The American Soul
The American Soul
The Bible Should Be Our Primary Textbook Again
What happens when a nation forgets its spiritual foundation? In this soul-searching episode, Jesse Cope challenges listeners to examine their daily priorities and whether they truly align with their professed faith.
"Have you made time for God today? Have you made time for Jesus Christ? Have you made time for your spouse?" These aren't just rhetorical questions, but a mirror held up to our collective conscience. As Christians, we claim God is our top priority, yet our schedules often tell a different story. Cope thoughtfully explores how prayer shouldn't be a checkbox item but an ongoing conversation throughout our day—whether we're working a fence line, teaching in a classroom, or serving in the military.
The discussion on marriage strikes a particularly resonant chord. Using the powerful analogy of a bank account, Cope points out that we would naturally pay more attention to an account with $50 million than one with mere pocket change. Shouldn't we then invest more attention in our marriages with each passing year, not less? He challenges the notion that the "honeymoon period" should end, arguing instead that the same level of attentiveness should characterize the entire relationship.
Diving into historical wisdom, Cope examines why our founders deliberately established a republic rather than a democracy. With quotes from James Madison, John Adams, and Fisher Ames (who wrote the First Amendment's Establishment Clause), he demonstrates how pure democracy inevitably leads to mob rule and self-destruction. These warnings seem eerily prophetic when considering today's social unrest and political turbulence.
The episode culminates with a fascinating look at the "committees of correspondence" established before the American Revolution—networks that enabled colonies to coordinate their response to British tyranny. Cope makes a compelling case that Christians and conservatives need similar networks today to effectively stand against cultural and governmental overreach. When faithful communities work in concert rather than isolation, their impact is exponentially greater.
Share this episode with someone who needs a spiritual wake-up call, and join us in reclaiming America's soul through the timeless values that once made our nation great.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sort of appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it will draw us all a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation. The good Lord knows we need it in the nation and really all of us as individuals too. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much, very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. I am extremely grateful for your prayers and need them and want them. So thank you, father. Thank you for today. Thank you for all your many blessings that you bestow upon us. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you for the people that are listening to it. Please be with them and their families. Guide us, lord. Bless us, surround us with your angels. Protect us from evil of any kind. Help us to do your will, above all else, father. Help us to follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to get our priorities in the right order, which is your order, father. Forgive us when we don't. Forgive us when we lie and cheat and steal and lust and commit adultery and all the other sins, father, that we commit, especially the ones we go back to over and over again. Help us to produce good fruit. And again, father, please forgive us when we don't.
Speaker 1:Help us to support our pastors and our priests and their wives and children, to encourage them, to strengthen them. Come along beside them. Help us to spread the gospel of your son, jesus Christ. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Please guide our leaders. Help them to rule in fear of you, father, guide our nation here in America and the nations of those who are listening around the world back to you and your Son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray.
Speaker 1:Who taught us to pray? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who tresp. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Speaker 1:Amen, for whatever reason, folks, I feel the need to tell you again real quick If you're looking for somebody perfect to listen to or follow, I'm not that guy. I'm going to make mistakes. I'll try and fix the ones that I make, seek forgiveness when and as it's necessary, but I can point you to the only perfect person there is Jesus Christ, but I'm not that guy. I never have been and I never will be. So just putting that out there up front, all right, have you speaking of making mistakes? Have you made time for God today? Have you made time for Jesus Christ? Have you made time for your spouse? Have you made time to read the Bible, to pray? Have you made time to love your spouse in the way that makes them feel loved? Not the way that makes you feel loved, but the way that you wish they felt loved. It's just time, folks, we talk about this every day, because we're doing such a poor job of it across the nation, and particularly inside the church.
Speaker 1:We claim that God is our top priority as a Christian, but do we act like it? Is he the first thing that we make sure that we check off of our list? And really, should he be something that we check off? Or should it be something that we continuously go back to, like continuous prayer? Shouldn't God be something that is part of all of our day?
