The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. In war, there is no substitute for victory. Let us never negotiate out of fear. We stand undivided, forever united, fighting hand in hand for the liberty we've earned, for glory and honor. For our sons and daughters, ever mindful of the lessons we've learned, let the torch of freedom burn.

Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Politics. This is Wall Builders Live with David Barton and Rick Green. Thank you so much for joining us today. You can also visit us online at wallbuilders.com and wallbuilderslive.com. Today is the second in a four-part series on Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. This is actually a 12-hour series on the Constitution where David and I walk you through the Constitution. We do half the program at the Wall Builders Library where we pull those documents off the shelf and take you to the original intent of the Constitution. Then the other half is in the room it's at Independence Hall where the Constitution was framed and the Declaration was signed. So it's a great program.

We had a blast doing it and we wanted to share a piece of that with you. So we're doing segment one this week. We're sharing it with you here on the radio. It's going to take four days of our radio program to do that and today's part two. So if you missed yesterday, go to wallbuilderslive.com and you can look in the archive section and get yesterday's program and if for some reason, you're going to miss the next couple of days, you can do the same there at the website and also you can share it with your friends and family. Give them a chance to get educated on the true foundations of America. Let's pick up where we left off yesterday with Constitution Alive, with David Barton and Rick Green, if you love your country.

David Barton

You're saying I want what's best for all my neighbors and I'm going to work my tail off to have a good country, because I want my neighbors to be prosperous and safe. I don't want thugs and criminals overrunning them. I want to make sure we've got good government. I want to make sure they can keep the money they earn. I want to make sure they've got a good education and if I love my country, I'm going to fight for those things, not just thinking of yourself, not just thinking about the other people.

If it. I want to, I'll go right off the grid. No, if I love others, I've got to fight for my country. I've got to be willing to stand and say and that's what he says not just for the present but for future generations I want to keep these principles alive so that, if the Lord tarries, for 200 years from now, this country is still working, still the most prosperous, the most stable, the most free in the history of the world. But that's what patriotism is and that's why he says it's both a social and a religious duty. We owe it to God to love other people. We're to love one another. Well, if you love them, you want the best for them, which means you want the best government you can possibly have. And that's what they understood.

Rick Green

And you want to have laws that are also protecting that for the next generation. You don't want to spend so that you're stealing for the next generation. You want to preserve the principles that have made it possible for us to be free, which is why we're doing this. We want our generation to respect the next generation.

David Barton

There's one other thing he said that I think is worth pointing out, and this will kind of set us up on what we're doing, because we've got those six verbs from John Jay we're going to follow. But also, why should Americans be involved in government? Why should we care? Why shouldn't we go off the grid? And he answered that right here in this book. This is the book that caused him to be called the father of public schools under the Constitution, because, again, he signed the declaration, ratified the Constitution.

Now we've got 13 nations that have come together as one nation. They weren't states, they were colonies, they were nations. And he says okay, now that we're a unified nation, the United States of America, what do we got to teach in our schools to make sure that we stay a unified nation? Because we've been thinking about ourselves all along. So what do we need to know now to be a nation? And so in this particular book he has a piece called On the Mode of Education, proper and Republic, and this is the first time anyone says, hey now that we have the Republic of America- the United States of America what mode of education must we have? Ane and its interesting, he says the purpose of public schools primarily is a threefold objective. He says, first, public schools should teach students to love and serve God.

Rick Green

He said second public schools should teach Already. We're off of what we're doing today. I mean, we've missed.

David Barton

Well, the very next year he wrote a piece in here. This is March the 10th, 1791. He did this and this piece gives a dozen reasons we'll never take the Bible out of public schools in America. So I mean, that was their mentality and that's why we don't talk about it. Yeah, no wonder he's not a founder. That's taught have is. This is our number one purpose of public school is to teach young people to love and serve God, he said. Number two purpose of public school is to teach young people to love and serve their country. Number three purpose is to teach young people to love and serve their family.

