As America approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, I have returned again and again to the words of Thomas Paine, who advanced the cause of American freedom with a memorable call to action: The times have found us.
The times had indeed found Paine, and the rest of our Founders, who summoned the courage to declare independence from a king; to win a war against the strongest empire in the world; and to write our Constitution (thank goodness they made it amendable). In the century that followed, the times found Abraham Lincoln, who saved our union by winning the Civil War.
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