Two hundred and fifty years ago today — some 600 miles north of what we now call North Carolina — American patriots stood their ground against British forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The date was June 17, 1775.
The battle was not just the beginning of an armed struggle, but the opening chapter in a broader fight for liberty — carried forward through the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and still unfolding in our own time. Though the challenges of 2025 differ greatly from those of 1775, many of our modern struggles stem from a failure to grasp — and live out — the same spirit of freedom that first took root on that hillside a quarter-millennium ago.
America’s heritage is built on a desire to be free. The Pilgrims fled to America to escape religious persecution. North Carolina’s own Moravian settlers in the Piedmont came to America in search of religious freedom. For 250 years, Americans have understood these freedoms — freedom to worship, speak, trade, and own property — as unalienable, meaning they are fundamental to human nature.
Perhaps no slogan encapsulates the mood of the American Revolution better than “no taxation without representation.” But this was more than just a rebellion over taxes — it was a demand for consent through representative government. General Joseph Warren, who died at Bunker Hill, connected our fight for freedom with the need for consent and representation: “How they can be said to have freedom … when they are obliged to obey implicitly such laws as are made for them by men three thousand miles off … and whom they never have empowered to act for them?”
In their time, the patriots viewed the Tea Act, the Townshend Acts, the Stamp Act, and other British abuses as evidence of a distant and despotic government taking away their freedom. These acts not only subjected Americans to taxes they did not vote for, but also forced them to be governed and judged by those they did not choose.
Our circumstances are different, but the issue of consent remains at risk. Regulatory taxation occurs when an administrative body, like the US Securities and Exchange Commission, imposes taxes or financial penalties, even though the power to tax is explicitly granted to Congress. Administrative courts, such as those operated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, have no jury and often function as judge, jury, and executioner. Abuse occurs when voters have little or no accountability over parts of our government — such as the Internal Revenue Service, which is infamous for targeting political opponents and seizing assets when no crime was committed.
The desire to be free begs the question: “Free from what?” In the context of Bunker Hill, it was a desire to be free from government oppression — to make our own laws, to trade and do business without interference, and to live under the rule of law.
We still struggle against government overreach, corruption, and executive dictates. It’s a problem on both the left and right. Under former President Joe Biden, we saw an increase in government censorship, limiting freedom of speech, and unconstitutional executive actions without the consent of Congress — such as student loan forgiveness. Under President Donald Trump, we see executive overreach in the form of tariffs imposed by executive order (the Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate tariffs) and the use of government power to attack political opponents — such as revoking security clearances for law firms that worked for opponents and threatening to terminate the federal contracts of critics like Elon Musk.
The patriots on Bunker Hill were not aiming to create new liberties — they sought to preserve the God-given ones they were born with. The freedom they yearned for, and the belief in the dignity of the individual that grounded their principles, would be forever enshrined 12 years later when the US Constitution was signed.
The blood shed atop Bunker Hill inspired the ink spilled within Independence Hall. In the aftermath of the battle, John Adams wrote: “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.”
Yet some today forget that legacy. Some on the progressive left, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, call the US Constitution racist and flawed. Some on the post-liberal right, like Patrick Deneen, accuse it of being virtue-less and to blame for cultural decay. Neither would have fit in with the patriots at Bunker Hill. We should be grateful our forefathers fought for consent and representation in government, which we benefit from today. But we also need a louder voice in — and more accountability over — government.
Less than a year after the battle, North Carolina became the first state to endorse independence by issuing the Halifax Resolves. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding next summer, let the spirit of freedom that defined the patriots of Bunker Hill live on.