I’ve been saving a little group of special Victorian trade (advertising) cards for this July 4th week!

There, I guess King George will be able to read that. John Hancock

I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance. John Adams

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.  Erma Bombeck

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.  Dwight D. Eisenhower

I love this card to the right, about the Louisiana Purchase from the late 1800’s!

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. Benjamin Franklin

May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!  Daniel Webster

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. George Washington

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan

It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. Samuel Adams

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect. Eleanor Roosevelt

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson

I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give
me death. Patrick Henry

I really like this card from 1879, with Uncle Sam!