The ink was barely dry on the Declaration of Independence when disaster struck our fledgling Republic. British Regulars landed in Long Island and nearly destroyed George Washington and his Continental Army. The plan of battle was designed by General James Grant, the former governor of Florida who once owned and operated an indigo plantation in Ponte Vedra near Guana. Grant’s plan was flawless and sent the Americans reeling back to Manhattan. Washington barely escaped. American soldiers seeking to surrender were slaughtered by Hessian troops. Later Washington would escape to New Jersey where Cornwallis would chase him all the way across the state into Pennsylvania. George Washington and our new Republic were humiliated. Many expected that neither would survive that first long, cold winter.

What we now call the United States needed a miracle. Washington had with him some young lads from Cape Cod commanded by Colonel Glover. They called themselves “Glover’s Amphibians” and had already worked miracles. It was Glover’s men that ferried Washington and his army from Long Island to Manhattan, from Manhattan to New Jersey, and from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Washington needed him again. The father of our country had an audacious plan. He would have Glover ferry his troops across the Delaware River and attack the Hessians quartered in Trenton on the day after Christmas. The code word that night was “victory or death.” Washington took the British by surprise, driving the Red Coats from New Jersey and saving the Revolution and his career.

There is something about this holiday season leading into the New Year that fills us all with hope for a brighter future. Everything seems possible. All of our dreams can come true. The promise of the New Year beckons us into a lustrous future. It has not always been obvious in the moment, but that future has always been brighter than anyone in the moment ever imagined. Seventy-six years ago this December, the future did not look bright at all. The Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and we were plunged into a war for which we were woefully unprepared. German submarines were already on the way to our shores to sink our ships and kill our sailors. It did not seem like a good time to invest in stocks, but it was.

Today, again, the future seems uncertain. Will there be jobs? Will people be needed? Will we rip our nation, even our world, apart in a sea of acrimony? The answer is no. Our future is as bright today as it ever has been, possibly brighter. Civilization always advances. America always advances. One of the ways to measure that advance is by charting the advance of the stock market. Since that scary Christmas 76 years ago, the stock market has risen inexorably. If you expect that things will suddenly change, that civilization will suddenly collapse — you’re wrong. Everyone who ever made that bet, lost. I give a popular speech about a submarine attack 75 years ago off of Jacksonville Beach. The speech always ends with the same words: “Never bet against the United States of America and never bet against the stock market.”

Scott A. Grant is President of Standfast Asset Management in Ponte Vedra Beach. He welcomes your comments or questions at scottg@standfastic.com.