Alexander Scammell was an officer in the Continental Army who wrote a stirring letter to a friend in 1775 about the urgency to join the war. This excerpt from his letter implores the recipient, John Phillips, to join the cause.
“Brother Phillips
Tyranny and oppression yield their iron rod over our country; they begin to shake the very foundation of our constitution [and] the voice of our forefathers’ blood cries to us from the ground, to define the rights, the liberty, and the territory which they so dearly purchased….Every man of true honor and virtue will rather contend for the honor of first spilling his blood in so glorious a cause….”
The fundamental principles and established precedents which Alexander Scammell wrote about were the driving force for citizen fighters to stand up and lead the way for the United States we know today. As the Second Continental Congress gathered and adopted our United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, they embodied the spilled blood and sacrifice of men like Alexander Scammell. Abraham Lincoln called the Declaration of Independence a “rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression.” Today we continue to fight for the freedoms given to us by our Founding Fathers. As the party of Abraham Lincoln, Republicans fought to end slavery in the Civil War, and we continue to fight so our children will be neither oppressed nor the oppressor. So that our businesses do not fall under the tyrannical rein of corrupt governments, our families are free to worship as they choose, and our citizenry are individually free to speak and own a firearm. We are a people who
…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 are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Today as we conclude our celebration of Independence Day 2021, we celebrate those 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence, we honor those who left it all on the field so we can be a free people, we remember our history—the good and the bad, and we continue to fight to preserve Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Finally, we will always stand for the Red, White, and Blue. May God continue to bless America.
Post-Script:
Non sibi sed patriae.
Alexander Scammell was injured in the fall of 1781 near Yorktown, and died in October in Williamsburg. John Phillips was the founder of Phillips Exeter Academy, formally opened in May, 1783, which is located in Exeter, NH.