Speaker 1:If we're at work, working on a fence line, if we're a lineman for an electrical company, right. If we're in the military, out on a hike, if we're in a war zone, if we're a police officer walking a street, driving a street. If we're a teacher in a classroom you know there's a great story about Stonewall Jackson, who was a teacher, I cannot remember where. Right now, it doesn't matter Some of y'all that know history better than I you remember but he would pray for his students as they were coming into class or in between classes. Right, we have all these little moments throughout the day of where we have time to pray, but are we really thinking about God enough to do that? I don't. I can't tell you how many times I get through a huge chunk of my day. I'm like, oh yeah, god, I need to remember him, which is so humbling, because why should it be so hard to remember God of the universe, right?
Speaker 1:And then our spouse, folks, our spouse is supposed to, we're supposed to exemplify that relationship between Jesus Christ is supposed to be the most important part of our entire lives, and our marriage is supposed to exemplify the relationship between the church and Jesus Christ. Don't you think that your spouse ought to be next in line behind only God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? Don't you think that you ought to be thinking pretty constantly each day about how you can fulfill your roles and responsibilities that we talk about every once in a while on the podcast, that are so easy to see in the Bible, despite what some people say? Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 7, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19, song of Solomon.
Speaker 1:Right, and one thing there's a couple that I follow and they they put this post up a while back. It's been months now, I don't know why. It popped into my head just now, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. And one of their posts that they put on X is they said something I'm paraphrasing here, but basically the idea that there's this honeymoon period and that it should end, they said, is just false. Like your honeymoon period. That should be your marriage. It shouldn't just be like a honeymoon period. That amount of affection and attention you ought to, that ought to last throughout your marriage and it's really just an attitude. Right, it's whether we decide to make our spouse that important, because we do. You know, when you were, when you were dating, or when you were early married and your spouse wanted to go do something, you're like, yep, a hundred percent, I'm in.
Speaker 1:And it didn't matter what it was. It could have been going to eat at subway or it could have been going for a walk in the park, it could have been sex, it could have been going to the bar, even, right, it could have been, I mean going to a movie. It could have been cooking a meal together, it didn't matter. Whatever they wanted to do sounded great, and then we just stopped doing that and and we make all these excuses like, well, I just don't have time anymore. We're just so busy, folks, come on man. We're just so busy, folks, come on man. We've always been busy. We've always had the same 24 hours. It's just a matter of what we decide we want to cram in, and sadly today a lot of us want to cram in social media and TV and sports more than we want to cram in God most importantly, but our spouse second. They're not the problem, we're the problem.
Speaker 1:There was another comment that that marriage couple, the counselors made about the honeymoon period. Oh, that's what it was. This was kind of along the lines they said you know, you ought to put a lot more effort into pleasing your husband or your wife, who's now your spouse, than you did pursuing them when they were just a potential, when they were a boyfriend, girlfriend, right, and that is so true. We use that analogy here on the podcast often. The more you have a bank account, what are you going to pay more attention to? A bank account that has 50 cents in it, or a bank account that has $50 million in it. You're going to pay a lot of attention to that bank account that has $50 million in it. That's exactly how you ought to treat your spouse in your marriage. Year after year, you're putting all this effort in or you should be and that that bank account. Right the analogy your spouse that spouse is becoming more and more valuable to you each year. So you ought to be paying a heck of a lot more attention to your spouse every year that you have them, not less.
Speaker 1:All right, revelation, chapter 17. All right, revelation, chapter 17. Right? Somebody's keeping track out there making sure I'm in line. The doom of babylon doom. I like that word. I don't know why the doom? Because it reminds me of that old computer game. If any of y'all were computer nerds that long ago probably some of y'all that are younger maybe you remember the movie they made doom. I think it had the rock in it, maybe.
Speaker 1:All right, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, me saying Come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly and the angel said to me why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
Speaker 1:The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and there are seven kings. Five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not is himself also an eight and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast Victory for the Lamb. These will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings and those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful. And he said to me the waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw and the beasts, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat up her flesh and will burn her up with fire, for God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things. One our pastor went through Revelation within the last year and God bless him, literally. I couldn't even begin to try and explain all this stuff to you all. I just know it's a book of the Bible and we need to read it and we need to think about it a little bit, and hopefully that's what we're doing as we read through it and we need to think about it a little bit, and hopefully that's what we're doing as we read through it. But one of the things I remember him saying often is it really doesn't matter whether it's post-tribulation or pre-tribulation or during tribulation, or whether this happened in the past or happened in the future or it's happening now or some combination. God says it's important to read and it is, and so we ought to read it and we ought to study it, and there's a chance that it could be all of the above. It could have been something that happened in the past and it's occurring now and it's going to occur in the future. And the overall point, folks, is just that we need to cling to Christ and we need to be on the alert and we need to be ready.
