“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. … Done … the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.”

—George Washington and the Signers

Fellow Patriots,

Today, September 17th, 2009, marks the 222nd anniversary of the signing of our Constitution at the Philadelphia (Constitution) Convention in 1787.

What better day than this to launch the first phase of the “Essential Liberty Project,” the most important initiative ever undertaken by The Patriot, and one motivated by the most critical need of our time?

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

—Thomas Paine

Like many of you, I have devoted much of my life to ensure that the legacy of liberty, “endowed by our Creator” and codified by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, is sustained in our day, and preserved for our posterity.

“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. … Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.”

—John Adams

Unfortunately, the current Democrat hegemony does not share our love for this great nation, this greatest experiment in human history, and is bent on terminating the last vestiges of our constitutional Rule of Law, replacing it with their “enlightened” version of rule of men.

“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”

—Alexander Hamilton

This regime has also laid a trap to ensnare our free enterprise economic system. By engaging in unbridled government spending at an unprecedented scale and for which there is no constitutional authority, this menace is on course to enslave future generations with unsustainable debt and freedom-crushing taxation levels.

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

—Thomas Jefferson

Some of our countrymen have grown complacent, to comfortable and content to be bothered with threats to essential liberty.

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

—Benjamin Franklin

Others of our countrymen are overwhelmed with the current state of affairs. They have resigned to defeat and withdrawn from the fields of battle. In so doing, they betray the legacy of liberty extended to them by generations of Patriots who have pledged their “Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor.”

“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say ‘what should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ … If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”

—Samuel Adams

However, I take heart because there is a groundswell of activism across the Fruited Plain, as our fellow Patriots are awakening to the ominous threat of constitutional adulteration and tyranny. Citizens are speaking out for liberty at public forums. Americans are joining grassroots actions like the “Tea Party” in the nation’s capital last weekend, which drew petitioners in numbers rivaling estimates for those who attended Barack Obama’s coronation.

“A free-born people … may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their … liberties.”

—The Sons of Liberty after the Boston Tea Party

The “Essential Liberty Project” is in the first of a three-phase enterprise to support the restoration of constitutional integrity, an objective that has been foremost in *The Patriot’s* mission since our inception in 1996.

To that end, Phase One entails the distribution of *millions* of Essential Liberty booklets to high school and collegiate students nationwide, as a primer on our nation’s founding documents and essential liberty.

This primer on Essential Liberty, “endowed by our Creator” and codified by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, has a proven record as an outstanding resource for young Patriots. Its success is attributed to both its comprehensive yet concise introduction to American Liberty, and its compact size – which is to say it is at hand for debate, anytime, anywhere.

The Patriot recently published that introduction as Part One and Part Two on liberty and Rule of Law. The combined essays are published as the introduction to our new Constitution booklet, the centerpiece of the Essential Liberty Project.

Today, Constitution Day, we are asking you to facilitate in two ways a successful launch of this endeavor.

First, if you are a parent or grandparent of a high school or college student, please consider providing these Essential Liberty Constitution booklets to your student’s entire class, grade or school. The booklets are available in bulk here.

Second, if you would rather sponsor the distribution of Essential Liberty booklets to student groups or classes who do not already have sponsors, you can do so at our Essential Liberty Project sponsorship page.

Of course, we encourage distribution of the Essential Liberty booklets to other groups, organizations, clubs, ministries and the like.

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was asked if the delegates had formed a republic or a monarchy. “A republic,” he responded, “if you can keep it.”

We invite you on this Constitution Day to support the Essential Liberty Project, and help restore Rule of Law for our great Republic, and keep its flame of liberty bright for future generations.

For as John Adams cautioned, “A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

Help us restore our Constitution’s mandate for Rule of Law.

The mission of the “Essential Liberty Project” is to support the restoration of constitutional integrity and Rule of Law. Our objective is to distribute millions of Essential Liberty booklets to students, grassroots organizations, civic clubs, political alliances, military and public service personnel, professional associations, etc. As a primer on liberty, as “endowed by our Creator” and codified by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, these booklets have a proven record as an outstanding resource for Patriots of all ages. Please support the Essential Liberty Project at our sponsorship page, or by purchasing bulk quantities from PatriotShop.US for distribution.

Link to the official page of the Essential Liberty Project, (www.EssentialLiberty.US) for more information and to affirm or reaffirm your oath to support and defend our Constitution.