11/27/2025
That harvest feast was nothing more than a celebration of survival. The Pilgrim separatists who landed in Plymouth weren't the first Europeans who tried to settle in the New World, but their resilience received Divine Providence unlike any who had come prior. Still considered northern Virginia, they landed outside of their granted charter. To keep order, the men instituted The New World's first framework of self-government. Their covenant, The Mayflower Compact, acknowledged that God would be their compass in self-governance.
The survival of Plymouth led to more colonists and with those colonists came the Levitical structure of English Common Law. The core principles were presumption of innocence, due process of law, a trial by jury and blind justice. The New World concept of self-government, the availability of private property and inalienable rights of the burgeoning Enlightenment integrated with English Common Law established the vanguard of what would become Western Culture.
The colonies flourished as they created and multiplied prosperity in a manner not afforded on the eastern shores of the Atlantic. The colonists would become settlers; the settlers would become pioneers. The pioneers personified Manifest Destiny. God had ordained and blessed the American Enterprise from one end of the continent to the other. In less than three centuries, the seeds the colonists planted would grow into the most exceptional experiment in all of human history. Their progeny, the American Republic, would have no rivals, no enemies and no heirs.
Over 400 Novembers later, we are the rare breed. We celebrate not just distance from want but the unyielding planning and effort of our forefathers - the Founders of the nation and Framers of the Republic, the builders and defenders, the risk takers and dreamers - who created, grew, preserved and maintained, with God's Divine Providence, the United States of America.
So much was achieved in so little time because the genius of enterprise was unleashed and the effort of endeavor would be rewarded unlike anywhere else. The people who came did so to be American; they yearned to be great, to rise above and to have opportunity that would be boundless. It was expected that they would adopt American customs, embrace the language and culture, respect the Constitution and appreciate American history. The fastest way to succeed in America was to become an American. A nation that would give up it's identity would create su***de.
We are the children of the chosen few. Our ancestors built unsinkable ships captained by unshakeable fortitude, charted the stars and the conquered oceans. Not all who set out made it, we are the blessings of the individuals who did make it. The early Americans created a foothold in a vast wilderness, engineered a brand-new civilization, and won independence, twice. We recognized individual rights. We abolished slavery. We created the middle class. We were the first in flight. We tamed the Heavens. We won – WE WON!
We won because we embraced the discipline it took to self-govern and wove it with biblical law, proud of our heritage and building our legacy we sought God's Guiding Hand. He, through them, intended to give us a Shining City on a Hill; none of it should ever be surrendered.
