 This was a fire that burned in Independence Hall in 1776, when 56 men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish this nation. It's a fire that burned at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when our nation's first Republican president pledged this nation to a new birth of freedom. It's a fire that burned at the foot of the Berlin Wall in 1987, when our nation's 40th president