Speaker 1:And the other thing here, folks, that strikes me as I read this is just the talk of immorality and harlotry, of adultery, of all the sexual sins that come with cheating on our spouse or sleeping with someone who's not your spouse and the bible talks about it so often. And it's not that there's not forgiveness, folks, because the woman caught in the very act of adultery, you know, jesus told her I don't condemn you, but he also told her go and sin no more. Don't just keep doing the same thing, right, like, fight against that, strive against that. Ask God to help you out of that situation. If you're in it, there's forgiveness, but also realize, as a warning, that there's earthly consequences when we commit these sins. There's eternal forgiveness from God, but that doesn't negate the earthly consequences. If you cheat on your spouse, there's going to be earthly consequences. That doesn't mean you can't get eternal forgiveness from God through his son, jesus Christ, but there's going to be consequences. And I think that goes back to what we were talking about, maybe, on the previous podcast. You know, if we've fallen into some of these sins whether you're talking about adultery or drugs or alcohol, or greed, lying, cheating, stealing that doesn't mean that we're somehow incapable or no longer worthy, no longer allowed to warn our children and our grandchildren. Sometimes we're the very best ones to warn them. Folks Like I've been down that road. Don't do that. It doesn't work out well, right. So okay, a couple things. Let's see if we have time. Yeah, I think we got time.
Speaker 1:I want to read some comments, but I want to talk again. Folks, I can't help mention how disturbing it is that so many people that claim to follow Christ are so blatantly against Israel, and it's hard not to just see straight through their comments. There's a lot of different ways people used to justify being anti-israel, anti-jews, and they got a lot of fancy words. You'll see dispensationalism and all this other stuff. I don't even know half the words, folks, and it doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day, it's a pretty clear attempt to just have an excuse to be anti-Israel. And the reason that you know this is there's two really.
Speaker 1:One is all the choices in the Middle East right now, all the countries in the Middle East, the only one that really supports America even remotely, much less supports a lot because Israel's. They've put lives on the line, folks, against the same enemies that we have. That's a pretty good ally. It doesn't really matter why. But if they're willing to lay down their lives to fight the same enemies that you have, that's a pretty good ally, typically if they don't have ulterior motives, but that's a whole different discussion. But every other country in that area in the Middle East is predominantly Muslim and whether you like it or not, the Muslim ideology is by default anti-Christian and therefore anti-liberty and therefore anti-American. That, just that is what it is, folks. And so to see people that claim to be Christian out there trying to morally equivocate between Israel and Iran or Israel and any other nation around them, pretty much it just that dog just won't hunt folks. It's just you can't do it. You can't look at what the Israelis have sacrificed and what they stand for and try and compare that to the nations around them and put them on the same moral playing field.
Speaker 1:And one of the best ways that I've seen recently a great little meme that somebody put out there is that you notice that none of the countries around. Well, they were talking about Iran. They didn't say none of the countries, they just said Iran. You notice that Iran doesn't have to have one of these iron dome or gold dome missile defense systems, because Israel's not trying to shoot missiles into Iran constantly, but Israel has to have that right. So you see the hypocrisy there, the differing weights and standards.
