Mine eyes have seen the glory

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." On July 4, 1776, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence signaled the birth of a new nation. So was born a beacon of liberty to nations around the globe, a country dedicated to the proposition that government exists to serve its citizens, a state built on the principle that all men have rights and that those rights must be protected.

of the coming of the Lord:

Lord Charles Cornwallis was humiliated. His superior army had been pinned down at Yorktown, and help would not arrive in time to prevent defeat. And so, on October 19, 1781, the British forces under Cornwallis surrendered. Cornwallis refused to hand over his sword to General George Washington personally; instead, he sent his proxy, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara. As Washington's proxy, General Benjamin Lincoln, accepted the sword, the British forces marched off the field. In the background, British musicians played "The World Turned Upside Down."

He is trampling out the vintage

On August 24, 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison was in a panic. The British were on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. She quickly grabbed a full-length portrait of George Washington and fled the city. Only hours after her departure, the British would burn the White House and the Capitol to the ground. Only a miraculous rainstorm would save the rest of the city from total destruction.

where the grapes of wrath are stored;

As President Abraham Lincoln stood before Congress on December 1, 1862, the Union was in dire straits. The United States of America was on the brink of collapse. But Lincoln offered hope instead of fear. "Fellow-citizens," he stated, "we can not escape history. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." Continued...