Mind Your Liberty

This episode is released just to let you all know that I will be discontinuing the Mind Your Liberty Podcast. At least for now. Podcast hosting is too expensive to justify if I am not going to use it. I really enjoyed making the podcast. Thanks for listening! All episodes will remain over on the Mind Your Liberty YouTube channel. Have a great 2025! 

Today I read and go over another foundational document in the development of Liberty in the American founding era. Listen in as I read through the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Document reading starts at 5:26

Virginia Declaration of Rights-

https://web.archive.org/web/20181022172807/http://www.gunstonhall.org:80/georgemason/human_rights/vdr_final.html

PETITION OF THE 10,000 FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 1776-

https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/items/show/283

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Declaration_of_Rights

http://www.mindyourliberty.com

For this month's episode I recorded a terrific Dorothy Sayers' essay on education, called The Lost Tools of Learning. In it, she outlines a return to classical education in the modern era. I simply didn't have time to expound on it much, but the piece stands on it's own. Enjoy, and have your thoughts provoked! 

www.mindyourliberty.com

www.classicalconversations.com

The Lost Tools of Writing, by Dorothy Sayers - https://archive.org/details/sayers1948losttoolslearning

"The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations” - John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 1818

Have you ever wondered what was being preached in the American colonies before the revolution? Given the outstanding role that "religious sentiments" played in the pre-war psyche, we certainly should be curious what the preaching was like. Today I read though a sermon preached by Rev. Samuel Davies, way back in 1755. This sermon was given to admonish a group of volunteer militia going to defend the western territories during the French and Indian War. Listen in and hear what he had to say! There are many points to consider that are fully as applicable today as in 1755. 

The Constituents of A Good Soldier, full text - 

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N05830.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

John Adams’ Letter to Hezekiah Niles - https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/seminars/revolution/Adams-Niles.pdf

Adams’ Letter Full Text, beta transcript - https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6854

Book where I found this sermon. - https://a.co/g7uJqLy 

www.mindyourliberty.com

The Stamp Act was now going into effect in Colonial America, meaning colonists of all stripes (anybody that used paper) had to make a choice - to use the comply or not to comply. John Dickinson, “the Penman of the Revolution”, wrote this broadside pamphlet to encourage his countrymen to carefully consider their course of action, and the consequences thereof. 

“THE Stamp Act, therefore, is to be regarded only as an EXPERIMENT OF YOUR DISPOSITION. If you quietly bend your Necks to that Yoke, you prove yourselves ready to receive any Bondage to which your Lords and Masters shall please to subject you.” [Emphasis original]

Stamp Act - https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/stamp_act_1765.asp

Broadside Against the Stamp Act - https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Writings_of_John_Dickinson/DaWqy3gNcogC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA201&printsec=frontcover 

Other good stuff - https://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/crisis/text3/stampactresponse1765.pdf 

http://www.mindyourliberty.com 

In this episode I read through and briefly talk about another important document from the revolutionary era, The Rights of Colonists, by Samuel Adams. This document is another one of the many you can trace the similar lines of thought from the early 1760's (and earlier) to the mid 1770's, and beyond. Adams further develops the concept of natural rights in this piece. 

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-rights-of-the-colonists/

http://www.mindyourliberty.com

In this episode I read Washington’s Farewell Address. Our first president was offering some parting advice, while looking forward to retirement after over 20 years of service to his country. Issues he addressed back then may sound familiar to us even today. He mentioned the dangers of party politics, overgrown military establishments, entangling European alliances, choosing favorite nations, what to do with the national debt, encroachment upon liberty, and public morality. Hopefully at least some of those sound to you like something worth listening to, from our first president! 

Links:

Transcript of George Washington’s Farewell Address - https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-sources-2/article/washington-s-farewell-address-1796/

“my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793” - https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0371

February 11th, 1768, 254 years ago today, the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature sent out what we today would call an open letter to the British Parliament, with copies sent to the other colonies as well. Recent acts of Parliament were felt in the colonies to be "encroaching" on the public liberty. The rights asserted in this letter were felt to be universal among the British Colonies, and so any infringement upon them was to be met with a united front of resistance. This letter forms part of the important context of the American Revolution. As these rights are inalienable and the principles timeless, it is worth studying to see how we can apply it today. 

Links:

The Stamp Act

The Declaratory Act

The Townshend Act

The Massachusetts Circular Letter

Samuel Adams: A Life Ira Stoll

TAC- How to read an 18th century legal document

The Massachusetts Circular Letter: A Springboard for Colonial Defiance