Captain Levi Preston, a minuteman who fought at the Battle of Concord, demonstrated the power of sentiment to spur one to action. Many decades after the battle, historian Mellen Chamberlain asked him,.
This week marks the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Two hundred and forty-seven years ago, farmers, tradesmen, laborers, and mariners Americans of all stripes–came together to defend themselves against the most professional army in the world.
Thomas Jefferson was renowned for stressing that authority ultimately rested with the people and not the government. Self-government often seems more like a theoretical concept today, or even a partisan issue. Ultimately, so much of what we see in politics today is a belief that Americans are no longer capable of governing themselves. They need more rules, and regulations to cope, and “free stuff” to occupy their time or even thrive in a modern world. The American Founders wouldn’t have ever thought that way. Self-government was embodied and actualized in the people at that time.
There is a great example from our history that demonstrates that meaning. Os Guinness mentions the story in his masterful book, “A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future.” Seventy years after the American Revolution a Dartmouth student set out to record the testimony of soldiers who fought in the conflict. One of those men, Captain Levi Pr