Hang Together or Hang Seperately

By Tim Gibbons: Published in the High Plains View, July 4, 2008.

What was the purpose of our American Revolution? For what did our Founding Father risk life and property to gain? Monetary value causes men to do many things, but rarely to fight so long and nobly. Religious zeal is good for genocides and suicide bombers, but little else. So what was the Revolution’s purpose?
“But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.” - John Adams
“Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.” –Thomas Paine
Our Founding Father’s were not motivated by religious zeal, though many were devout men. Nor were they compelled to war for monetary gain. But rather, believed so firmly in the right of man to choose his own destiny that no price, be it their life or all they owned, was too high.
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” –Benjamin Franklin
Not only did the founders of our nation come from a variety of different backgrounds, including, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, merchants and educators, they came from a diverse religious background as well.
Many of the founding fathers were Freemasons and/or Episcopalian/Anglican. Other faiths included, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Deists, Quaker, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, Huguenot, Unitarian, Methodist and Calvinist.
Yet, despite these differences in faith and opinion, they united in pursuit of a common goal: Liberty.
“Such were the men unto whose keeping, as instruments of Providence, the destinies of America were for the time intrusted; and it has been well remarked, that men, other than such as these,--an ignorant, untaught mass, like those who have formed the physical elements of other revolutionary movements, without sufficient intellect to guide and control them--could not have conceived, planned, and carried into execution, such a mighty movement, one so fraught with tangible marks of political wisdom, as the American Revolution...” - B. J. Lossing, Signers of the Declaration of Independence
This Liberty was not blind freedom, allowing a man to do whatever he pleased, but rather placed the responsibly of government into the hand’s of the people. The average citizen was now required to see to the provisions of his nation, and while he did elect individuals to represent him in government, those elected were answerable to the Constitution and the people it protected.
The separation of church and state was not meant to keep religion under thumb, but rather, to give every individual the right to choose their own path.
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish [Muslim], appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.” – Thomas Paine
In the end, the Liberty of man was deemed more important than the promotion of a particular sect of faith. Unity was desired above the interpretations of God.
As Benjamin Franklin once said during the Revolutionary War, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Only through unity of the people can America remain free and independent. And this unity must come at the cost of supremacy. No Union can survive unless all men stand equal in the eyes of the Creator and in the eyes of each other.