Rick Green

So wait, public schools are supposed to be teaching love God, love your country and love your family. That's a lot of wisdom. I don't see it being done today.

David Barton

But look at the results we're getting out of public education. We don't get our money's worth on anything today. So that's the objective. That's what it was until the 1960s, when an activist Supreme Court said we ain't doing this anymore. We've evolved past that. Well, it's not working out so good for us.

But nonetheless we stopped looking back at the history library and we said we're smarter than those guys.

We're skipping spring training. Let's see how the baseball team does. And that's what it is Baseball team not going to do. Well, if you didn't have spring training. So what we've got?

And every person of faith I know today, if I ask them to prioritize God, family and country, they will say God first, family, second, country third. Benjamin Rush said God first, country, second family. Now why did he get it wrong? He didn't get it wrong. He says if you ever lose control of your country, it will become the great enemy of your family. And so if you really want to protect your family it's like patriotism You've got to get involved with your country. Make sure you've got good leaders, good policies, make sure they follow the Constitution, because then your family is going to be prosperous. But right now it's the government that's one of the chief enemies of the family, and it's because we don't know our documents and we haven't learned what public schools used to teach love and serve God, love and serve your country, love and serve your family. And that was the objectives we had, and that's where Benjamin Rush has got such wisdom.

Rick Green

He's so right man. There's so much of that wisdom in this room and in these books. We've got to come back to it Now. Our next part of this chapter I have to thank you for because we were actually sitting in a restaurant. I don't know if you remember this. We were in Nashville, tennessee. We'd gone out there for you to speak to some legislators, and you and Cheryl and I were sitting in this restaurant. It's that one where they have live music. Do you remember that?

Yeah, I do, I do remember that and I was telling you hey, we've been teaching this Constitution. You said why don't you do it at Independence Hall, where the Constitution is framed? Oh, it's a dream, there's no way that would happen. You said, no, I've done it. So you talked me into calling them. I called them, it worked out and we're going to now be able to go to the very place where all of this happened the actual room, independence Hall and give folks a chance to learn and study the Constitution in the room where it happened. So let's Bye.

Break.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. These united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free at independent stakes.

In order to make our union stronger, that they are endowed by their creator withienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Rick Green

Welcome to Constitution Alive right here in Independence Hall, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We are in the room where both the Constitution and the Declaration were adopted. This is exciting for me. I hope it's exciting for you. We're very honored to be able to be in this room. I'm actually standing in the, in the very spot where American giants like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others actually had the courage to light the torch of freedom. This is the room, these walls actually witnessed the great debates of Benjamin Franklin and Madison and Mason and Hamilton and other patriots that hashed out those details to our American Constitution. So to actually be in this room where it happened is very, very exciting for me. Those documents led to and paved the way for the greatest, most free, most amazing nation in the history of the world and this is where it all began, right here. In fact, that chair behind me that you can see, that's where George Washington sat as he presided over that constitutional convention. So just being in this room, I'm in a little bit of a sense of awe. I hope you are as well, and those at home that are joining us from their webinar I kind of.

I guess I had a reminder last night of how special it is to be in this room. We came by to check out all our equipment, make sure everything was going to work well tonight, and two rangers here were nice enough to get us in and show us what we needed to do. And in visiting with them, I found it quite amazing that even after several years of working here, they still had that awe every time they came in the room. In fact, one of them, a nice lady, told me she'd been working here three years. First, two years she did not allow herself to come across that rail into this room where I'm standing now. A young man that's been here a year still has not allowed himself to come into this area. Now, I didn't say they weren't allowed. They're park rangers. They could have come over here any time, but because of a sense of awe, a sense of respect for this place and what happened in this room, they've not done so. And that was a good reminder to me of just how special this is and how blessed we are to get to be in this room tonight. Speaking of those rangers, they're the ones that actually not only preserve this place and protect this majestic and historic room, but they make it available for people from all over the world to come into this room and actually see where the seeds of liberty were sown, where they were planted, and I think it's a great testament for America to still be that beacon of hope around the world. So I'm really, really appreciative of those rangers that make that possible for us. There's a few of them outside this room that can hear you, and I would appreciate it if you would thank them for what they do every day to keep us alive. Maybe some of them will watch the DVDs later and they'll know that we were thanking them for what they did. I just think it's neat to keep history alive and give people a chance to witness it and participate in it.

