the TOWN HALL weblog

To begin this version of Dictum/Town Hall we first take time to honor those who give their lives to preserve and to protect our liberties. A Virginian planter serving the American Congress as the Commanding General, George Washington reflected upon the danger of fighting for freedom six months before thirteen out of fourteen British colonies declared their independence, “The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in.”

Two hundred and thirty-one years ago this July fourth, our Congress unanimously signed with “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” the Declaration of Independence. We also honor those who held themselves publicly out as traitors to the King:

Connecticut: Samuel Huntinton, Roger Sherman, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
Delaware: George Read, Thomas McKean, Caesar Rodney
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samujel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca
Massachusetts: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, Matthew Thornton, William Whiple
New Jersey: Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon
New York: William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, Lewis Morris
North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, John Penn
Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Morton, George Ross, Benjamin Rush, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson
Rhode Island: William Ellery, Stephen Hopkins
South Carolina: Thomas Heyward, Thomas Lynch, Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge
Virginia: Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, George Wythe

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should defclare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…. Read More and try to see what concerns our Republic’s founders had against the King as we today complain about Washington.

Here at Town Hall we are going to thwart the trend of history where society drift toward decay and slavery. If you find all is well with the body politic then please follow Samuel Adams’ advice at the Philadelphia State House on August 1, 1776, “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you,. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”