American Heritage

The discovery and colonization of America was initiated by those Europeans who advanced global trade in the 1400s and included the Dutch, Spanish, French and English. We are a product of Western Civilization.

American colonization was based on trade, discovery, self-reliance, invention, conquest, acquisition of natural resources, opportunity, freedom of individuals to build wealth and faith in God.

The Protestant Reformation resulted in multiple Christian denominations who suffered persecution and fought with each other over doctrine.

In Europe, all the land was owned by the Kings and the Church. Most of the people were “subjects of the realm” and didn’t own property. Merchants and tradesmen had wealth, but not freedom.

The United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian law. Our Founders were convinced that the wisdom of a select group of philosophers were correct in their understanding of human nature and the role of government.

In Asia, Chinese philosopher Confucius defined the behavior required of benevolent Emperors and it was similar to Judeo-Christian principles as reported by Marco Polo after his meeting with Kublai Kahn.

In 1700, Protestant Pastors throughout the North American Colonies were influential in advancing the teachings of the select philosophers who the Founders followed.

The North American colonists left Europe to engage in trade and harvest the natural resources they found in America. Europe had depleted their forests and needed timber to build ships and buildings. The Dutch founded New Amsterdam that was later called New York by the British.

The Spanish settled Florida, South and Central America and sent explorers, soldiers and missionaries and settled the Southwest and Southern West Coast of North America.

The French settled the Louisiana territory and had trading posts on the Mississippi down to New Orleans.

The colonists brought horses, pigs, cows, chickens and small pox.

The hallmarks of American Heritage should include all the Founders and the leaders who conquered North America including Presidents George Washington for winning the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson for writing the Declaration of Independence and securing the Louisiana Purchase, Andrew Jackson for winning the war of 1812, James Polk for winning the Mexican War of 1848 and Abraham Lincoln for winning the Civil War and preserving the Union in 1865.

It should also include our inventors and industrialists who built our industries using free market principles that ruled our economy since the 1600s.

We ended up with a land mass of 3.8 million square miles and continue to be the wealthiest country on the planet.

The politics of division is being promoted by using the issue of slavery to convince Blacks that they didn’t fight in the Revolutionary War, but they did. I am not a fan of statues and wouldn’t object to their removal from parks to museums. But I would not erect any more statues and I would name things based on their location.

On the Civil War, I would relegate that to the history books and a few museums and battlefield graveyards. We have escaped the animosity that sometimes plagues opposing forces after one has won and the other has lost. Many groups hold grudges that last hundreds of years to their detriment.

The Founders preferred that only property owners would be eligible to vote and hold office. The terms of office were limited to 2 and 4 years to allow citizens to serve as representatives in rotation and continue to operate their farms and businesses. They preferred wise leadership and realized that we would adapt to future eras.

The first era was conquest and settlement in the 1800s and also included invention and the Industrial Revolution. The second era was the application of invention in the 1900s and included many mistakes. In the third era in the 2000s, we need to correct the errors.

I’m convinced we will return to the US Constitution (as written) to deal with what is federal, what is state and what is unregulated, return to free market economics and reduce our National Debt back to $5 trillion.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader