Learn why understanding the Declaration of Independence is important especially in these tumultuous times when patriotism is at an all time low.

Discover why the Second Continental Congress decided to have a Declaration of Independence and how a committee of five of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston were chosen to draft it.

Explore why John Adams insisted that Thomas Jefferson draft it, and how the Committee and the Second Continental Congress changed Jefferson's draft.

Hear the entire Declaration of Independence, the most profound words written in the English language that were approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

Most Americans have never read the entire Declaration of Independence and have a elementary grade level understanding of it. Most remember the soaring words of the second paragraph (“We 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 the are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”), and maybe the last clause (“we mutually pledge our to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”), and have not reviewed in any detail the remainder of the 1320 words. The rest is not just taxation without representation. There were 27 grievances listed by the Founding Fathers, of which taxation without representation is but one.

In addition to the amazing, stirring words we are familiar with, and with the exceptions of John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, nearly no one knows the entire roster of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The full roster of the signers is John Adams, Samuel Adams, Josiah Bartlett, Carter Braxton, Charles Carroll of Carrolton, Samuel Chase, Abraham Clark, George Clymer, William Ellery, William Floyd, Benjamin Franklin, Elbridge Gerry, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, John Hancock, Benjamin Harrison, John Hart, Joseph Hewes, Thomas Hayward, Jr., William Hooper, Stephen Hopkins, Francis Hopkinson, Samuel Huntington, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Laws, Philip Livingston, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas McKean, Arthur Middleton, Lewis Morris, Robert Morris, John Morton, Thomas Nelson, Jr. , William Paca, Robert Treat Paine, John Penn, George Read, Caesar Rodney, George Ross, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Edward Rutledge, Roger Sherman, James Smith, Richard Stockton, Thomas Stone, George Taylor, Matthew Thorton, George Walton, William Whipple, William Williams, James Wilson, John Witherspoon, Oliver Wolcott, and George Wythe.

Listen at your leisure to the amazing Declaration of Independence. Read the entire Declaration of Independence here: https://patriotweek.org/2021/07/24/the-declaration-of-independence-september-11/

To learn more about the Declaration of Independence & Patriot Week, visit www.PatriotWeek.org. Our resources include videos, a TV series, blogs, lesson plans, and more.

Check out Judge Michael Warren’s book America's Survival Guide, How to Stop America's Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History at www.AmericasSurvivalGuide.com, amazon, or other major on-line retailers.

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Commemorate Juneteenth and reflect on its origins, history, meaning, and traditions.

Learn about the prevalence and acceptance of slavery in world history (such as in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Athens, Rome, Britain, England, and Europe) and its development in the colonies and the United States. Examine the cruel and barbaric slave trade and Middle Passage across the ocean from first hand accounts.

Explore how some Founding Fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton opposed slavery, and George Washington emancipated his slaves. Learn how Thomas Jefferson trembled for the future of the country because of slavery, and how he banned slavery in the Northwest Territory and signed the law banning the slave trade in America.

Learn how the opposition to slavery led to sharp divisions in the country, eventually exploding into the Civil War.

Review how President Abraham Lincoln shifted his original position and supported the emancipation of the slaves as a wartime measure, and implemented emancipation through the first and final Emancipation Proclamations. Learn how the final Emancipation Proclamation only freed those enslaved by the Confederate States of America.

Learn how many enslaved first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation for the first time on June 19, 1865 by virtue of Union General Gordan Granger General's Order No. 3 issued in Galveston, Texas after the Union army occupies the city, but only after the 25th Army Corps — primarily composed of African American Union troops — liberate Galveston.

Review how slavery was finally abolished through the ratification of the 13th Amendment and treaties with Native American tribes (who held slaves) such as the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw.

Explore how June 19 becomes a new celebration - called Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, and finally Juneteenth - and the celebration spread across the nation, and was finally recognized as a federal holiday in the wake of the George Floyd killing in 2021.

Listen to several Juneteenth Presidential Proclamations by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.

Focus on how commercialism is starting to creep into the Juneteenth celebrations.

Highlights include Christina Snyder’s book Slavery in Indian Country, The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America, Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), the Great Awakening, chattel slavery, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Eli Whitney & the cotton gin, Missouri Compromise, Bleeding Kansas, Lincoln Douglas debates, "A House Divided" Abraham Lincoln speech, presidential election of 1860, Declaration of Independence, abolitionists, Fort Sumter, Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic, Horace Greeley, Gideon Wells, William Seward, Antietam, Gettysburg Address, Lincoln First Inaurual Address, Lincoln Second Inaugural Address, Richard Hofstadlter's American Political Tradition, bill of lading, General Robert E. Lee, Appotomattox Court House, CSS Shenandoah, Union General Gordan Granger General Order No. 3, and much more.

To learn more about America & Patriot Week, visit www.PatriotWeek.org. Our resources include videos, a TV series, blogs, lesson plans, and more.

Check out Judge Michael Warren’s book America's Survival Guide, How to Stop America's Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History at amazon, or other major on-line retailers.

Join us!

United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8 provides:

• The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
• To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Review the origins and debate over the authority to borrow money and hold debt as set forth in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.

Understand how the Articles of Confederation provided that the debts incurred by the states and Congress would be honored, and paying down the debt was a critical reason for adopting the Constitution. However, the Founding Fathers universally believed that the Congress under the Articles was incapable of paying the debt, and this weakness was a major reason for the calling of the Constitutional Convention.

Learn how although the Constitutional Convention originally agreed that payment of the debts was mandatory and Congress would assume the debts of the States, those provisions were omitted in the Constitution. Instead, Article I, Section 8 vests the Congress with the power to borrow funds on the credit of the United States and to pay its debts.

Discover how the Constitutional Convention originally agreed to create a constitutionally created Treasurer of the United States, and then agreed to eliminate the position.

Review how Anti-Federalists attacked the debt power as destructive to American liberties.

Explore how the debt provisions were essential to secure the good credit of the country, to repay creditors who funded the American Revolution and the Congress afterwards, and to ensure the security of the country in the future. Its abuse is to be kept in check by the reality that we elect the Congress that incurs the debt — they are accountable to We, The People.

Highlights include the Constitutional Convention, Articles of Confederation, the New Jersey Plan, the Paterson Plan, the Paterson Resolutions, the Randolph Resolutions, the Randolph Resolves, the Virginia Plan, James Madison, Shays’ Rebellion, Roger Sherman, Judge John Yates, Governor Edmund Randolph, Alexander Hamilton, Gunning Bedford, Jr., Elbridge Gerry, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Ellsworth, Governor Wiliam Livingston, Roger Sherman, Dr. William Samuel Johnson, Gouverneur Morris, United States Treasurer, Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, Edward Rutledge, Virginia Constitutional Convention, Anti-Federalists, Agrippa, Brutus, John DeWitt, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, House of Representatives, United States Senate, and more.

To learn more about the Constitution & Patriot Week, visit www.PatriotWeek.org. Our resources include videos, a TV series, blogs, lesson plans, and more.

Read the entire original, unamended Constitution here: https://patriotweek.org/2021/07/27/the-original-constitution-september-17/

Check out Judge Michael Warren’s book America's Survival Guide, How to Stop America's Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History at Amazon or other major on-line retailers.

Join us!