As we all know, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It’s worth reminding ourselves, as Americans, of the profound significance of this document, how revolutionary it was at the time, how remarkably well it has endured, and how crucial it is that we protect it and hold to its tenets.
It famously begins:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are 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. . .
Our founders boldly repudiated the ancient chains of aristocracy. They declared that the circumstances of one’s birth should no longer determine the path of one’s life. As all men are equal in the eyes of God, no longer would some be born to govern, with others born to be governed. The inhibiting, confining labels of peasant and aristocrat would no longer apply. Legislative power would be achieved through election, not inheritance.
Spurred on by this radical notion, the leaders of thirteen rather disparate new world colonies joined together at the Second Continental Congress and decided to form a republic separate from Britain. We refer to July 4, 1776 as the birthday of the United States, but on that day, there was no new country, only the novel and admirable idea behind its existence. That’s American optimism, for sure. The forward-looking founders willed our democracy into existence, but it took seven years of hard-fought war to make it a reality. There would be chaos, uncertainty, suffering, and immense sacrifice.
In the two and a half centuries since we triumphed, against all odds, in that brutal war of independence, our democratic experiment has continued to evolve. Expanding the term “all men” to include black men, as well as women, required another four terrible years of war and decades of civil rights activism.
Today, we see efforts toward limiting the broad category of “all men.” I watch with dismay at imaginative, persistent, and anti-Constitutional attempts to remove those so-called unalienable rights from certain people who are deemed less worthy than others. I watch with disbelief as similarly stunning endeavors are made to erode our democracy in a myriad of ways. I’m aghast as Congress lies supine in submission, having willingly relinquished all due power. So much for those three co-equal branches of government. That these lawmakers, elected by their peers, yield to a president whose only allegiance is to the twin black holes of his ego and greed, is all the more incomprehensible.
In these baffling and mentally exhausting days, I find particular inspiration in the examples of two of the wisest, and unlikeliest heroes our country has ever produced: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Frederick Douglass (1818- 1895.) Both men overcame huge obstacles on their winding roads to national prominence. Both endured great personal tragedy, avoided bitterness, and offered words of encouragement that we’d do well to take to heart right now.
Next post: Valuable Advice from Abraham Lincoln