In 1777, Christopher Jefferson Loving Jr., a 14-year-old boy, enlisted in the Continental Army. Christopher was my paternal grandmother’s great-grandfather. During his service, he would fight in six of the most consequential battles of the southern campaign before suffering permanent wounds a month before the victorious Siege of Yorktown. On this July 4, we honor his memory, along with all the other patriots who fought to secure our freedom.

Below is a transcription of a sworn declaration Loving made in 1819 recounting his valiant service in the fight for American independence. This declaration is also referenced in Alan Pell Crawford’s new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South.

Pension application of Christopher Loving (Loveing):

On this 8th day of October 1819 before me the Subscriber one of the Judges of the General Court and assigned to the Circuit of the Superior Court of Law composed of the Counties of Bath, Augusta, Amherst, Nelson, Albemarle and Rockbridge (Virginia), personally appeared Christopher Loving aged 56 years, resident in said County of Nelson & State aforesaid, who being by me first duly sworn, according to law, doth, on his oath, make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the late Act of Congress entitled “An act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war” that he the said Christopher Loving enlisted in the year 1777 when he was but

Happy birthday, America. 

Now, shut up. 

That’s the greeting card President Joe Biden and his merry band of deep staters should send to U.S. citizens after spending the better part of the past four years bludgeoning the First Amendment. From “Disinformation czars” to tongue-cutting gag orders on political enemies, the Biden years will be remembered for unrivaled attacks on primary rights. 

As Jonathan Turley writes in his new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, Joe Biden is “the most anti-free speech president since John Adams.”

“He has created an unprecedented system of censorship through financial support and his public statements. So the idea that he is really the symbol of constitutional fealty is really alarming, it’s so detached from reality,” the attorney, law professor, columnist, and popular television analyst recently said on Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show.”  

Criminalizing Criticism

Turley isn’t spinning hyperbole. Adams’ wholehearted support of the Sedition Act saw a sweeping attack on free speech and freedom of the press at the dawn of the republic. Political enemies were arrested and sent to prison for criticizing the government.  

One of the “most dramatic” victims of the law was a representative from Vermont, Matthew Lyon, who was imprisoned for speaking out against President Adams’ “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and self avarice.” He also reportedly featured such rhetoric in his campaign speeches.  

Lyon purportedly won reelection — from his jail cell. 

Sound familiar? 

A Dark Age for Freedom

I can’t remember the last time Americans were truly united. Maybe Sept. 12, 2001, but I was too young to remember. 

Now the only thing tethering us to one another is our complacency. It’s the one thing we all share. We’ve been fed — and willingly consume — distractions, mostly petty grievances stoked by politicians who thrive on division and chaos, on social media and television. Who has time to care about government overreach or lawfare when our favorite TV show starts in an hour?

We’ve ceded too much power to the government because generation after generation slowly let their foot off the pedal and became willingly complacent via distractions. It’s why we ended up with an administrative state that lets unelected bureaucrats write their own laws. It’s why private citizens were — up until the Supreme Court stepped in this week — allowed to be tried in certain criminal cases without a jury of their peers. We were told government experts know best. We traded political power for expediency, and in doing so we’ve forfeited the “common cause” that was responsible for the inception of this nation.

The American Revolution didn’t begin on July 4, 1776. It began in the decades prior when the British began creating an untenable position for the colonists. There was the Sugar Act of 1764, The Stamp Act of 1765, and The Townshend Acts of 1767; all of which raised taxes on the colonists in various forms to subsidize the British war machine. Colonists