Speaker 1:The other part that makes it pretty clear that so many of these Americans who just really are trying to find an excuse for their hatred, for whatever reason, of Israel is, if we took let's just take Israel off the map, just completely get rid of Israel, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think the Muslim nations are just like you, think Iran's just suddenly going to you? You know, come over to the united states and sing kumbaya and we're all going to sit around the campfire and make s'mores together and everybody's going to be happy if israel just suddenly went away. Do you really think that the muslim nations are going to all of a sudden love amer America and there's going to be universal peace? That will not happen. And if you just talk to pretty much any boot, second lieutenant or PFC that has been overseas in the last 20 years. They will tell you if they have any experience with these people and they're honest at all. They're going to tell you that the Muslim ideology you're not going to stop. They're never going to stop. There's never going to be peaceful coexistence. The only thing that they respond to is power. The only way there's peaceful coexistence with Islam is if Islam realizes that they can't take the fight to you without being hurt. Take the fight to you without being hurt.
Speaker 1:I told my father a couple things when I came back from overseas. One of them was that Americans, they just don't understand that they're never going to stop. Islam's never going to stop, just like the left is never going to stop internally in America. Folks, socialism, communism, leftism they will never stop of their own volition. They only stop when they're forced to stop, and that's one thing that a lot of Americans that claim to be conservative simply don't get. The other thing that they didn't get that I told him is, I said, if we ever leave Iraq and Afghanistan without having significantly significant holdings as far as bases, just like we did in japan and italy, korea, germany after world war ii and after korea right, if we don't have significant bases and holdings in those countries and we just completely walk out. We're going to have to come back and the All right.
Speaker 1:I wanted to read through because I got into a little discussion on X recently with somebody talking about how great universal suffrage was. Basically, I don't think that they realize that that's what they were saying, but that's basically what they were saying. But that's basically what they were saying. And so I wanted to read a few quotes from some of our founders about democracy, because that's really what universal suffrage boils down to is mob democracy. Everybody gets a vote right, and that's not the way we were set up. And you know it's not because in Article 4, section four of the US Constitution it states that the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of government, not a democracy. We're not a democracy and our founders didn't set us up that way. And democracies do not lead to liberty. Universal suffrage, mob rule does not lead to liberty. Universal suffrage, mob rule does not lead to liberty. It just doesn't work, folks. It's not working. Just look around, we are like a football bat right now. James Madison.
Speaker 1:Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention? Have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Reign of Terror in France, so many. Reign of terror in France, so many. And you look at the intro into socialism and communism so many times in the 20th century. That mob rule that everybody gets a vote thing whether you're paying into the system or not, everybody gets the same it just doesn't work. That's where it leads.
Speaker 1:And as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths, democracies are spectacles of turbulence and contention, right? Do we not see that today? Look at the riots. Look at illegal immigration right now in California and some of our big cities and other states across the country. Look at the George Floyd riots from a few years ago. That's democracy, that's mob rule, that's chaos, turbulence, contention, right, and what They've ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property? Go back to the George Floyd riots again and look at how some of these people walked onto other people's property with no fear of repercussion. Look at the stores in California right now with the so you know the so-called fantastic illegal immigrants and how they're having to board their stores up so that the windows don't get broken? How many stores have just been vandalized and robbed because people are just walking in? That's not peace, that's not security, that's definitely not rights of property. Look at what mob democracy has brought as far as personal property. None of us own anything anymore in the United States. The government does. We just rent it. It doesn't matter if your family has owned your property for 250 years. You don't own it anymore. You're just renting it from the federal government or from the state government.
Speaker 1:John Adams, remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. Abraham Lincoln talking about the fact that as a country, a nation of freemen, the only way we were ever going to be destroyed was by suicide by ourselves. And John Adams saying here, look it wastes. Are we not wasting our nation, wasting our resources, both wood and metal, and material resources as well, as well as people? We're slaughtering our own children. Is that not waste? Of course it's waste. And then we're exhausting ourselves. I mean, we're just absolutely wearing ourselves out, right? Fisher Ames Fisher Ames we talk about often on the podcast, framer of the Bill of Rights.
Speaker 1:He's the guy that actually worded the Establishment Clause and we talk about him often because he told us that the Bible should be the primary textbook in our schools. So when somebody today that thinks that they know so much tells you that the Bible should not be in our schools, that we're supposed to have separation of God and state, they might use the phrase separation of church and state, but what they really mean is separation of God and state. They might use the phrase separation of church and state, but what they really mean is separation of God and state. When they tell you that's what our founders meant by the First Amendment, tell them that the guy that actually wrote the Establishment Clause said that the Bible should be the primary textbook in our schools. And you're going to go with that guy. He says a democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. Conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction.
