Steven Rabb - The Founders Speech to a Nation in Crisis: What the Founders Would Say to America Today

THE FOUNDERS SPEECH

TO A NATION IN CRISIS

STEVEN RABB

ISBN - EBOOK

978-1-7358164-1-8

Copyright 2020 Steven Rabb

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may notbe reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permissionof the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed by Liberty For All Publishers in the United States

First printing, 2020.

Version 1.2

Liberty For All Publishers

Atlanta, Georgia

For all the men and women who have fought to defend
our nation and rescue liberty from tyranny.

For my sons,

Kevin and Connor

And for the preservation of liberty for all.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Without the love and support of my beautiful and loving wife,Shannon, this passion project would never have been completed. Without theencouragement of my amazing sons, Kevin and Connor, it would never havestarted.

Special thanks to my editor, Jessica Mohr, who went above andbeyond to bring this book together.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The initial inspiration for this book stemmed from a robustpolitical debate between me and my two adult sons. Wanting to make my case fromthe Founders' perspective, I dashed to my bookshelf to peruse books on theFounding, soon returning with a stack, each with a piece of the answer. Wespent hours that night, as we often do, discussing the affairs of the day andhow the Founders would speak to those issues.

Following that conversation, and for my own edification, Idetermined it would be easier to reference the Founders ideas if I could pullthem from a single source. Having the most relevant words of the Founders inone place would both equip me for the next political discussion with my sons,and inform my public speaking on the topic.

A few months later I gave a presentation on the founding idealsin the words of the Founding Fathers at the Western Conservative Summit inColorado. Following the positive response, it dawned on me that thepresentation of the Founders words in the form of a speech needed to be abook. I needed to write a relatable and relevant book to a modern audience thatcould also serve as a single resource for the Founders thoughts and theprinciples in their own words.

From my home office in Woodstock, Georgia, I set out to collectand collate the most relevant texts from the Founders speeches, essays,letters, and the Federalist Papers, weaving them into a tapestry of aspeech that builds and develops as a narrative. I knew it would take time, butI did not expect to be pulled into a two-year immersion of their texts and, evenmore surprisingly, into the words of those who inspired them, as well as manythey inspired in the generations that followed. But to tell the full story ofAmerica, and of the enlightenment of which they were a part, and through whichtheir promise of equality was eventually kept, I needed to include them all. Ineeded to hear and wanted to make accessible the relevance of all of theirwords to our issues today, as if the Founders had together visited modern-dayAmerica, and reconvened to compose a single speech that would recall America toits founding principles.

As I crafted The Founders' Speech to a Nation in Crisis,I imagined the readers as an audience, standing in the back of a town hallmeeting, or sitting in a church pew listening intently as the Founders speechwas delivered. I pictured "Scribe," as I eventually called him, atthe front of the church, narrating the Founders words with passion, as thoughspeaking them for the first time.

To help the reader follow the speech, I have enumerated anditalicized the author of each text in a superscript citation for immediateattribution. Several texts have been mildly curated to support the narrative,for pronoun consistency, and for modern usage standards.

While this book illustrates how the Founding Fathers agreed onthe core principles of liberty, it also digs into the disagreements of theConstitutional Convention, as well as the threats of tyranny that soonchallenged our fledgling nation in the ensuing years, and continue to challengeour nation to this day. And thus my purpose for this book is to bring to lifethe ethos and principles of America's founding while reminding us of who we areas Americans as a nation of citizens with a common history, as a people witha faith-rooted belief in virtue, and as patriots with a shared commitment toliberty. My hope is that Americans may once again revere the miracle of ournations founding, that we might once again unite around our shared Americancreed, E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.

1 GEORGE WASHINGTON The citizens of America, abounding withall the necessaries and conveniences of life, are now acknowledged to bepossessed of absolute freedom and independence. They are from this period to beconsidered as the actors on a most conspicuous theater which seems to bepeculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness andfelicity. Here they are not only surrounded with everything which cancontribute to the completion of private and domestic enjoyment, but Heaven hascrowned all its other blessings by giving a fairer opportunity for politicalhappiness than any other nation has ever been favored with.

The foundation of our empire was not laid in the gloomy age ofignorance and superstition, but at an epoch when the rights of mankind werebetter understood and more clearly defined than at any former period. The freecultivation of letters, the unbounded extension of commerce, the progressiverefinement of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and above all, thepure and benign light of Revelation, have had ameliorating influence on mankindand increased the blessings of society. At this auspicious period, the UnitedStates came into existence as a nation, and if their citizens should not becompletely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.

Such is our situation, and such are our prospects; butnotwithstanding the cup of blessing is thus reached out to us, notwithstandinghappiness is ours, if we have a disposition to seize the occasion and make itour own. Yet it appears to me there is an option still left to the UnitedStates of America, that it is in their choice, and depends upon their conductwhether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserableas a nation. This is the time of their political probation. This is the momentwhen the eyes of the whole world are turned upon them. This is the moment toestablish or ruin their national character forever. For it is yet to bedecided, whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing ora curse a blessing or a curse not to the present age alone, for with our fatewill the destiny of unborn millions be involved.

2 JAMES MADISON It has ever been the pride and boast ofAmerica, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of humannature. By the blessings of the Author of these rights on the means exerted fortheir defense, they have prevailed against all opposition, and formed the basisof our independent states.

In this view the citizens of the United States are responsiblefor the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If justice, goodfaith, honor, gratitude, and all the other qualities which enable the characterof a nation and fulfill the ends of government be the fruits of our establishments,the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and luster which it has never yetenjoyed, and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorableinfluence on the rights of mankind. If on the other side, our governmentsshould be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal andessential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will bedishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rightsof human nature will be turned against them, and their patrons and friendsexposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation. 3 GEORGEWASHINGTON And regrettedwould it be were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road whichProvidence has pointed us to so plainly. Indeed, I cannot believe it will evercome to pass.