Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots

George Washington's army was starving, freezing and in need of a morale boost. On December 19, 1776 Thomas Paine provided the boost by publishing the pamphlet entitled, Common Sense.  In bygone days, these Thomas Paine words were familier to school children, but are strange words among the new generations of American children:

"These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered"


With that encouragement most of Washington's soldiers stood a little taller and concluded to put their lives on the line for the just cause, despite all the odds against them.

A week later Washington ordered his army forward. They had little food as they faced a snowy, frozen road, and a winter storm. They had to cross the delaware under the most difficult circumstances. Some soldiers had no shoes, some wrapped their feet in burlap sacks, and the army left bloody snow along the road. Raging winds combined with snow, sleet and rain to produce nearly impossible conditions. But they had new flints for their muskets and new courage in their hearts. There were no 'summer soldiers' nor 'sunshine patriots' among them.

It was Christmas Day, 1776, and less than one American in a thousand was willing to march with the army.

After an all night forced march, the Patriots launched a surprise attack on a well-trained Hessian army at Trenton, New Jersey. The battle began with fierce, determined fighting by a frozen, exhausted, starving army of Patriots who defeated the enemy and breathed new life into the Revolution.

What audacity!  What uncommon courage!  What sacrifice!

And all done for the freedom and liberty of 99.9% of the Americans who could not, or would not, march with the army.  All done for the freedom and liberty of generations of people yet unborn.  All done for the freedom and liberty of the Summer Soldier and the Sunshine Patriot.