Montana State Winner

Forrest Rowell
Garrison, MT
Home School
10th Grade

In 1868 Congress added the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which stated, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States...." That is the definition of an American citizen.

But being an American goes deeper than that. Being a loyal American is to accept the responsibility to learn about, appreciate, and preserve the liberty and freedom that are guaranteed by the Constitution. As Americans we must do our best to preserve the freedom that was won for us by the early Americans.

The will of the founding fathers was recorded in the Constitution. As Americans we have a God given responsibility to preserve the Republic and the Constitution. To love this nation is to preserve our freedom for posterity.

John Adams wisely said, "Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."

An American should also have a sense of self-government and absolute truth that comes from God. The founding fathers believed that government should be influenced by God, the Bible, and moral values. Of the 55 men who signed the Constitution, 52 were active members of their church. George Washington declared "Do not let any one claim to be a true American if they ever attempt to remove religion from politics."

In Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, Webster defined government in personal terms of self-control and temperament. He included family government as a part of the definition before he went on to define civil government in the state and nation. In modern dictionaries, self and family government are not even listed anymore.

A responsible American must be self-controlled, having a good sense of personal and family government. It is each American's responsibility to govern themselves and their own lives. James Madison drove this point home when he said, "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

For example, in the first amendment we are guaranteed to have liberty and freedom of speech and of the press. However, a true American responsibly governs his speech in order to respect others in what he says and is mindful of the consequences of his words. He or she should speak truthfully, judiciously, and respectfully. Truth and freedom are inseparable.

As Americans we have a responsibility to learn about our history and how our nation began. We need to preserve our history truthfully, so that all will know how our God-given American freedom was won and protected. If we don't work to protect our liberty and the truth about self-government, then we are giving over the responsibility to someone else to control us.

Freedom isn't free. There is always a price to be paid to preserve it. As Americans we must cherish and work to preserve that precious gift from God.