Speaker 1:One of the things that's always been astounding to me when you look at history, when you're talking about socialist, communist countries, right is those people, especially the academics and the elites. They never seem to understand that they're bringing about their own destruction. They think, despite history, that this time it's going to be different and I don't know if it's ignorance or arrogance, but they feel like we can get socialism and communism in and they're going to love us because we helped bring it in. There's a lady that I follow online that grew up in China when Mao was really coming in and at his height and she talks often about just how horrible communism is and one of the things that she talks about frequently is how these people that were pro-communists I mean they were in all the way in helping bring it in ended up being the ones that were exiled and executed and punished because Mao and the powers that be became fearful of them.
Speaker 1:Look at Qi or Xi or Xi or whatever you say over in China right now purging the military. Epic Times again. I'll throw a little plug in here for them Great newspaper. If you want a newspaper, highly recommend Epic Times. It's a weekly newspaper and they talk about China frequently in there and they've been talking about these military purges for maybe the last 18 months now. But there's some really strange stuff there and some of the G or C or Z or whatever, the guy, the prime minister, premier president it's some of his closest allies and he just has freaked out and he thinks that they're dangerous.
Speaker 1:And so, man, they just disappear. They just flat disappear. And they've been party members, card carrying members, caring members, and that applies in this quote by Fisher and I a democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery material of its own destruction. Just not good, folks, not good. Our founders didn't want a democracy. They didn't set up a democracy, they wanted a republic. Universal suffrage does not work. It's not working. We're killing ourselves, all right. So I think we've got a little bit of time, maybe for at least one Medal of Honor. I think the last one we did was John A Barnes III.
Speaker 1:So Will C Barnes, indian Campaigns. Will Croft Barnes, private First Class Indian Campaign campaign signal core, us Army. 1 September 1881, arizona, usa. Bravery in action. That's it, folks. That's literally the entire citation. Accredited to Washington, district of Columbia, not awarded posthumously. Not awarded posthumously. Presented November 8, 1882, born June 21, 1858, san Francisco, san Francisco County, california. Died December 17, 1936, phoenix, arizona. Buried Arlington National Cemetery, pmh 6, tac 9754, arlington, virginia.
Speaker 1:Will Croft Barnes.
Speaker 1:William H Barnes. William Henry Barnes. Rank private highest rank sergeant conflict. Us Civil War. Charlie Company, 38th US Colored Infantry US Army Action date 29 September 1864. Place Tappans Farm, virginia, usa. Among the first to enter the Enly's Works, although wounded, 1865, born 1845, st Mary's County, maryland. Died December 24th 1866, indianola, us Army Hospital, texas. Buried San Antonio National Cemetery as an unknown MH in memory marker. San Antonio, texas, united States. That's interesting, okay. Among the first to enter the enemy's works, although wounded, william Henry Barnes.
Speaker 1:Just a couple names, folks, a couple more names to add to our list of people that we ought to remember, way, way more than so many of our professional athletes and entertainers that we've seen so fond and actors and actresses that we've seen so fond of remembering these days. Something we ought to teach our kids long before we teach them Taylor Swift lyrics or baseball stats. All right, we'll move on. So I think we're going to forego our usual Fox's Book of the Martyrs, forego our usual Fox's Book of the Martyrs. We're going to leave the young lady that we've been talking about for the last couple of days, who was at the hands of those three friars whatever you want to call them of the Inquisition, and we're going to get back into Mercy Otis Warren and the history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution, because she was about to talk about these committees of correspondence, and I think these are a huge deal, folks, because we need to be doing something similar today. We may not have our legislative bodies dissolved, but our nation and government are certainly not working the way that they were intended to right now for a number of reasons, and we need to make sure that we're staying in communication so that we can work in concert. You can't do this alone. You can't do it in a vacuum. You need to make sure that when one school or community or city or state that's conservative and Christian does something that all of them do. That's how you're going to make some actual progress, and so we're going to get back into this. She's talking about the committees of correspondence. We're going to get back into this. She's talking about the committees of correspondence.
