July Fourth

Visiting the Ivory Coast, the capital Abidjan, my guide and I were walking on the beach early on a beautiful morning. A young personable, handsome black man came up to us and wanted to make our acquaintance because he recognized us being tourists. As is so often the case, they want to exercise their language. He spoke very good English and was very excited that a blind man would be visiting his country, particularly a blind man who knew something of history and could talk with him about American history. He made a statement which I have been trying to answer and perhaps I will be able to answer before my demise. He said, “In President George Washington's farewell address, in the last sentence he said, 'America will cease to be great if America ceases to lose its religion and morality.'” He said, “From the American movies I see, from the American publications I read, it seems to me that America has lost most of its religion, which is the basis of its morality.”

The celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was used as a day of celebration almost from the beginning with cannon firings in 1777 and even a double serving of rum by General Washington to his troops. President Washington, served this nation for 45 years as a general and as its first president. He was without dispute, the wealthiest man in America and probably the wealthiest president ever. Most presidents have been men of great character and tremendous wealth. Even though the third president, Thomas Jefferson, used the famous “Jefferson Bible” which he had cut out many things with which he did not agree, he still said, “I tremble about the thought of God's judgment.” Andrew Jackson, our seventh president said, “The Bible is the rock on which America rests.” It is significant that 39 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Seminary graduates. President Truman was probably the last president of character and very much unlike the others; poor before the presidency and poor after the presidency. It is reported that he borrowed money to move back to Missouri from Washington and then had to sell his farm at Grand View, Missouri in order to live until the congress under Lindon Johnson finally gave a $25,000 a year retirement to ex-presidents. Until then, the next president received no compensation at all and no secret service. President Truman and his wife made a trip to the east for a speaking engagement in Philadelphia and he drove his car and they stayed at a hotel in New York without charge. I have said this, to point out, that there was a time when Americans, even presidents served this nation for the patriotic duty and love of country and service. When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America from France in 1831 and traveled until 1835 returning to France to write his book Democracy in America he had many good things to say about this young, democratic republic. One thing we should never forget, he said, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president and perhaps in most respects our greatest president, once said, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” A recent commentator said, “We have been a blessed nation but God will hold us accountable for accepting the perversions of homosexuality, pornography and abortion.” We can be sure that God will judge this nation and the nation will suffer as a whole because eternal judgment rests only with an individual.

On this July fourth, as every July fourth, we honor the estimated 5 million Americans who have died defending this county. 126,000 American lie buried on foreign soil. I was at the 25th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion where 9,700 are buried and I have stood in that great military cemetery where nearly 18,000 are buried. You do not realize the sacrifice until you see those cemeteries or Arlington where 256,000 are buried, including many of my relatives.

My mother never stopped talking about my grandfather's brother. Just a small time country boy reared in the same house in which my mother was born and raised, who rose in the officer's rank and served with President Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War. He died soon after his return home. Though the Army spent little on officer's funerals at that time, he was brought to the country church which my parents, grandparents, and great grandparent's had all attended, and my mother talked incessantly about the number of horses and buggies up and down the roads, the crowds, the guns firing to honor this one young man whose body was then put on a train and taken to Arlington. God, family, country was important to our ancestors.

The world's largest mass migration to the north American shores from the religious tierney and excessive taxation of Europe was a God send to our Founding Forefathers who only wanted opportunity. They had risked everything in the revolution promise by freedom. One of my forebearers, Dr. Daniel Wiles of Northamptonshire, England, who arrived on the Good Ship Heist in 1677 and his first wife Elizabeth were the parents of my great, great, grandfather who later migrated to eastern North Carolina. Until my parents died, they talked of two things which battered and thrilled their lives more than anything else. One, Hurricane Hazel which hit the coast in 1954 while I was away in the military and the other, the annual fourth of July picnic which centered at the three-room school which both of my parents attended. This was the largest social occasion of the year for these country folks. One of my uncles, would take a wagon and team of mules to a nearby town and buy large blocks of ice which was used at the picnic for iced tea, milkshakes and even homemade ice cream. This was the only time in the entire year that these people had ice. There was a large athletic field behind the school, and there were ball games all day. The women of the community, under the great shade trees prepared large picnics as well as keeping up with all the family activities of the year. Often, the men were entertained by county and state politicians who would come making speeches and seeking votes. The fourth of July picnic in this isolated country community was a time when even practices of segregation were forgotten. Various denominations and even those of different skin color would all come together for this celebration of patriotism. I can still remember, as a child, the divider down the middle of the church when the women would sit on one side, the men on the other and, each church, had a balcony in which the blacks would sit. Other than the fourth of July picnic, the only time all sat together was at a funeral. Perhaps from this we can learn much about church state relationships and how people can come together in times of sorrow as well as times of celebration.