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Home – American Heritage News – Victor Davis Hanson’s Tough Love for America on Its 250th Birthday

Victor Davis Hanson’s Tough Love for America on Its 250th Birthday

Bradley Devlin | Victor Davis Hanson

The following is an excerpt of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Victor Davis Hanson for the “Signal Sitdown,” which premieres on the Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 am  EDT on July 2.

Portions of this interview are featured in Daily Signal’s new documentary “Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation,” premiering at 8:30 pm EDT on Daily Signal’s YouTube page.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Bradley Devlin: On July 4th, they approved the Declaration of Independence, and that document is signed over the course of the next few months. But these men, by signing that document, 56 men mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in support of the Declaration and under the providence, the providential hand of God. 

When you think about that moment, how heavy that must have been. Tell us a little bit about the intensity that was probably in that room as they pick up that quill and sign the Declaration. 

TRAILER: “Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation”PREMIERES JULY 2 ON THE DAILY SIGNAL’S YOUTUBE“Sacred Honor” takes the audience inside the years and months leading up to America’s independence and invites viewers to think like the great statesmen of our… pic.twitter.com/XzpOdNdCHtTRENDING ARTICLES news Supreme Court Deals Massive Blow to the Deep State, Reversing 90-Year Precedent in Humphrey’s Executor Fred Lucas news ‘UNEVEN PLAYING FIELD’: Daughters of the American Revolution Leaders ‘Tilted’ Transgender Vote, Member Says Tyler O’Neil news Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship in Blow to Trump Immigration Enforcement Fred Lucas — The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) June 29, 2026

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Victor Davis Hanson: Well, they were all there because their peers had selected them or the people had selected them. And so they were men of education, they were men of stature, they were men of, many of them, of land and wealth. 

And so when they signed that, and they didn’t really have an army, and they were taking on the most powerful military in the world that was reaching its apex, then what they were really saying is, “If this doesn’t work, all the generations following me are gonna be destitute because I’m gonna lose all the land, all their inheritance. 

“I’m gonna probably lose my life. I’m gonna be branded a traitor a rebel.”

And they knew that whether they succeeded would determine how they were seen. If they failed, they would be called traitors and rebels. If they were successful, they might be revolutionaries or idealists or founders. But at that point they signed, the odds, if we had to make a bet, I think most people would’ve bet on the Crown, given the comparative resources, even though it was a distant theater. 

So they were undertaking a very improbable mission that might end in their disgrace, their bankruptcy, and their death. They would be hanged to set an example. And it was a very dangerous thing to do. 

Bradley Devlin: When you think about the Roman Republic 250 years into its history, it’s expanding, it’s very strong, it’s still on the rise. 

And here we sit today, 250 years into the American Republic, hoping to keep it alive for the next 250 years. That wasn’t the case for Rome. 500 years into its history, the Roman Republic is gone. It has turned into an empire.

If you would, compare and contrast the Roman Republic 250 years in versus the American Republic 250 years in, and perhaps how we preserve our republic for longer than Rome did. 

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, what destroyed the Republic starting in the mid-second century BC with, say, the destruction of Corinth and the accumulation of what is now most of Greece or all of North Africa with the destruction of Carthage in 146 or Caesar’s complete annexation of Gaul, a million slaves that they brought in, was that as they had.

Once they developed this system of stable government and they mastered the legions, and they were yeoman agriculturalists from Italy, and they were wonderful fighters, they found that they could expand exponentially both north, south, east, or west. 

But the problem was that this republican government was not set up for that. It wasn’t designed for that. It shouldn’t be designed for that. So once, when you sent someone out with........

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