On August 9, 1882, Bill Nye—whose full name is Edgar Wilson Nye—accepted the high office of Postmaster of Laramie, Wyoming. In a letter to General Frank Hatton in Washington, D.C., he accepted his honorable post with aplomb and a commitment to serve his country well.
He discussed his order of new boxes, a new post office outfit, and “corrugated cuspidors” for his lady clerks before stating emphatically that, he
looks upon the appointment, myself, as a great triumph of eternal truth over error and wrong.
He considered his appointment as,
one of the epochs…in the Nation’s onward march toward political purity and perfection.
He ends his letter with this line,
With profoundest regard, and a hearty endorsement of the policy of the President and the Senate, whatever they may be,
I remain, sincerely yours,
Bill Nye, P.M.
Dedication and Commitment in Service to This Nation
This postmaster soon became an American humorist and author, but the key thing about this letter that struck me was his absolute dedication to serving his country. He understood that “We the People” was not a throwaway comment in an archaic document that the Founders wrote to inspire battle fervor in a fledgling nation.
It was the foundation for a government that had never before been successful or even fully tried. The Founders had little in the way of models and every model they referenced (Rome, France, etc.) failed spectacularly.
For Ourselves and Our Posterity
In the Federalist Papers No. 1, Alexander Hamilton declared,
It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.
Alexander Hamilton and the other Founding Fathers knew the world was watching. America would be either a beacon of hope and life, or it would fall like every other empire and kingdom into ruin and chaos.
The Importance of Our Constitution
Every word of the Constitution of the United States of America was carefully crafted, debated, discussed, and rewritten to build a government that would set the tone for generations to come. The people would govern with virtue and reason as long as they remembered two important things:
1. Every right given to mankind is and always will be granted by Nature and Nature’s God. Our rights are divinely appointed, not granted to us by the government itself.
2. Our Constitution, imperfect and written by fallible human men, is still the best first and last defense against government overreach and tyranny.
Remember Who We Are
We have forgotten these important concepts and it is time that this nation remembers who we are and what we stand for.
We the People have slowly and insidiously given up our God-given liberties to a government that is bloated and glutting itself on its own hunger for power. We need to say “No more.” We the People have the right and the responsibility to confront Washington and wrest that power back.
The Constitution Gives us That Power
Thomas Jefferson stated clearly,
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” We have lost that vigilance and we need to wake up and stand as watchmen—and women—on the walls of our country once again. Our Founders fought with their blood, sweat, and tears to give us what no other ruler or emperor on earth had dared to give—the power to govern ourselves with the full blessings of Nature and Nature’s God.
Bill Nye the Constitutional Guy
Let’s remember a Postmaster from Laramie, Wyoming, and his dedication to serving his country. His example is one we can follow as we continue the fight to bring about America’s first-ever Convention of States.
