Special Independence Day Message
"Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages."
General George Washington
Dorchester Heights could decide the outcome of the British occupation of Boston. All winter General Washington's council of war had advised against a direct assault. Washington was anxious, as his proposals showed, to confront the British.
In the meantime, facing impossible odds, Colonel Henry Knox, just twenty five, arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on December 5, 1775. Knox retrieved 58 mortars and cannons, one cannon weighing 5,000 pounds alone. The whole lot was believed to weigh not less than 120,000 pounds. He floated the cannons down Lake George and then dragged the cannons on forty-two sleds with eighty yoke of oxen through blizzards, cruel thaws, deep snow, over iced rivers, and snow bound mountains. When they got to Springfield, Massachusetts, Knox switched to horses to quicken the pace. Not a gun had been lost. Hundreds of men had taken part. The cannons that Knox had rescued were about to change the stalemate at Boston.
On February 16, 1776, General Washington convened his council of war for the fourth time asking for a direct assault on Boston, but the answer again was no. However, there was agreement on another plan. They would draw the British out. They would occupy Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston in one night. The army went to work preparing a highly sophisticated scheme whereby fortifications would be fabricated elsewhere out of sight and brought to Dorchester Heights in one incredible night.
Miraculously, the British were entirely unaware of the plan, although hundreds even thousands understood what was unfolding. On March 2 a bombardment began to distract the British. On March 4 they moved all the fortifications to Dorchester Heights and were finished by first light the morning of March 5, the anniversary of the Boston Massacre.
All through the night on the Heights, men had toiled steadily with picks and shovels, breaking the frozen ground for earth and stone to fill the chandeliers (fortifications) and barrels. At three in the morning they were relieved by 3,000 men and an additional five regiments of riflemen took up positions near the shore. Twenty cannon were in place. Untouchable by the British, the cannons were high above Boston, threatening the whole occupied city and the British fleet.
It was an utterly phenomenal achievement. American General Heath was hardly exaggerating when he wrote, "Perhaps there never was so much work done in so short a space of time." At daybreak, the British commanders looking up at the Heights could scarcely believe their eyes. The hoped-for, all-important surprise was total. British General Howe was said to have exclaimed, "My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months."
After a miraculous storm stopped the ill-fated British plan of counter-attacking the Americans, they sent word that they would not burn the city of Boston if they were allowed to evacuate which is what happened. Adapted from David McCullough's wonderful book 1776.
Our nation was born of courage and perseverance of men like George Washington, because they willingly pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. God honored their sacrifices with miraculous victories, and after they had paid the price...liberty.
America has squandered that miraculous gift of God and our forefathers. Most of our leaders and elected officials are corrupt, but even worse they have embraced liberty destroying socialism. Unlike our founders who proclaimed "No King but King Jesus"...America's God and King is now Government.
Our nation has lost the last vestiges of sovereignty as "conservatives" gave Fast Track authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership to a totally anti-American President. We now live under Fascism, collusion between Big Government and International Corporations, designed to supersede our Constitution and the rights of all Americans.
Our Supreme Court has abandoned God's law, leading the way as Sodom and Gomorah engulfs our nation. The foundational right of Religious Liberty is now eclipsed by perversion and political correctness. Soon there will only be "marriages" in politically correct churches and persecution of believers will rage.
We live in the times Isaiah prophesied about, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" KJV Isaiah 5:20
Although our nation has rejected God, we can remain faithful and obtain God' promises. "Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me..." KJV Psalms 101:13
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." KJV John 16:33
Good cheer should be the order of the day for the faithful.
- First, we must reconcile ourselves with our God. "...be ye reconciled to God." KJV 2 Corinthians 5:20
- Second, we must do as he directs, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." KJV Matthew 22:37-39.
- Third, we must continue to be faithful in the eternal cause of Liberty, "...Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof..." KJV Leviticus 25:10
- Fourth, we must prepare ourselves and our families spiritually, financially and physically for the fulfillment of scripture, "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted..." KJV Matthew 24:7-9
- Fifth, we must endure to the end. "But he that endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." KJV Matthew 24:13
