By David M. Bradford
Keynote Address at the 135th Anniversary of the Forefather’s Monument
August 3, 2024
Part 1 of 3
It is indeed a great honor for me to be here with you this afternoon. I am deeply grateful that you chose to attend this 135th Anniversary of the dedication of this Forefather’s Monument and by doing so to honor and celebrate our nation’s Pilgrim heritage. Thank you. I am also excited you are here because I want to share with you a few thoughts that are, not only near and dear to my heart, but I trust will be an encouragement to you as a lover of freedom and the American Spirit.
There seems today more than ever to be a disturbing dark cloud that has settled over the legacy of our Pilgrim forebears. Do you sense it? For more than a few years now I have noticed a growing discomfort and uneasiness when sharing the Pilgrims Story or even when just mentioning the Pilgrims in everyday conversation. As a long-standing member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, I hear more and more accounts from distressed members of being challenged and even shamed by their own family members due to what their children and grandchildren now claim is the “real truth” they have learned about their Pilgrim ancestry. One grandparent reported being stunned into silence not knowing what to say or even how to respond to accusations from their children of Pilgrim treachery, greed, theft, dishonesty, racism, white privilege, and even native genocide.
Growing up and for as long as I can remember, the Pilgrims have always been revered and held in high esteem. Everybody loved the Pilgrims. They were the American icons of a romanticized and heroic founding. A persecuted religious mix of humble, yet brave souls, that survived a brutal first Winter and yet persevered to established the first permanent English settlement in North America; all this while incredibly forging friendly relations with Native people that became immortalized in the slightly misleading moniker, “The First Thanksgiving” which nonetheless continues to this day to reaffirm the purpose for the holiday, which initiator Sarah Josepha Hale claimed was “to awaken in American hearts the love of home and country, of thankfulness to God, and peace between brethren.”
Well, for the past 4-5 years, our nation has been enduring a stress test of epic proportions. Our American institutions and values remain under relentless assault and today appear primed for a catastrophic failure. The intensity of divisiveness and political acrimony, along with the autocratic national response to Covid19, has shattered our national unity and wrought havoc upon the American people. Yet, we also know that despite this hammering, societal collapse would not happen if our foundations were firm and our anchor deeply rooted and solid. It is only when the structural supports of our nation are subjected to persistent pounding over decades do the fissures start to break wide open. There is an old saying,
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. Not through strength, but by perseverance.”
Benjamin Franklin was keenly aware of the tenuous nature of our newly established Constitution from its very beginning. In 1787 when prominent Philadelphian Elizabeth Powell asked Dr. Franklin what kind of government the framers had given us, he replied, “A republic, madam. If you can keep it!”
Today we face a threat to our republic not unlike the one faced by our nation in 1860. That threat included a divisive election that was immediately followed by a great Civil War. Today’s most casual observer cannot deny the corrosive effect years of abuse and neglect of our foundational principles have had upon our republic. This has left our nation vulnerable to significant unrest and the potential for great upheaval and radical transformation regardless of which political party prevails this November. Our Institutional Footings and Foundational Principles make us who we are as Americans and have always kept us confidently united. We would be wise to understand the secret to the success and longevity of our republic before it is too late.
The Golden Triangle of Freedom
So, “What exactly are the key foundational principles upon which our republic stands?” And more importantly, “How do we go about repairing them once damaged? And Do the Pilgrims have anything meaningful to contribute to this restoration today?”
British author and historian Os Guinness refers to America’s core foundational principles as the “Golden Triangle of Freedom.”1 The founders wrote much about these principles but never really had a name for these three interdependent elements that are uniquely linked within the DNA or structure of American culture and governance: They include Freedom, Virtue, and Faith. These elements are interdependent and indivisible; woven together like a three-strand cord. Each one is mutually dependent upon the other two for each one to work, or even exist. Like a three-legged stool, one cannot stand without the essential support of the other two. To the extent one element is undermined, attacked, or destroyed, all three are weakened equally or broken entirely.
1. He begins by noting that FREEDOM requires Virtue. Freedom cannot exist where vice and iniquity are uncontrolled. Unconstrained liberty without virtue results in anarchy, not freedom. To live free from the rule of men, requires submission and obedience to a higher authority. Freedom is not permission to do what you like, it’s the power to do what you ought.” It requires “self-discipline, self-control, and the moral discipline to do what is right.” 2
Declaring the necessary link between freedom and virtue, Alexis de Tocqueville, the great student of American Democracy wrote, “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.” Benjamin Franklin agreed, but went even further when he observed, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The American ideals of freedom, virtue, and faith are values that resonate with most Americans. Unfortunately, too many Americans living today simply do not understand the essential, interdependent nature of these elements and the necessity for each American’s unwavering allegiance and support of them. George Mason, author of the Bill of Rights, wrote, “No free government, nor the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles.”
2. VIRTUE requires Faith. Only a person who acknowledges their accountability to an authority higher than man (or some constituency) can be trusted to think and act righteously or in ways that voluntarily subjugate their self-interests to the interests of others. Virtue is an act of the will of free men and women that cannot be coerced under threat of punishment. The word “Virtue” is defined as moral excellence, goodness, or righteousness. The attributes of honesty, loyalty, integrity, justice, and patriotism can be summed up in the word, “Character.” That is, how we think and act when no one (except God) can see.
Explaining the connection between virtue and faith, founder Benjamin Rush wrote,
“Do we love our country as we love God and our family? Many today view patriotism as nationalism, which is to be avoided at all costs. Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. The amor paterae (love of country) is both a moral and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations.”
3. And finally, FAITH requires Freedom. No one will genuinely embrace a faith that is forced upon them. True convictions must be arrived at freely, without coercion, the result of authentic belief and conscience. Faith requires fidelity to the truth and the pursuit of holiness and equal justice under the law.
George Washington declared in his farewell address,
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
John Adams echoed this sentiment saying,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
1 Os Guinness, A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and American Future, InterVasrsity Press, 2018
2 Alan Keyes, IAMtv.us, “Let’s Talk America”, 2021
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