I don't think I can get across to you how excited I am about this. I kind of feel like and I use sports analogies a lot, so forgive me for that but I feel like that kid that has finally met their hero and they're about to get the autograph of their favorite ballplayer ever, because being in this room is as close as I'm ever going to get to actually shaking the hands of the Founding Fathers. So this is, if I'm a little bit giddy, you'll just have to forgive me. Tonight I'm more excited than I thought I would be. I knew I'd be excited, but I'm just kind of in awe of what we're about to do. So I can't help but think, as I'm coming in here tonight and I know it wasn't a true story and I know it's a bunch of fiction in there, but I was kind of thinking about National Treasure. Remember that movie? You know, nicolas Cage is running into Independence Hall. He finds those secret spectacles of Benjamin Franklin and they're able to see the secret and decode the message on the back of the Declaration of Independence. And I know we're not going to find any secret spectacles of Benjamin Franklin, we're not going to see any secret messages on the back of the Declaration. But I can promise you tonight what we will find on the front side of the Declaration and the Constitution, in those words that were made available for the whole world to see. We're going to find, we're going to rediscover the secret sauce of American exceptionalism. We're going to find that formula, rediscover and reestablish that formula that made America so successful. So thank you for joining me tonight and being part of it.

Those men that gathered in this room on those two occasions and put those documents in place. It wasn't enough just to write those words. The words of the Declaration would just be words on paper in some attic somewhere collecting dust, if it hadn't been for the men that sat in this room and were willing to stand for the things that they were saying, willing to bring the words to life by literally putting their lives on the line, and as overwhelmed as I am to be in this room tonight and in the day that we live in, I can only imagine what it would have been like to be in here in this room whenever they signed the Declaration of Independence, when they were willing to put their lives behind the words that they were saying. I know we always read in history it was July 4th. Of course, the only guys to sign those few days between the 1st and the 4th was actually Secretary Thompson and John Hancock, the president of Congress.

The rest of the guys came back in here on August 2nd. There was three or four other guys that didn't sign until later, but most all of them came in here on August 2nd. You can imagine that's a little bit different date. I mean, that's a little bit different occasion. It's one thing to vote and say hey, hancock, why don't you put your name on that document and send it over to King George. It put your name on the line, knowing that King George is coming after you after you put your name there. And they did that. They gathered here, and I love the letter that Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams. These guys corresponded a lot after the Revolution.

Break

And Rush described in this letter what it was like to be in this room that day when they signed the Declaration of Independence. And Rush reminded Adams. He said you know, when we came in we believed many believed that it would be our death warrant. He said no one said a word as they were called forward. He said it was totally silent. And Secretary Thompson, from the front of the room, started on his ride over here with New Hampshire and he said Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire. And Bartlett got up, he came forward, he took the pen, he dipped it in the ink and he signed in total silence the Declaration of Independence. He went back and he sat down and one by one they came. John Hart of New Jersey, you can just imagine as they came forward and took the pen out of that silver inkwell and dipped it in the ink and you could hear that pen scratching along the surface of the Declaration. Well, no one said anything. One by one they came and finally Elbridge Gerry got up to come forward and the silence was broken.

Now, Elbridge Gerry was not a well-known founding father. We don't talk much about him today at all. He went on to be vice president later. But the only thing you need to know about him for this particular story is that Elbridge Gerry was the smallest of the founders. I mean, he was a little guy. He was not the towering, seven-foot Thor-like figure that stands before you here speaking tonight. He was what are you laughing at? Okay? So, all right, I'm a little guy. Okay, I'm 5'8" with my boots on. All right, this guy was even smaller than me and he gets called forward to sign the declaration. And then this guy, Benjamin Harrison, colonel, Benjamin Harrison, from over here, from Virginia, big guy, I mean, he was the largest of the founders. He hollers out at Jerry, just as Jerry's about to sign Now, this is the most important political moment in the history of the world. I mean this is a serious occasion. And the big guy from the back of the room says to the little man up front he says I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr Jerry, when we're hung for what we're now doing. By the size and great weight of my body, well, I'll be dead in a minute or two, but by the lightness of yours you're going. That.

