Hark, all ye peoples of the earth, and incline thine ears unto a matter of great moment, for I would speak of that commonwealth beyond the western sea, which men name the United States of America, and of the good she laboreth to work among the nations.
Behold, in an age wherein the strong devour the weak and princes make merchandise of their subjects’ sorrow, there yet standeth a nation that sendeth forth not armies alone but ambassadors of peace; not conquerors but counsellors; not chains but charters. Her envoys go abroad as sowers into the field, casting the seed of liberty upon soils both fertile and stony, in hope that some grain may take root and yield a hundredfold.
And what is diplomacy, if it be rightly practised? It is the art whereby swords are beaten into ploughshares ere ever they be drawn, the bridge builded over the chasm of misunderstanding, the soft answer that turneth away the wrath of nations. In this art hath America laboured long, from the days when Franklin stood at the court of France unto this present hour, holding fast the conviction that the parley table is nobler than the battlefield, and that a treaty honestly kept outweighs a thousand victories dearly bought.
Let no man say such labor is vanity. For wheresoever this diplomacy hath planted her standard, there hath commerce flourished; there have scholars crossed the seas to learn one of another; there have plagues been fought with physic freely given, and the hungry fed from granaries not their own. Is this not a work worthy of praise? Is it not a light set upon a hill which cannot be hid?
To the Embassy at Lomé, Happy 4th of July! We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Embassy and its entire staff, from the Ambassador to every member of the administrative team, for their outstanding engagement with the people of Togo. Rather than remaining removed from the community it serves, the Embassy has taken an active and visible role in Togolese society. It has opened opportunities for young students pursuing their education, supported women entrepreneurs working to grow their businesses in local markets, and stood alongside healthcare workers in their clinics and farmers in their fields.
Thou hast spoken moreover when speech was costly, bearing witness for the prisoner of conscience, pleading for the journalist that his pen be not broken, and reminding all who would hear that the dignity of man is no gift of any government but the endowment of the Creator, which no earthly power may lawfully rescind.
For all these offices, small and great, seen and unseen, we say: God save thee, and prosper the work of thy hands. Thou art a candle in a wide room; thy flame is little, yet by it many have found their way.
To the Governors of Togo: Now, with all due reverence yet with plainness of speech, I turn me unto the governors of Togo, unto them that sit in the seats of authority at Lomé.
Hear me, ye magistrates: freedom is not negotiable. It is no coin to be haggled over in the bazaar of politics. It is no favour to be dispensed in season and withheld out of season, as a lord tosseth scraps unto his hounds. It is no privilege granted unto the compliant and denied unto the outspoken. Freedom is the birthright of every soul that draweth breath beneath thy skies, the fisherman at Aného, the weaver at Kara, the student at his books, the mother at her hearth. It was theirs before thy ministries were raised; it shall be theirs when thy ministries are dust.
Ye may delay it; ye cannot destroy it. Ye may imprison the tongue; ye cannot imprison the thought. Ye may darken the town square; ye cannot darken the heart wherein liberty keepeth her lamp burning. History is a stern schoolmaster, and her lesson is ever the same: the throne that resteth upon fear standeth upon sand, but the government that resteth upon the consent of the governed is builded upon rock.
Therefore, I counsel thee, not as an enemy but as one that wisheth thy nation well, open wide the gates. Let the ballot be honest and the count be true. Let the press write freely and the assembly gather peaceably. Let thy critics speak, for a wise prince learneth more from one honest critic than from a thousand flatterers. Do this, and thy names shall be written in honour; refuse, and the tide of history shall write them otherwise. For no wall was ever builded so high that liberty could not o’erleap it, and no night was ever so long that morning did not follow it.
A Tale from America’s Annals. Suffer me now to tell a tale from America’s own chronicles, that the people of Togo may draw from it both counsel and courage.
In the year of grace eighteen hundred and fourteen, there stood a lawyer, one Francis Scott Key, upon the deck of a ship in the harbour of Baltimore. All the night long the guns of a mighty foe thundered against the fort called McHenry; the heavens were rent with fire, and no man knew whether the defenders yet stood or had fallen. And Key kept watch through the darkness, his heart suspended betwixt hope and despair.
But when the dawn brake grey over the water, lo, the banner yet waved above the ramparts. Battered it was and rent by shot, yet it stood. And Key, beholding it, took up his pen and wrote of the flag that flew still through the perilous night, and asked of his countrymen the question that echoeth unto this day: doth that banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Mark well, O people of Togo, what this vision teacheth. Key sang not of a victory easily won. He sang of a long night endured, of bombardment suffered, of a dawn awaited in faith. The lesson is not that freedom cometh without cost, but that they who hold fast through the darkness shall see the morning, and that the truest anthem of a nation is written not in her hours of ease but in her hours of trial.
Rise Up, O Togo! Sons and daughters of Togo, I say unto thee: rise up.
Rise up, not with the torch of the destroyer but with the lamp of the citizen. Not with the fist that striketh, but with the voice that will not be silenced, the vote that will not be sold, the conscience that will not be bought. For the mightiest revolutions are not wrought by mobs in the street but by peoples that stand together in dignity and say with one accord: we shall be free.
Rise up, thou student, and let thy learning be a sword of truth. Rise up, thou trader of the Grand Marché, and know that thine industry deserveth laws that serve thee, not masters that fleece thee. Rise up, thou mother, and claim for thy children a country wherein they may speak without fear and dream without limit. Rise up, thou elder, and pour thy wisdom into the vessels of the young.
Be as Key upon the water: keep watch through the night and despair not, though the bombardment be long. Every people that now walketh in liberty once walked in darkness and endured. Thy night, too, shall have its dawn; and when it breaketh, let it find thee standing, patient, peaceable, unbowed, with thine own banner yet waving.
And unto America, and unto her embassy in Lomé, we say: stand thou with thy people of Togo. Be unto Togo as the watchman that crieth the approach of morning. For liberty is one family the world over, and when one nation of that family cometh into her inheritance, all her sisters rejoice.
Now therefore let the word go forth, from the gulf unto the savannah:
Freedom is not negotiable. It never was. It never shall be.
By: Ben Djagba Salt Lake City, Utah July 4th 2026
Oration On Liberty! Addressed to the People and Governors of Togo