Speaker 1:At an early period of the contest, when the public mind was agitated by unexpected events and remarkably pervaded with perplexity and anxiety, james Warren, esquire of Plymouth, first proposed this institution to a private friend on a visit at his own house, samuel Adams, esquire of Boston. Mr Warren had been an active and influential member of the General Assembly from the beginning of the Troubles in America, which commenced soon after the demise of George II. The principles and firmness of this gentleman were well known, and the uprightness of his character had sufficient weight to recommend the measure. As soon as the proposal was communicated to a number of gentlemen in boston, it was adopted with zeal and spread with the rapidity of enthusiasm from town to town and from province to province. The general impulse at this time seemed to operate by sympathy before consultation could be had. Thus it appeared afterwards that the vigilant inhabitants of Virginia had concerted a similar plan about the same period. Thus an intercourse was established by which a similarity of opinion, a connection of interest and a union of action appeared that set opposition at defiance and defeated the machinations of their enemies through all the colonies.
Speaker 1:The plan suggested was clear and methodical. It proposed that a public meeting should be called in every town, that a number of persons should be selected by a plurality of voices, that they should be men of respectable characters whose attachment to the great cause of America had been uniform, that they should be vested by a majority of suffrages with power to take cognizance of the state of commerce, of the intrigues of Toryism, of litigious ruptures that might create disturbances and everything else that might be thought to militate with the rights of the people and to promote everything that tended to general utility. The business was not tardily executed. Committees were everywhere chosen, who were directed to keep up a regular correspondence with each other and to give information of all intelligence received relative to the proceedings of administration so far as they affected the interest of the British colonies throughout America. The trust was faithfully and diligently discharged, and when afterwards all legislative authority was suspended, the courts of justice shut up and the last traits of British government annihilated in the colonies, this new institution became a kind of judicial tribunal. Its injunctions were influential beyond the hopes of its most sanguine friends, and the recommendations of the committees of correspondence had the force of law. Thus, as despotism frequently springs from anarchy, a regular democracy sometimes arises from the severe encroachments of despotism. The institution had given such a general alarm to the adherents of administration and had been replete with such important consequences through the Union that it was justly dreaded by those who opposed it and considered by them as the most important bulwark of freedom.
Speaker 1:A representation of the establishment and its effects had been transmitted to England and laid before the King in Parliament, and Mr Hutchinson had received His Majesty's disappropriation for the measure, with the hope of impeding its farther operation by announcing the frown and the censure of royalty, and for the discussion of some other important questions, the governor had thought proper to convene the Council and House of Representatives to meet in January 1773. The assembly of the preceding year had passed a number of very severe resolves. The assembly of the preceding year had passed a number of very severe resolves when the original letters mentioned above, written by Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Oliverrepresentations designed to influence the ministry and the nation and to excite jealousies in the breasts of King against his faithful subjects, the eleventh resolved in the sessions of 1772. They had proceeded to an impeachment and unanimously requested that his majesty would be pleased to remove both mr thomas hutchinson and mr andrew oliver from their public functions in the province forever journals of the house. But before they had time to complete their spirited measures, the governor had, as usual, dissolved the assembly. This was a stretch of power and a manifestation of resentment that had been so frequently exercised by both Mr Hutchinson and his predecessor that it was never unexpected and now totally disregarded.
Speaker 1:This mode of conduct was not confined to Massachusetts. This mode of conduct was not confined to Massachusetts. It was indeed the common signal of appeared to be composed of the principal gentlemen and landholders in the province. Men of education and ability, of fortune and family, of integrity and honor, jealous of the infringements of their rights and faithful guardians of a free people, their independence of mind was soon put to the test. Their independence of mind was soon put to the test on the opening of the new session. The first communication from the governor was that he had received his majesty's express disappropriation of all committees of correspondence, ventured himself to censure with much warmth this institution and every other stand that the colonies had unitedly made to ministerial and parliamentary invasions. To complete the climax of his own presumption, he, in a long and labored speech, imprudently agitated the grand question of a parliamentary right of taxation without representation. He note nine extracts from Governor Hutchinson's letters urging his designs. At the end of this chapter he endeavored to justify, both by law and precedent, every arbitrary step that had been taken for ten years past to reduce the colonies to a disgraceful subjugation. Go see if we can find note 9. Note 9. Extracts from Mr Hutchinson's letter to Mr Jackson Howell and others, lost on 27 August 1772.