Franklin said who sat here. He said, you know, we better all hang together or else we'll surely hang separately. So I mean, they knew what they were doing when they signed the document. And I'll tell you those two things because I think it's important for us to know that those guys that were in here, they knew what they were doing. They knew this was going to be a death warrant. They knew that by putting their name on the dotted line, they would have to give it all. And I love the fact that when they came up and took that pen and dipped it in the ink when they signed, it was right beneath that final sentence.

It says in support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Those were true patriots. They were sinners, they were fallen, they made terrible mistakes, just like all of us, but they were patriots because they didn't just get excited. You know, sign the petition, go home, forget about it. These guys stood by their signature, every single one of them. They did not back down. Not one of them failed to follow through on the commitment that they had made. In fact, when you think about the sacrifice that they made, all 56 of them giving of their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in one way or another, some of them literally giving their lives, many of them giving their entire fortunes. Some of them lost their wives, lost their sons. They sacrificed a lot for us, for us to be free, so that generations later we could be free.

I think sometimes we forget that our freedom's not free. We forget that there have been those that came before us that paid the ultimate price for us to be able to enjoy these blessings of liberty we talk so much about. And it didn't stop in this room when these guys lit that torch of freedom. There were others that had to come alongside, that had to rally to the cause. In fact, I love what happened a few months later, after Washington had begun to finally get his ragtag bunch together and begin to be able to do some things, and he had freed Boston.

And now, a few months after the signing of the Declaration in September of 1776, he's actually in New York City, and in New York you've got a situation where the British have attacked at Staten Island, they defeated us at Long Island and they pushed Washington back to Manhattan, and now Washington's kind of dug in there. He's trying to figure out what to do next. He needs to know where the British are going to move next. He needs to know where their troop fortifications are, where their movements are, where they may attack next. He doesn't know any of this and there's only one way he's going to get that kind of information. George Washington needs a spy.

But in 1776, a spy was not what we think of today. I don't know about you. When I think of a spy today, I think of a secret agent. I think of one of these cool guys you know, like Bond or Bourne or you know. I'm thinking of these guys that dress cool, they got all the gadgets, they act cool, they talk cool. I mean they have gadgets that will allow them to accomplish any mission impossible. I mean it doesn't, these guys can actually, with their gadgets, they can run down the side of a mile-high building without any problem. And even when they don't have the gadgets, I mean you got to watch out, because these guys can kill you with a paper clip, a toothpick, a magazine, it doesn't matter, they're going to take care of you and they never lose their cool Chaos all around them and they can still ask for a martini Shaken, not stirred. I don't know how they do it, but I'm in awe of these guys. That's not what it was like in 1776, all right, that's our movies. It sounds pretty.

Go back to 1776, man, if you were a spy, you were the lowest of the low. You weren't a military hero, you were a hired gun. You were not somebody that either side trusted. And Washington knew that. He knew that if he sent one of those types of folks, they're going to be killed upon capture. He wasn't even sure he'd get the right information back. What Washington wanted was he wanted one of his trusted officers to step up and volunteer for this mission. But he wasn't about to demand it of them. He wasn't going to demand such a demeaning and dangerous mission. See, if you were killed on the battlefield, there was honor in that. If you were captured as a spy and hung, no honor in that. Your legacy was destroyed, your reputation was ruined.

