principles of Jefferson
Are the definitions and axioms of free society…
All honor to Jefferson - to the man,
Who in the concrete pressure of a struggle
For national independence by a single people,
Had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity
To introduce into a merely revolutionary document
An abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times,
And so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days
It shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block
To the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring
From the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
Ayn Rand said, “Definitions are the guardians of rationality,
The first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration…”
Axioms are perceptual self-evidencies.
They are the starting points of cognition, on which all proofs depend.
Axiomatic concepts are the foundation of objectivity.
Ayn Rand’s most admired Founder is Thomas Jefferson.
She worshipped, "If it is ever proper for men to kneel,
We should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence…
Probably the greatest document in human history,
Both philosophically and literarily."
The author of the Declaration of Independence,
The Father of religious freedom,
The advocate of the Bill of Rights,
The President who abolished the slave trade –
Slavery was obtruded on the Colonies by King George III.
Jefferson inherited slaves - it was against the law to free them.
When it was permitted for the self-supporting,
Freed slaves must leave the State within a year.
In 1769: Chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature,
Thomas Jefferson made one effort in the House of Burgesses
For the permission of the emancipation of slaves,
But was rejected.
In 1770: As a lawyer, Thomas Jefferson defended a slave,
Saying: under the law of nature, “we are all born free.”
In 1776: He strongly condemned slavery
In his draft of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1778: The legislature passed a bill he proposed
To ban further importation of slaves into Virginia.
In 1784: His draft of what became the Northwest Ordinance
Stipulated that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude"
In any of the new states admitted to the Union from the Northwest Territory.
In 1806: President Jefferson requested Congress
To ban all slave importation to the US.
In 1807: President Jefferson signed a bill
Abolishing the slave trade –
On March 3, 1807, as President of the USA,
Thomas Jefferson signed a bill
Making slave importation
Illegal in the United States.
Jefferson successfully abolished primogeniture in Virginia,
The rule by which the first born son inherited all the land.
His December 20, 1787 letter to James Madison
Contains objections to key parts of the new Federal Constitution.
Primarily, Jefferson noted the absence of a bill of rights…
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will
Within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.
I do not add 'within the limits of the law'
Because law is often but the tyrant's will,
And always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"A wise and frugal Government,
Which shall restrain men from injuring one another,
Shall leave them otherwise free to regulate
Their own pursuits of industry and improvement,
And shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
This is the sum of good government."
"The first principle of association –
The guarantee to every one
Of a free exercise of his industry
And the fruits acquired by it."
While abolishing ALL excise taxes
Including the whiskey tax
In the first year of his first presidency,
While engaging in the Barbary War
Within two months of his first presidency,
And then spending $15 million
In the Louisiana Purchase
To double the then size of the USA,
Jefferson reduced the national debt
From $83 million to $57 million.
Thomas Jefferson said every word in the Constitution
Is subsidiary only to the execution
Of the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence:
First: Equal Inherent Inalienable Rights,
Second: The only proper function of law and of government
Is "to secure these rights."
Abraham Lincoln extolled:
"The principles of Jefferson
Are the definitions and axioms of free society…
All honor to Jefferson…”
All Honor to Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln extolled:
"The principles of Jefferson
Are the definitions and axioms of free society…
All honor to Jefferson - to the man,
Who in the concrete pressure of a struggle
For national independence by a single people,
Had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity
To introduce into a merely revolutionary document
An abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times,
And so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days
It shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block
To the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring
From the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
Ayn Rand said, “Definitions are the guardians of rationality,
The first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration…”
Axioms are perceptual self-evidencies.
They are the starting points of cognition, on which all proofs depend.
Axiomatic concepts are the foundation of objectivity.
Ayn Rand’s most admired Founder is Thomas Jefferson.
She worshipped, "If it is ever proper for men to kneel,
We should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence…
Probably the greatest document in human history,
Both philosophically and literarily."
The author of the Declaration of Independence,
The Father of religious freedom,
The advocate of the Bill of Rights,
The President who abolished the slave trade –
Slavery was obtruded on the Colonies by King George III.
Jefferson inherited slaves - it was against the law to free them.
When it was permitted for the self-supporting,
Freed slaves must leave the State within a year.
In 1769: Chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature,
Thomas Jefferson made one effort in the House of Burgesses
For the permission of the emancipation of slaves,
But was rejected.
In 1770: As a lawyer, Thomas Jefferson defended a slave,
Saying: under the law of nature, “we are all born free.”
In 1776: He strongly condemned slavery
In his draft of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1778: The legislature passed a bill he proposed
To ban further importation of slaves into Virginia.
In 1784: His draft of what became the Northwest Ordinance
Stipulated that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude"
In any of the new states admitted to the Union from the Northwest Territory.
In 1806: President Jefferson requested Congress
To ban all slave importation to the US.
In 1807: President Jefferson signed a bill
Abolishing the slave trade –
On March 3, 1807, as President of the USA,
Thomas Jefferson signed a bill
Making slave importation
Illegal in the United States.
Jefferson successfully abolished primogeniture in Virginia,
The rule by which the first born son inherited all the land.
His December 20, 1787 letter to James Madison
Contains objections to key parts of the new Federal Constitution.
Primarily, Jefferson noted the absence of a bill of rights…
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will
Within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.
I do not add 'within the limits of the law'
Because law is often but the tyrant's will,
And always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"A wise and frugal Government,
Which shall restrain men from injuring one another,
Shall leave them otherwise free to regulate
Their own pursuits of industry and improvement,
And shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
This is the sum of good government."