Speaker 1:But before America is settled in peace. It would be necessary to go to the bottom of all the disorder which has been so long neglected. Already, the opinion that every colony has a legislature within itself, the acts and doings of which are not to be controlled by Parliament, and that no legislative power ought to be exercised over the colonies except by their respective legislatures, gains ground every day, and it has had an influence upon all the executive parts of the government. Grand juries will not present. Senate juries will not convict the highest offenders against acts of parliament. Our newspapers publicly announce this independence every week and, what is much more, there is scarce an assembly which has not done it at one time or another. The assembly of this province has done as much in the last session, by their public votes and resolves and by an address to which they have sent to Dr Franklin to be presented to the king.
Speaker 1:So there is sufficient grounds for Parliament to proceed. If there is a disposition, what it will be said can be done. There is a disposition, what it will be said can be done. A test as general as the oaths required instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy would be the most effectual. But this, there is reason to fear, would throw America into general confusion, and I doubt the expediency. But can less be done than affixing penalties and disqualifications or incapacities upon all who, by word or writing, shall deny or call in question the supreme authority of Parliament over all parts of the British dominions? Can it be made necessary for all judges to be under oath to observe all acts of Parliament in their judgments? And may not the oaths of all jurors, grand and pettit, be so framed as to include acts of parliament as the rule of law as well as law in general terms? And for assemblies or bodies of men who shall deny the authority of parliament, may not all their subsequent proceedings be declared to be ipso facto null and void and every member who shall continue to act in such assembly be subject to penalties and incapacities? I suggest these things for consideration. Everything depends on the settlement of this grand point. Everything depends on the settlement of this grand point.
Speaker 1:We owe much of our troubles to the countenance given by some in England to this doctrine of independence. If the people were convinced that the nation, with one voice, condemned the doctrine, or that Parliament, at all events, was determined to maintain its supremacy, we should soon be. Quiet was determined to maintain its supremacy, we should soon be quiet. The demagogues, who generally have no property, would continue their endeavors to inflame the minds of the people for some time. But the people in general have real estates which they would not run the hazard of forfeiting by any treasonable measures. If nothing more can be done, there must be further provisions for carrying the act of trade into execution, which I am informed administration are very sensible of and have measures in contemplation. Thus you have a few of my sudden thoughts, which I must pray you not to communicate as coming from me, lest I should be supposed here to have contributed to any future proceedings.
Speaker 1:Respecting America, I have only room to add that I am, with sincere respect and esteem, yours, et cetera. Boston 8. Oh, let's see. Oh yeah, there's a few more examples. Boston 8, december 1772. To Mr Jackson, private Dear sir, they succeed in their unworried endeavors to propagate the doctrine of independence upon Parliament, and the mischiefs of it every day increase, I believe I have repeatedly mentioned to you my opinion of the necessity of Parliament's taking some measures to prevent the spread of this doctrine as well as to guard against the mischiefs of it. It is more difficult now than it was in the last year and it will become more and more so every year. It is neglected until it is utterly impracticable. If I consulted nothing but my own ease and quiet, I would propose neglect and contempt of every affront offered to Parliament by the little American assemblies. But I should be false to the King and betray the trust he has reposed in me.
Speaker 1:You see no difference between the case of the colonies and that of Ireland. I care not how favorable a light you look upon the colonies, if it does not separate us from you. You will certainly find it more difficult to retain the colonies than you do Ireland. Ireland is near and under your constant inspection. All officers are dependent and removable at pleasure. The colonies are remote and the officers generally more disposed to please the people than the king or his representative. In the one you have always the ultimate ratio, in the other you are either destitute of it or you have no civil magistrate to direct the use of it. Indeed, to prevent a general revolt, the naval power may, for a long course of years, be sufficient, but to preserve the peace of the colonies and to continue them, beneficial to the mother country, this will be to little purpose.
