Our Sacred Honor
Source
From: The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation
Introduction
An address given by Shelby Collom Davis, an American investment banker, philanthropist, and former United States Ambassador to Switzerland. Lamenting the loss of the concept of honor in American society, he expresses his concern for the fate of the country but declares that "This cycle of decline and decay is not inevitable." But we need men of honor like those who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Highlights
The title of this address comes from the Declaration of Independence: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” The idea of pledging one’s life and fortune and really meaning it sounds strange to our ears today. We would probably have a difficult time finding fifty-six living Americans who would seriously volunteer such a commitment. And the concept of “sacred honor” seems like something out of another time and culture.
Every signer of the Declaration of Independence was labeled as a traitor and hunted constantly. Some died, others were imprisoned with brutal treatment. Their wives and children were killed and imprisoned and many of their houses were burned to ground. Many forfeited their fortunes but none renounced their honor.
“Our sacred Honor” meant something special to these men because religion played a dominant part in their personal and political lives. Most “… made genuine and devout reference to God in their various statements, …” Patrick Henry explained his life’s guiding principles as follows:
To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear no malice or hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking and stealing. Not to covet other men’s goods, but to learn and labor truly to get my own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.
Although such ideas may seem self-righteous in today’s cynical society, they were the common fare of the founders of the nation. Along with this dedication to righteousness, the founders also considered “… self-discipline, self-reliance, respect for the law, respect for private property, all pervaded by an unselfish concern for the public good …” essential for responsible freedom. But these are not common traits today. Today, as the poet Milton put it, men by their vices have been brought to servitude, to love bondage with ease over strenuous liberty. The problems of the West, as Solzhenitsyn put it, “…are not political. They are psychological and moral.”
Universities provide a value-free education that “… simply annuls virtue, for virtuous conduct requires a specific understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and behavior consistent with that understanding.” Although the First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to his own beliefs, there is another equally important principle of liberty, the educational principle that man can learn from their and the experience of others, and that “informed judgment should prevail over raw judgment.” “It is short-sighted to permit some of the colleges to become moral swamps” because “There is no such thing as moral neutrality. The person who does not stand firmly in behalf of that which is right, stands effectively in behalf of that which is wrong.” (Bishop Bayne)
Civilizations have risen and fallen throughout history and their fall has usually been due to the same causes that Gibbon saw in Rome’s collapse:
- The sanctity of the home was undermined.
- Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
- The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
- The building of armaments when the real enemy was within . . . the decay of individual responsibility.
- The decline of religion, faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide people.
Many nations in history have passed through the following phases, typically during a span of about 200 years (the age of the United States):
From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance to self-indulgence; from self-indulgence to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again to bondage.
But “This cycle of decline and decay is not inevitable. It depends on us! How much do we love our country?” We need “Men whom the lust of office does not kill! Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; … Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue, And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; … Lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps."
Safe Anchors
This speech represents one of the safe anchoring principles of liberty.
Opportunity
Name/link: link to opportunities on the Internet to do something concrete about this information
Recommended
Diana Davis Spencer Foundation one of the many philanthropic organizations set up because of the generosity of Shelby Collom Davis