On Presidents Day 2023, I reach back into the annals of presidential inaugural and farewell addresses and draw out gems of wisdom and truth that are sorely lacking in the political discourse of our day. Most modern political speeches lack substance or contain hollow phrases unsupported by accompanying action. These hollow declarations are made by men lacking principle, character, and virtue. The men I will quote today, however, were upright men of strong character, nobility, and uncommon intelligence. I will weave their enlightening thoughts in with my own in what I pray will be a clarion call to all patriots to man up and be better in the glorious cause of Freedom. 

A president’s duty, first and foremost, is to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. This is what he swears to do. This is what he must answer for to the American People and to God. I therefore quote President John Adams who praised the Constitution in his Inaugural Address: 

“I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private.” 

High praise from a man of such brilliance – a man who helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of Massachusetts. America is what it is because it has grown within the framework of the Constitution which I hold to be an inspired document. 

Regarding the government which the Constitution created, President Andrew Jackson proclaimed: 

“[T]he bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.” 

In his Farewell Address, after two wildly successful terms destroying the foreign-controlled national bank that had a death grip on our People, General Jackson again praised the Constitution and how it was instrumental in America’s rise to greatness: 

“We have now lived almost fifty years under the Constitution framed by the sages and patriots of the Revolution. The conflicts in which the nations of Europe were engaged during a great part of this period, the spirit in which they waged war against each other, and our intimate commercial connections with every part of the civilized world rendered it a time of much difficulty for the Government of the United States. We have had our seasons of peace and of war, with all the evils which precede or follow a state of hostility with powerful nations. We encountered these trials with our Constitution yet in its infancy, and under the disadvantages which a new and untried government must always feel when it is called upon to put forth its whole strength without the lights of experience to guide it or the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But we have passed triumphantly through all these difficulties. Our Constitution is no longer a doubtful experiment, and at the end of nearly half a century we find that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of the people, secured the rights of property, and that our country has improved and is flourishing beyond any former example in the history of nations. 

“In our domestic concerns there is everything to encourage us, and if you are true to yourselves nothing can impede your march to the highest point of national prosperity.” 

By the Age of Jackson – our nation’s historical high point of greatness and America-first politics – the Constitution had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not a mere political experiment, but a lasting institution calculated to better mankind, rein in government, and “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” 

A few years prior to General Jackson’s administration, the highly underrated President James Monroe spoke also of the excellence of our Constitution. During his First Inaugural Address, he recounted: 

“From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect? To whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our institutions. During a period fraught with difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United States have flourished beyond example. Their citizens individually have been happy and the nation prosperous. 

“Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with foreign nations and between the States; new States have been admitted into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States, respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome laws well administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on anyone for the crime of high treason. . . . 

“Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live–a Government adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution; which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.” 

Not many of us today truly believe we have a government capable of protecting our rights and defending us against foreign powers. Yet, we once did, and it was due to the inspired nature of the Constitution, the integrity of the men who administered the government, the self-governing of the People at large, and the goodness of Americans generally. If we want to return to the happy state of affairs enjoyed by our forefathers, we must return to our constitutional roots and learn how to self-govern according to just and holy principles once more. 

Before either Monroe or Jackson, the Father of our Country, in his momentous Farewell Address which ought to be read by every American, declared his undying allegiance to and faith in the Constitution, and explained how a combination of wicked and conspiring men could overthrow it unless the People were careful to guard their Liberty. Said he: 

“To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. 

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. 

“However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. 

“Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.” 

Herein we see the story of how the United States has been subverted. A small international clique of gangsters has, for generations, eroded the constitutional bulwark of our Republic. They have divided us into factions, pitted us against each other, gradually but fundamentally changed our free enterprise monetary system into a corporatist (“state capitalist,” as Lenin called it) leviathan, massively expanded the federal government beyond its original scope, and hacked away at the tree of Liberty until now it needs refreshing with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 

The only two things that have held back the full tidal wave of Marxian tyranny from sweeping over us has been the overpowering strength of the Constitution (even in its mangled state) and the righteous Christian population (though dwindling faster each year). I have sometimes said that only the American gun owner is holding back the full onslaught of tyranny worldwide. That’s true, but what protects the American gun owner? The Constitution. What secures Americans in their right to be tried by their fellow citizens in their own jurisdiction and not be carried off to the Hague? The Constitution. What ensures Americans the right to peacefully demonstrate in the streets and to criticize their own government? The Constitution. And so on it goes, with all of our most sacrosanct rights being guaranteed to us by that most spectacular of charters, the U.S. Constitution. 

