On September 17, 1787, as the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were finishing their work, Benjamin Franklin, looking towards the President's Chair and referring to the rising sun painted on it, commented that painters struggle to distinguish a rising sun and a setting sun in their work.
“I have,” said he, “often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.”
That was over 200 years ago, and we are still enjoying the great blessings of liberty they paid for with their sacrifices and suffering.
Today, many Americans are wondering, "Is it morning or evening in America? Can we overcome the challenges facing us?"
It's our turn to choose. Ordinary citizens through the years have had to decide whether to make the sacrifices necessary to preserve liberty. Now it’s our turn!
May we leave the legacy of liberty for those who will follow!
"Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.” Abigail Adams
"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence." Joseph Story
“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.” George Washington
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." Sir Winston Churchill