Speaker 1:But I am writing to a gentleman who knows these things better than I do do. The colonies are remote, and the officers are generally more disposed to please the people than the king. Whatever our actions are, that ought to be the goal. To please the people more than the government, and, within that, folks, though. The problem is to please God more than people, to be fearful of God more than man. Boston, january 1773.
Speaker 1:John Powell Esquire, boston, january seventeen seventy three. John powell esq. My dear sir, I have not answered your very kind and confidential letter of the 6th of october. Nothing could confirm me more in my own plan of measures for the colonies than finding it to agree with your sentiments. You know, I have been begging for measures to maintain the supremacy of Parliament while it has suffered to be denied all its confusion, and the opposition to government is continually gaining strength. Boston, april 19, 1773.
Speaker 1:John Powell Esquire, dear Sir, our Patriots say that the votes of the Town of Boston, which they sent to Virginia, have produced the resolves of the Assemblies there appointing a Committee of Correspondence, and I have no doubt it is their expectation that a Committee for the same purpose will be appointed by most of the other Assemblies on the Continent. Therefore, be done by Parliament, respecting America, it now seems necessary that it should be general and not confined to particular colonies, as the same spirit prevails everywhere, though not in the like degree. Boston, 18 October 1773, john Powell, esquire, private. Dear Sir, the leaders of the party give out openly that they must have another convention of all the colonies, and the Speaker has made it known to several of the members that the agent in England recommends it as a measure necessary to be engaged in without delay and proposes, in order to bring the dispute to a crisis, that the rights of the colonies should be there, solemnly and fully asserted and declared, that there should be a firm engagement with each other, that they will never grant any aid to the crown, even in cause of war, unless the king and two houses of parliament first recognize those rights, and that the resolution should be immediately communicated to the crown and assure them that in this way they will finally obtain their end. I am not fond of conveying this sort of intelligence, but as I have the fullest evidence of the fact, I do not see how I can be faithful to my trust and neglect it. Therefore, though, I consider this as a private letter, yet I leave it to you to communicate this part of it, so far as His Majesty's service may require, and as I have nothing but that in view, I wish it may go no further. The measure appears to me, of all others, the most likely to rekindle a general flame in the colonies. These above extracts were taken from Governor Hutchinson's letterbook found after he repaired to England, deposited in a secret corner of his house in Milton. If the reader wishes a further gratification of his curiosity in regard to the subtle stratagems of Mr Hutchinson, he has referred to the whole collection as published in England.
Speaker 1:These, some of these of course, were a huge deal at this point in the endeavor and the endeavor, and I think today we would be extremely wise To have some similar Situation so that we have Communication between Schools, churches, communities, cities, towns, even states that are predominantly Christian conservative, outside of your normal chains, so that when action was required it wouldn't just be one little town over here doing it. You know, you go back to the 1947 Supreme Court decision of separation of church and state, which really was separation of God and state. We talk about that often. If all of the attorneys general from the different states had come back and said well, you can say that, supreme Court, but we know that it's not the way our founders intended and we're not going to go along with it. What a great effect that would have. Today, the schools that know that the Bible should be the primary textbook and those school boards were talking to each other and they got together and they told the state hey, we're going to put the Bible back in the center of our classroom because that's where it should be. It's a lot different dealing with 300 or 400 schools versus just one school and then when you start to add other states to that, it starts to exponentially increase. And I don't know exactly what those all look like, folks, but I do know that we need lines of communication between men of how did Miss Warren Let me see if I can find that real quick Frame it?
Speaker 1:She talked about the principles and firmness no, that's when she's talking about James Warren that a number of persons should be selected by plurality of voices, that they should be men of respectable characters whose attachment to the great cause of America had been uniform, men of respectable characters whose attachment to the great cause of America had been uniform. You need men who fear God and not man, and you need men who are? I thought she said somewhere else yeah, you're composed of principled gentlemen and landholders of the province, men of education and ability, fortune and family integrity and honor, jealous of the infringements of their rights and faithful guardians of a free people, but, again, mostly men who fear God above all else. God bless you all. God bless all else. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world. Listen, folks, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.