The moment the Constitution goes, that moment the United States ceases to exist and, that moment, I cease to swear allegiance to whatever monstrosity replaces it. I wrote in my 2022 article “I Will NEVER Swear Allegiance to New Government” the following: 

“We must not allow the Constitution to be mutilated any further and we must never allow it to be exiled completely. No government has ever secured to as many people as much Freedom. Nothing Europe has ever produced has come close, to say nothing of the other parts of the darkened world. The only light still shining is here in America. This light shines from the hearts of patriots who understand, love, and defend the Constitution and all just and holy principles that make men free and accountable before God. . . . 

“Those of us who still revere the Constitution and understand its ennobling principles have a God-given duty to stand in the gap and defend the Constitution so that its glorious principles and system of Freedom may bless mankind. Who will stand up for the Constitution? Will you? Or will you go along with a scheme to rewrite or do away with our national charter? Will you abandon the Constitution and the tradition of the men who established it or will you hold the line like a Spartan at Thermopylae? I can’t answer for you, but I can answer for me before the world and before God: I stand with the Constitution now and forever!” 

George Washington stood with the Constitution. John Adams stood with it. Andrew Jackson stood with it. I stand with it. Do you? 

The second thing holding back the onslaught of global oppression is the righteous remnant of Christians. Though Christians are decreasing in size while simultaneously we are witnessing a surge in Witchcraft (Wicca is the fastest growing religion in America and Britain), the occult, and outright Satanism, there are still tens of millions of good-hearted, upright disciples of Jesus, who is the God of this land. That said, God has been de facto banned from America. He has been banned from public schools. The courts have attacked Him. Government mocks Him. The Judaized press, Hollywood, social media, and academia excoriate Him. 

Officialdom is intent on crucifying Him anew every day. As they do, we edge closer to the precipice of fearful cleansing. The cleansing will come and America will be swept clean of false men and women, traitors, anti-Christs, occultists, hypocrites, murderers, liars, whoremongers, druggies, pedophiles, socialists, communists, and collectivists, feminists and MGTOW pawns, those who love money, those who cheat their employees or employers, the slothful, ineffective stewards, and so forth. The only people who will remain will be those who are true Christians and the legitimately upright and virtuous of all stripes who go about doing good. 

George Washington certainly believed in the Father of us all and knew that He had intervened on America’s behalf during the War for Independence. In his First Inaugural Address, President Washington witnessed: 

“Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.” 

America was born under the protection, and with the divine assistance, of Heaven, to fulfill an important role in God’s economy. Nearly all of our ancestors believed it and proclaimed it. They knew, as I do, that America is not just another nation, but a chosen land and a land whose God is Jesus Christ. We must continue forward as we began, in humble supplication to our great God and in reverence for His providential agency which interposed to give us Independence and a free Constitution. 

To our fiery faith in the Redeemer, we must add sensible principles and lasting ideals. My hero and friend, Thomas Jefferson, upon ascending to the presidency, gave us the following precepts which guided his administration, and which may, if we are wise, guide America back into safe harbors. He said: 

“I believe this . . . the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. 

“Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter — with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. 

“About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people — a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.” 

If every nation adopted these principles, the world would turn into an Edenic paradise overnight. Can you imagine, dear reader, that our great nation, now a scene of bickering confusion, coarse depravity, and galloping despotism, was once guided by such enlightened principles? Can you fathom living in a nation where the “sum of good government” is for the government to protect your natural rights, not steal your money or property, and allow you to pursue your own life in your own way totally unmolested? That was Jefferson’s vision for America. That was the America our Founding Fathers offered. That was the America the Constitution was designed to provide, if we scrupulously obeyed its provisions. 

I leave you to ponder Jefferson’s sublime principles more on your own and encourage you to believe them, for they are true, and they will lead us unfailingly, like the North Star, to political safety. I turn to one more quote, taken from President James Madison’s First Inaugural Address. He pointed our minds to the ultimate sources we may trust in for a brighter future – We the People and God. He assured us: 

“[T]he source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.” 

On this Presidents Day, I, too, encourage you to look to God and live. Place your confidence in Him and in His Son. The American Republic rose to unsurpassed greatness because we exalted the People, protected their rights, reined in the power of government via the inspired Constitution, exercised virtue as a society, and fervently looked to Almighty God for our support and guidance. This is the way. If we want to become great again and reclaim our lost rights, this is the only way. 

Zack Strong, 
February 20, 2023