“The Americans Who Risked Everything”

Speech by Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr.

Painting by John Trumbull at

The Background

After the Second Continental Congress adopted the Lee Resolution that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent,” John Adams wrote to his wife:

“You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that day’s transactions, even although we should rue it, which I trust God we shall not.”

Often in our celebrations of independence, we forget the great cost at which it came to us. The following speech was given by Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr. (father of the popular talk show host, Rush Limbaugh III) to highlight the personal price that many of the signers of the Declaration paid.

The Speech

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