American Thinker | Lee Cary | July 4, 2008
We the people metaphorically dodged a bullet when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment is still alive. While many of us celebrated, we were also dismayed by the thin margin of freedom’s victory.
But that should not surprise us. There have been close calls in the past. And there will be others in the future, because, as once the Liberty Bell cracked soon after it was hung, so too, from time-to-time, freedom itself hangs by the thin margin of one vote.
Caesar Rodney spent the night of July 1, 1776 on horseback, riding 80 miles through a thunderstorm, rushing from Dover, Delaware to Philadelphia where the Second Continental Congress was in session. The next day the Congress planned to vote on the Lee Resolution, named after Richard Henry Lee from Virginia – great-uncle of Robert E. Lee.
On June 7, Lee had moved, and John Adams seconded, that the Colonies declare their independence from Great Britain. The resolution read:
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.
That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.
The voting was postponed for three weeks while several delegations, including Delaware’s, sought guidance from their home states.
Unanimous support for independence was not a foregone conclusion.
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