Spirit of 76

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USA 13 USA 13c USA 13c 1776 1976 Spritof 76: Soiritof76: Aninit os7o FIRST DAY OF ISSUE 1976 91109 "IT IS NOT A FIELD OF A FEW ACRES OF GROUND, BUT A CAUSE THAT WE ARE DEFENDING.." Thomas Puine ficial Fust Day Goér Philadelphia 76 A.CA 手一 PASAS

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© 1976, Fleetwood, Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A. -D THE SPIRIT OF '76 Archibald M. Willard most dramatically painted The Spirit of '76 when he created the painting of the now famous Revolutionary War fife and drum trio marching forward amidst the smoke of battle and fallen comrades. With determination in their faces, the trio seems to say, as Thomas Paine wrote in the bleak days of December, 1776: “These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” Originally painted by Willard for the Nation's Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, The Spirit of '76 today hangs in the Selectmen's Room in Abbot Hall, Marblehead, Massachusetts, through whose courtesy it is reproduced on this First Day Cover.