The legal case for the American Revolution has seldom been presented as eloquently and as decisively as it was presented by James Wilson in 1774. Wilson was one of only six men to have signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and he was one of our nation's first Supreme Court justices. In presenting his case for a revolution, Wilson argued that the American colonists had never been subject to the dictates of the British Parliament. The core of Wilson's argument revolves around three landmark cases in the British court. The first case was one from 1485 in which the...

Jonathan Mayhew's "Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission" has long been recognized as "the morning gun of the Revolution." Mayhew first presented this sermon on January 30th, 1750, the 101st anniversary of the execution of Charles I. In this sermon, Rev. Mayhew explained that Romans 13 does not require Christians to submit to tyranny and that, in fact, the Bible clearly places a duty upon Christians to resist tyrannical rulers. This widely read sermon was the source of the popular claim that "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," and it set the stage for the American colonies to...

You won't find these quotes in the history books about Franklin: "Those Doctrines delivered by our Saviour and the Apostles, which are absolutely necessary to be believed, are so very plain, that the meanest Capacities, may easily understand 'em..." "Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of Good-Works. And there is scarcely a Chapter in the whole Gospels or Epistles from which this Doctrine can't be prov'd..." "I am conscious I believe in Christ, and exert my best Endeavours to understand his Will aright, and...