By ROBERT W. PECK

On this Independence Day, I believe there are two very important lessons we need to learn, or re-learn, from our nation’s founders. First, the Founding Fathers were not mere rebels who simply wanted to be free to ‘do their own thing.’ They believed in law and government as being necessary to restrain the evil influences working in mankind and as necessary for the protection of our God given rights. They tried long and hard to work out their differences with King George. They only declared independence from the crown when it became evident through “a long train of abuses and usurpation” that it was the design of the king to “reduce them under absolute Despotism” (to quote the founders from their own declaration). They didn’t want to be ‘free from government,’ they wanted to be free to have good government that would protect their lives, their liberty and their property while guarding the moral fabric of society with righteous and just laws.

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