FREEDOM

And every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.

—Rev. 6:15

1778 Half The World “Not Free”

A global survey of political and civil liberty indicates that personal freedom diminished in the 1970s for eighty-five million people in seven countries.

The assessment was made by Freedom House, a New York-based nonprofit organization that rates nations as free, partly free, or not free.

Sixty-six countries with 42 percent of the world’s population were termed “not free.” The survey listed 1 percent fewer people in the free category than a year earlier.

1779 Crime Against A Soul

A half-century ago, the famous Kaspar Hauser appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, having been released from a dungeon in which he had been confined from infancy, having never seen the face or heard the voice of man, nor gone without the walls of his prison, nor seen the full light of day. A distinguished lawyer in Germany wrote a legal history of the case, which he entitled “A Crime against the Life of a Soul.”

—Theodore T. Munger

1780 The Hymn “America”

One bleak day in February 1832, a young theological student sat in his room at Andover Seminary. Samuel Francis Smith was going over a sheaf of German songs for children, given him by a friend, the composer Lowell Mason. Sunset shadows crept into the room and Smith was tired from a strenuous day of study. He was relieved to spend a few relaxed moments going over his friend’s music.

As he hummed over one after another, one struck his fancy. He glanced at the words at the bottom of the page and his knowledge of German told him that the words were patriotic, but they did not appeal to him. He decided to write his own words. He searched around on his desk until he found a scrap of paper, about five or six inches long and two-and-one-half inches wide. On this, as he tapped out the rhythm of the music, he began to write,

My country, tis of thee

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims’ pride,

From every mountain side

Let freedom ring.

—America

1781 Don’t Throw Freedom Away

High atop the United States Capitol dome in Washington stands the statue of the stately “Freedom Lady,” almost 20 feet high. Her face is framed by a crest of stars. A shield of stars and stripes is in her left hand.

The sculptured Freedom Lady was brought from Rome during a fierce storm, and the captain ordered some cargo thrown overboard. The sailors wanted to include the heavy statue, but the captain refused, shouting above the wind, “No! Never! We’ll flounder before we throw “Freedom” away.”

—James C. Helley

1782 From A Free Rabinovitch

It is reported that there is a legendary character in Moscow named Rabinovitch, who is the subject of hundreds of stories that circulate cautiously among the people behind the iron curtain. In one of these stories, Rabinovitch leaves Moscow for a trip through Europe. He sends back postcards from ten successive cities he visits: “Greetings from a free Warsaw”; “Greetings from a free Prague”; “Greetings from a free Budapest.” Finally he reaches Paris, outside the iron curtain, and the last card comes with its penciled note: “Greetings from a free Rabinovitch!”

—Gospel Herald

1783 Lincoln’s Firm Signature

When the Emancipation Proclamation was taken to Mr. Lincoln by Secretary Seward, for the President’s signature, Mr. Lincoln took a pen, dipped it in the ink, moved his hand to the place for the signature, held it a moment, then removed his hand and dropped the pen. After a little hesitation, he again took up the pen and went through the same movement as before.

Mr. Lincoln then turned to Mr. Seward and said: “I have been shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning, and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, “He hesitated.””

He then turned to the table, took up the pen again, and slowly, firmly wrote “Abraham Lincoln,” with which the whole world is now familiar.

He then looked up, smiled, and said, “That will do.”

1784 Abolishing Slavery In British Empire

On June 22, 1772, Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the King’s Bench, handed down his famous decision that effectively eliminated slavery on the soil of the British Isles. Although slavery had gradually died out in Europe after the introduction of Christianity, it was not officially prohibited, and occasionally a slave owner from overseas would bring slaves with him to Britain. In his celebrated decision, Mansfield held that a slave automatically became a free man by setting foot in Britain. But this decision did not have the slightest effect on slavery in the overseas colonies.

Not until 1811 did William Wilberforce—who had been deeply influenced by John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace”—succeed in getting Parliament to ban the slave trade. In 1833 the decision was reached to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire over a six-year period.

—Christianity Today

1785 Story Of Thaddeus Stephens

Shortly before the Civil War a young lawyer came down from Vermont and settled in Adams County, Pennsylvania. There he saw fugitive slaves escaping from bondage, and as a conductor on the Underground Railroad he helped them to liberty. The irony of the thing entered into his soul and he gave himself with all his powers to combat that evil and to deliver the oppressed. When the great crisis, to which all those events were pointing, had broken over the nation, Thaddeus Stephens was perhaps the most powerful influence in the government of the United States. When he came to die, his only attendants were two Negro preachers.

Today in the very midst of Lancaster, in a shabby cemetery, you can see his tomb, and on the tomb these words: “Finding that other cemeteries were restricted as to race by charter rights, I have chosen to lie in this humble spot, in order that I might testify, even in my death, to those principles which I have advocated through a long life.”

—C. E. Macartney

1786 Raffling Himself As Prize

Police stopped Norman Aitken from running a raffle, with himself as first prize. Aitken, an unemployed restaurant manager, was planning to get 5,000 tickets printed when the police stepped in. Said Aitken: “The draw was to have been held in an Edinburgh ballroom. Whoever won the raffle would have had my services free for a year.” “You can’t raffle yourself off,” said the authorities.

1787 Epigram On Freedom

•     Liberty is always unfinished business.

—The Ethical Outlook

•     Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

—Benjamin Franklin

•     If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too.

—Doubleday

•     There never has been, there isn’t now and there never will be, any race of people on the earth fit to serve as masters over their fellow men.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt

•     Democracy is based on the conviction that there are extra-ordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

—Friendly Chat

See also: Dictatorship.