So Washington's trying to figure out how to do this, talking to some of his officers. One of these guys gets an idea and he goes back to his tent and he's got a bunch of his officers there in his tent and in hushed tones, colonel Tom Knowlton is telling these guys why he needs somebody to step up and take care of what the general needs. Nobody's willing. In fact, knowlton finally gives up. He turns to leave. He's going to head back to General Washington telling him he's failed. And as he turns to leave, this kid standing at the door had come to the meeting late. He was actually ill with a fever, so he arrived at the meeting late. And as Knowlton's about to leave, this kid steps forward and he says I will undertake the mission.

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution but just felt, like man, the classes are boring, or it's just that old language from 200 years ago, or I don't know where to start. People want to know, but it gets frustrating because you don't know where to look for truth about the Constitution either. Well, we've got a special program for you, available now, called Constitution Alive, with David Barton and Rick Green, and it's actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall, in the very room where the Constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence Hall, and to the Wall Builders Library, where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our founding fathers. We call it the Quick Start Guide to the Constitution because in just a few hours.

Through these videos, you will learn the Citizen's Guide to America's Constitution. You'll learn what you need to do to help save our constitutional republic. It's fun, it's entertaining and it's going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It's called Constitution Alive, with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at wallbuilders.com Let the torch of freedom burn.

Now to really understand what's happening in this tent, you've got to understand this was not your ordinary group of officers. This was not your ordinary soldier at the door. In fact, these men were Colonel Tom Knowlton's rangers. These were the original special forces. This was the first group of Army rangers. They had recently been put together by Washington. These were the guys that were the Special Forces. Now, the only way for me to wrap my head around that and you know, living in the day that I live in and trying to think about the Revolutionary Era, guys, special Forces I got to think like this OK, maybe you can join me in this, just think Chuck Norris, but with a ponytail. Ok, that's the only way I can get my head around that. Okay, so you got these special forces guys, all these guys with their ponytails. They've gathered in the tent and Knowlton's trying to find a volunteer. Well, the guy at the door is none other than Captain Nathan Hale. He's only 21 years old. 21 years old Now. This is a guy that had graduated from Yale at 18. He had studied for the ministry, went to become a teacher for a few years and he's teaching in New London, connecticut. And while he's teaching there, the war breaks out, lexington and Concord happens. Now he's only just halfway through his 19th year when Lexington and Concord breaks out, so he's still a teenager basically. But when he hears about Lexington and Concord he shows up at the town hall meeting there in his hometown to discuss what's happening. And this 19-year-old stands up in front of his community and he says to them he said we should take up arms, we should march immediately and not lay down those arms until we've achieved independence Independence, I mean, nobody uttered the word independent in his hometown yet. But this young man shakes his community from that colonial submission, shakes the hands of his students and he marches off to war. And now here we are, a year and a half later he finds himself outside this tent of Colonel Knowlton's and a buddy of his is actually there. He's also an officer, a guy named William Hull. Captain William Hull had gone to school with him at Yale. Well, we're out of time for today, folks.

That was part two in a four-part series on Constitution Alive. This is the first segment of that entire program, 12-hour program. We're just giving you a taste of it this week out of segment one. And, by the way, the reason we say Constitution Alive is because that document is not dead. The Constitution, even though 200 years ago, is not irrelevant. In fact, it is alive and it applies to our life today. So don't get that confused with the whole living, breathing document that you've heard from some Supreme Court justices that it changes and evolves. No, in fact, it's exactly as the Founding Fathers intended it, if we will apply it the way that it was intended, and that's what we have to do to save the Constitutional Republic. So we're helping to get others educated on that as well.

It's called Constitutional Alive with David Barton and Rick Green helping to get others educated on that as well. It's called Constitutional Live with David Barton and Rick Green. Segment one is going to take us about four days to share with you here on the radio program. Today was part two. If you missed yesterday, get on our website at wallbuilderslive.com, click on the archives and you can listen to yesterday's program, and over the next two days we'll get the conclusion of that first segment Again, just giving you a taste of it, giving you a chance to get educated on these foundations of America and hopefully, for you to share them with others as well. If you'd like the entire program, you can visit our website to find out more. There at wallbuilders.com Appreciate you listening today to Wall Builders Live. With David Barton and Rick Green, we stand undivided, forever united.