"The first principle of association –
The guarantee to every one
Of a free exercise of his industry
And the fruits acquired by it."
While abolishing ALL excise taxes
Including the whiskey tax
In the first year of his first presidency,
While engaging in the Barbary War
Within two months of his first presidency,
And then spending $15 million
In the Louisiana Purchase
To double the then size of the USA,
Jefferson reduced the national debt
From $83 million to $57 million.
Thomas Jefferson said every word in the Constitution
Is subsidiary only to the execution
Of the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence:
First: Equal Inherent Inalienable Rights,
Second: The only proper function of law and of government
Is "to secure these rights."
Abraham Lincoln extolled:
"The principles of Jefferson
Are the definitions and axioms of free society…
All honor to Jefferson…”
The Gettysburg Address
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 8th song:
The Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent,
A new nation, conceived in Liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation, or any nation
So conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
As a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate –
We can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
To the unfinished work which they who fought here
Have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us –
That from these honored dead we take increased devotion
To that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion –
That we here highly resolve
That these dead shall not have died in vain –
That this nation, under God,
Shall have a new birth of freedom –
And that government
Of the people, By the people,
For the people,
Shall not perish from the Earth.”
The Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent,
A new nation, conceived in Liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation, or any nation
So conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
As a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate –
We can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
To the unfinished work which they who fought here
Have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us –
That from these honored dead we take increased devotion
To that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion –
That we here highly resolve
That these dead shall not have died in vain –
That this nation, under God,
Shall have a new birth of freedom –
And that government
Of the people, By the people,
For the people,
Shall not perish from the Earth.”
O Captain! My Captain!
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 9th song:
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-- By Walt Whitman in 1865, concerning the death of President Abraham Lincoln
Click here for a version on YouTube.
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-- By Walt Whitman in 1865, concerning the death of President Abraham Lincoln
Click here for a version on YouTube.
Pay the Freedom-Debt Forward
I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 13th song:
Pay the Freedom-Debt Forward
To the principle of Individual Rights
We owe our joy, wealth, Life
Secure the Declaration by moral might
Honor freedom: pay the debt forward.
Fight! That the Founders live on
Think! That innocents will breathe reason
Extol precious Liberty! By right: cheer
To freedom lovers: Happiness is dear.
Benjamin Franklin, polymathic politician and inventor
Described his social invention in 1784:
"I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you.
When you… meet with another honest Man in similar Distress,
You must pay me by lending this Sum to him;
Enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation,
When he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity.
I hope it may thus go thro' many hands,
Before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress.
This is a trick of mine
For doing a deal of good with a little money."
Ben Franklin prayed for the spread of Liberty:
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country....
God grant that not only the love of liberty
But a thorough knowledge of the rights of man
May pervade all the nations of the earth,
So that a philosopher may set his foot
Anywhere on its surface and say:
This is my country."
"The liberties of our Country,
The freedom of our civil constitution
Are worth defending at all hazards,”
Said Boston Tea Party organizer Samuel Adams.
“We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance
From our worthy Ancestors:
They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger
And expense of treasure and blood;
And transmitted them to us with care and diligence.
It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation…
If we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle;
Or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men….
Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity;
And resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, …
If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it,
And… millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
Thomas Jefferson said: “Honor, justice, and humanity,
Forbid us to tamely surrender that freedom
Which we received from our gallant ancestors,
And which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.
We cannot endure the infamy and guilt
Of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness
Which inevitably awaits them
If we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”
The American Revolutionaries lit the Freedom Torch
Swear to keep Liberty aflame, they sought
Pay the Freedom-debt forward, Dear Americans
Go Liberty! Through many hands and lands!
Pay the Freedom-Debt Forward
To the principle of Individual Rights
We owe our joy, wealth, Life
Secure the Declaration by moral might
Honor freedom: pay the debt forward.
Fight! That the Founders live on
Think! That innocents will breathe reason
Extol precious Liberty! By right: cheer
To freedom lovers: Happiness is dear.
Benjamin Franklin, polymathic politician and inventor
Described his social invention in 1784:
"I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you.
When you… meet with another honest Man in similar Distress,
You must pay me by lending this Sum to him;
Enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation,
When he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity.
I hope it may thus go thro' many hands,
Before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress.
This is a trick of mine
For doing a deal of good with a little money."
Ben Franklin prayed for the spread of Liberty:
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country....
God grant that not only the love of liberty
But a thorough knowledge of the rights of man
May pervade all the nations of the earth,
So that a philosopher may set his foot
Anywhere on its surface and say:
This is my country."
"The liberties of our Country,
The freedom of our civil constitution
Are worth defending at all hazards,”
Said Boston Tea Party organizer Samuel Adams.
“We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance
From our worthy Ancestors:
They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger
And expense of treasure and blood;
And transmitted them to us with care and diligence.
It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation…
If we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle;
Or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men….
Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity;
And resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, …
If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it,
And… millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
Thomas Jefferson said: “Honor, justice, and humanity,
Forbid us to tamely surrender that freedom
Which we received from our gallant ancestors,
And which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.
We cannot endure the infamy and guilt
Of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness
Which inevitably awaits them
If we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”
The American Revolutionaries lit the Freedom Torch
Swear to keep Liberty aflame, they sought
Pay the Freedom-debt forward, Dear Americans
Go Liberty! Through many hands and lands!
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