Rally Highlight: A Pledge of Life, Fortune and Sacred Honor

Apologia Studios

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The pro -life industry knowingly decriminalized abortion in the state of Arizona.

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We are going around nationwide getting legislation to end abortion, not end it after six weeks or ten weeks or twelve weeks, end it completely.

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Thank you all for coming out. My name is Zach Lautenschluger. I serve as vice president of Action for Life. I've worked professionally in politics for nearly 25 years.

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I started right out of high school. My dad actually ran for office when I was two. I don't count that part as professional because it wasn't paid.

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But I did work in politics, working with my dad. I've been privileged to build the team that has passed controversial legislation in 21 states now.

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That's Constitutional Carry. I am the past vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights and we had a lot of fun doing that and building it.

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Praise God. I want to tell you a story that my grandmother told me.

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Not too far from here, 56 men pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

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The oldest man to sign the declaration was a delegate from New Jersey, John Hart.

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He served with John Witherspoon. He signed the declaration on August 2, 1776.

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You have to understand that just a month before that, when they started the signature process, the declaration was finally ready.

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Who was it? It was one of the first presidents of the United States because you know that the president of the

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Continental Congress served as president of the country. President of the second Continental Congress was, what's that?

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The second Continental Congress? John Hancock. The man who signed the

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Declaration of Independence and today you can go and look at the declaration in the National Archives and there is one signature that you can still read.

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It is John Hancock's. When he stood to sign it, he said, I am writing my name large that King George may read it without his spectacles.

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And why do we say, put your John Henry here, I need your John Hancock? That is a distinctly

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American term and a direct reference to the Declaration of Independence.

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Now why did he say that? It's because they knew they were signing their death warrants. They knew very well that if the

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British caught up with them in this war, and you understand this is a bunch of farmers fighting the greatest military force on earth.

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If the British regulars caught up with them, they would be dragged across the sea, thrown in the hold of a ship, they might die just on that voyage from maltreatment, malnourishment.

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If they made it to London, they would be given a mock trial after being dragged through the streets, hung by the neck but not until dead, drawn, which

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I'll be delicate, but it means being cut open basically from your chin to your belt. You're not dead yet.

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That's burned in front of you, and then you are hacked limb from limb. This is what was done to William Wallace.

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This is what would likely have been done to the men who signed the Declaration. And that's why

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Hancock made a little bit of a joke about it, a little bit of bravado. Now what does it mean for them to have pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor?

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Well we know what it means for them to pledge their lives, we know what that means, we know what it means for them to pledge their fortunes.

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Sacred honor, that's what they were talking about. Because after you're dead and killed in that painful and ignominious way, a bill of attainder would be passed against your name, making you a criminal and your children and your grandchildren.

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Multi -generational criminal record is what a bill of attainder is. That's what they meant by their sacred honor. If a bill of attainder is passed against your family name, you cannot own property, you cannot get a good job.

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They were dooming their children and grandchildren, potentially, to poverty. So John Hart, the oldest man to sign the

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Declaration, goes home to Bear Tavern, New Jersey, to his 13 children, some of whom are grown, some of whom are still very young and at home.

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And his wife, who is on what would turn out to be her deathbed. And he sat with her through the summer and fall of 1776 and the

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British invaded New Jersey first. They chased him out of his home, he fled capture, just as his wife left this earth.

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She perished, and the story is that he slipped out the back door as the British marched up his driveway.

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He lived outside for that entire winter, not daring to sleep inside for fear of capture.

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We don't know if he ever was united with all of his 13 children again. Shortly after that, after holding a few small positions of trust,

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John Hart, an old man broken in health from living outside, being chased by the

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British, also left this earth in poverty. However, as a man who has 13 children is want to have,

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John Hart has millions of descendants today, one of which is me.

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My grandma used to sit me down and tell me that story. And I'm six. And she asks, what are you going to do to defend the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

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I don't know, Grandma. I don't know. How do you live up to that? I've thought a lot about it, as I'm sure you can imagine.

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The answer to the question is, we don't have to. By the grace of God and through the hard work and sacrifice of our forefathers, we are blessed to live in a country where it is the easiest, it is the simplest to change the way politics works.

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If we fail at this, our shame is greater than any other people in earth history to this point.

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We may not stand by and watch millions of children perish.

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Every minute, every minute that ticks by, it is two to three children die in America.

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Do you know how many a day in this country right now? It is 3 ,000. 3 ,000 babies a day are being killed.

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Now, our forefathers faced gruesome death, sudden death on the battlefield, poverty, want, hardship, loss of family, in order to bless us with a country in which we had the ability, and still do, we have the ability to change the law.

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That is your task. Because whether or not you happen to have had ancestors here during the time, our forefathers were picturing you.

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What did they say? Why did they do that? Why would they suffer that much? Why would the wealthy,

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John Hancock, one of the most wealthy men in America, why would he give his fortune for the common people?

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Why? To secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

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That, ladies and gentlemen, is you. It is the 3 ,000 babies doomed to death today, tomorrow, the next day.

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We have a duty, not only to the memory of our forefathers, not only to our children, but we have a duty to both because we have the duty to God, to stand against tyranny.

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And what is the greatest tyranny? A death penalty on the innocent.

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There is no greater tyranny. You do not have the rights to liberty or the pursuit of happiness if you are not born.

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Now, some of you have signed this already here today. Can my petition people hold up their clipboards?

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Let me see you hold them up. Okay, these guys have these petitions. There's a petition for the

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Pennsylvania Equal Justice Act. I'm going to lay it down. If you are from Pennsylvania and you walk away from this rally without having signed this, shame on you.

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Your forefathers are ashamed. If you cannot take the time to sign a petition, if you are afraid you're going to get put on a list, oh, by the way, the

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NSA has already been listening to all of your conversations since the first day you had a phone. If you don't think you're on a list, what are you afraid of?

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Are you afraid the British are going to show up and arrest you? Americans have already done that.

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We beat them. So, sign this petition. I cannot tell you how many people come to a rally like this and then leave feeling good because, oh, good, we did something, and you didn't sign the petition.

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You didn't do a blessed thing. This is just the first step.

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I'm serious. If I see some of you walking away without signing this, I got a baseball bat, and I'm going to leave you in the street down there.

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I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank you for your time and attention today. While I'm having a little fun with you,

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I recognize that coming out to an event like this is a bit of a sacrifice. Is it a sacrifice in the grand scheme of things?

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No, it's not. It's kind of fun. But I do recognize that there are other things that you could be doing right now, and I want you to know how much

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I appreciate it, how much all of us appreciate you coming. But this is just the very start. You picture the tough drill sergeant or officer telling his men, you have opportunities to accomplish great things today, the battle is today, but you haven't done a single thing yet.

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That's true of all of us right now. Not on this issue. This is where it starts. You want to end abortion?

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Is that why you're here? Are you here to end abortion? Is anyone not here to end abortion?

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I want you to raise your hand. Okay, no one's raising their hands. That means you all are signing this. You're all signing this.