Biden administration deletes 1776 Commission page from White House site

The Trump administration issued its 1776 Commission report on Monday, Jan. 18, and on Wednesday, Joe Biden's inauguration day, the page for the 1776 report was deleted.

President Trump announced the 1776 Commission in reaction to The New York Times 1619 Project, which he and many historians decried as false history. The executive order creating the 1776 Commission was signed just before the election in November, and its removal was one of the first orders of the Biden administration.

The Commission, designed to advocate for American exceptionalism and for recognizing America's greatness despite her faults, was touted as racist and white supremacist by those in the Biden camp.

The goal of the Commission, according to Trump, was to "teach our children about the miracle of American history" and to honor the 250th anniversary of America's founding. In the announcement, Trump lauded the US as "most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history."

The report said that "The facts of our founding are not partisan. They are a matter of history. Controversies about the meaning of the founding can begin to be resolved by looking at the facts of our nation’s founding.

"Properly understood, these facts address the concerns and aspirations of Americans of all social classes, income levels, races and religions, regions and walks of life. As well, these facts provide necessary—and wise—cautions against unrealistic hopes and checks against pressing partisan claims or utopian agendas too hard or too far."

The conclusion reads "Among the virtues to be cultivated in the American republic, the founders knew that a free people must have a knowledge of the principles and practices of liberty, and an appreciation of their origins and challenges.

"While this country has its imperfections, just like any other country, in the annals of history the United States has achieved the greatest degree of personal freedom, security, and prosperity for the greatest proportion of its own people and for others around the world.

"These results are the good fruit of the ideas the founding generation expressed as true for all people at all times and places.

"An authentic civics education will help rebuild our common bonds, our mutual friendship, and our civic devotion. But we cannot love what we do not know.

"This is why civics education, education relating to the citizen, must begin with knowledge, which is, as George Washington reminds us, 'the surest basis of public happiness.'"

It is unclear just what the Biden administration finds so objectionable about a Commission designed and implemented to make sure that American students are taught about civics, the working of government, our nation's history and founding, and her tumultuous past.

The removal of the 1776 Commission was one of more than a dozen executive orders Biden intended to undo on his first day in office.