Highlights from our Declaration of Independence
The Declaration, penned largely by then-33-year-old Thomas Jefferson but also contributed to by other giants of American history like then-70-year-old Benjamin Franklin, is the founding document of the United States of America, pre-dating any Constitution.
But when was the last time you read it?
In my most recent reading, I found two passages within that I felt were worth highlighting this year as we celebrate the founding of our country.
“…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”
This passage sets out the purpose of government. While there are often snide comments from all political stripes about what the government accomplishes, doesn’t accomplish, or what its purpose is, the stated purpose upon the founding of our country is to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Furthermore, it says that if our government — whether a king or Congress — is not aiding but instead hindering that pursuit, it is our right to change it, and later, within the Constitution, we were given the democratic methods to do that, state by state. But the declaration pre-dates both other founding documents, the original 1781 Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution that followed it in 1787. And then the Bill of Rights was added in 1791, proving that our country is one of change.
I make this point because there is an idea that the rules the United States were founded upon are perfect and immutable in some way, but that’s simply not true. From the very inception of the United States, the founders knew the government needed to be able to change — because they were in the midst of changing it themselves. For whatever flaws they may have had as individuals, they at least acknowledged they weren’t creating a perfect country, and that it would need to be changed from time to time.
The second part I’d like to highlight is the very end of the Declaration.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The wealthy, influential men signing this document knew they were headed into a war that could destroy them in ways other than death. Great Britain was distant, but still a vastly more powerful nation than the colonies. The founding fathers stated they were willing to sacrifice everything they had, and everything they were, to keep an infant country together and fight the gigantic imperial power. They couldn’t hide their fortunes in offshore accounts or move their headquarters to a foreign country as a tax shelter. They were all-in on America.
But while today’s Americans often talk of their willingness to lay down their lives for their country (secure in the knowledge they won’t likely ever be asked to do so) when is the last time you heard someone pledge their fortune to it? Or their honor?
I think it’s worth remembering that being a soldier in the military isn’t the only way to make a sacrifice for the good of your fellow Americans. You can give of any talent you have. If you have the gift of music, write an American anthem. If you’re a writer, perhaps you can be the next Henry David Thoreau. You might give your time to a charitable cause, or perhaps use it to serve in a local elected office. If you have a talent for making money, that’s great; share it with your country by paying your taxes fairly.
Because the last sentence of our Declaration isn’t about casting off the oppression of a king in order to protect personal fortunes. It’s about the sacrifices they knew, at all ages, might be in their futures as they tried to secure a better one for their States and their neighbors.