Posted by
Jim Hunt on Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:00:00 AM
Patriots’ Day, April 19, is a state holiday in Maine and Massachusetts to commemorate the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”. Why did those Minutemen take up arms that early spring morning in 1775? Was it to free Boston from those “infernal redcoats”? No. Had any occupied city ever had better treatment than Boston? Had a single newspaper been stopped? Had a single opposition leader been hung or even arrested? No.
It is true soldiers were quartered in Boston and the city was occupied and slowly being crushed by the closing of the port. But food was getting in. John Hancock, John and Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Paul Revere and many others all traveled freely to and from the city. Great public meetings were held to protest the occupation and delegates were sent to the 1st Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. The British did not interfere with any of these things. Virtually all of the taxes that had caused so much trouble had been repealed even prior to the Boston Tea Party some 15 months earlier. So why on that early morning of April 19, 1775 did a war break out, a war that lasted six years (and another two before England accepted the end result)?
The answer, as is often the case, is both simple and complex. The proximate cause was the reason the British were marching to Lexington and Concord: to seize the stockpiles of arms and ammunition that the colonists had stored in Concord. The British planned to remove the ability of the citizens to stand up against the King’s Army. But why were the colonists ready to fight? Were they fighting to create a new nation? Were they fighting to cut their taxes? No. I believe that the great author Esther Forbes put it best. She wrote that they were fighting “so that a man can stand up.” Throughout history up until that point, individuals had few rights but those permitted to them by their rulers. Whether it was the peasants of France, the serfs of Russia, or the colonists in America; the concepts of human rights that we know today did not then exist. But here in America we had spawned a new breed, more independent, more self-sufficient, proud and arrogant and ready to stand on our own two feet. All we asked was to be given the full rights of Englishmen. But King George and parliament had other ideas.
The Declaration of Independence made a bold claim. It set forth that our rights come not from any King or government but from God. It further said that these rights are inalienable, meaning that they cannot be taken away or even given up. They are our absolute rights, and this fact is so obvious that it needs no explanation. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these Rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” These men did not consider this to be a subject for debate; these truths are “self-evident.” The Declaration and, 11 years later, the Constitution were written entirely based upon these truths. That one sentence, 36 simple words, defines precisely what my Great Great Great Great Grandfather, Captain Isaac Davis, died for that April morning. That is why 233 years later I am writing this blog. We need to remember these words every day. We need to stand up for what they mean and make every day Patriots’ Day.
God Bless America