Have We Sold Our Birthright as Americans? Lessons From Esau

Reading the story of Esau and the birthright of Americans is a theme found among the writings of the Founding Fathers

Declaration of Independence
We hold these things to be self-evident that all men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

John Jay 

If then, God hath given us freedom, are we responsible to him for that, as well as other talents?  If it be our birthright, let us not sell it for a mess of pottage [referring to Esau selling his birthright], nor suffer it to be torn from us by the hand of violence!  If the means of defence are in our power and we do not make use of them, what excuse shall we make to our children and our Creator?  These are questions of the deepest concern to us all.  These are questions which materially affect our happiness, not only in this world, but in the world to come.

John Jay's "Christmas Address," Dec. 23, 1776

John Dickinson
“Had Almighty God been pleased to give Us our Existence in a Land of Slavery , the Sense of our Condition might have been mitigated by the Force of Education & habit.  But Thanks be to his adorable Goodness, We were born the Heirs of Freedom, and ever enjoyed our Right under the Auspices of your Royal Ancestors, whose Family  was seated on the British Throne, to secure a pious & gallant Nation from the Popery and Despotism, mediated by a superstitious, and inexorible Tyrant...We doubt not, but your royal Wisdom must approve the Sensibility, that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the Blessing they received from Divine Providence and thereby to prove the performance of that compact, that elevated the illustrious House of Brunswick to the Dignity it now possesses...

What is more important to Americans today?  Do they value their birthright with freedom as their most important denominator or have they sold it for some government benefit?