Enjoy this country ballad based on the words of Thomas Jefferson, patriot and president. Note: the line about TV is not from Jefferson.

1776 Celebration lyrics

If a nation expects to be ignorant and freeIt expects what never was and never will be

We hold these truths to be self-evidentThat all men are created equalThat they are endowed by their CreatorWith certain unalienable rightsThat among these are Life,Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

The preceding generationSacrificed themselvesTo establish their posterityIn independent self-governmentWhich their successors seem disposedTo throw away for an abstract proposition

If people let government decideWhat foods they eatAnd what medicines they take,Their bodies will soon be in as sorry a stateAs are the souls of thoseWho live under tyranny

I do not take a single newspaper,Nor read one a month,And I feel infinitely the happier for itAdvertisements contain the only truthsTo be relied on in a newspaperThe man who reads nothing at allIs better educated than the manWho reads nothing but newspapersOr watches nothing but TV news

Enlighten the people, generally,And tyranny and oppressionsOf body and mind will vanishLike spirits at the dawn of day

Honesty is the first chapterOf the book of wisdomA society that will trade a little libertyFor a little order will deserve neitherAnd lose both

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to GodI tremble for this countryWhen I reflect that God is justThat his justice can’t sleep forever

If a nation expects to be ignorant and freeIt expects what never was and never will be

If a nation expects to be ignorant and freeIt expects what never was and never will be

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