On this date in 1776, July 2nd, The Resolution
for Independence was signed. Some thought this would be the document and the
date that would be celebrated. According to Wikipedia, it resolved that the
Thirteen Colonies in America were "free and independent States,"
separated from the British Empire and creating what became the United States of
America. It was the act of the body. But it was not yet the declaration to the
world. That came two days later, July 4th, 1776. I’m glad we went
with celebrating the declaration to the world, rather than the resolution of
the Continental Congress. For one reason, it says why becoming a separate and
independent nation was proper and good. And it said it beautifully:
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.
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| The Declaration of Independence |
There are ideas there that had never in the history of the
world been put together as the reason to establish a new nation. Where liberty
has spread around the world, it has happened because these ideas rang true for
additional people. The ideas were revolutionary. And they are timeless.
A day or two ago Ben Shapiro mentioned on his show the
speech President Calvin Coolidge gave in Philadelphia in celebration of the 150th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I hadn’t been familiar with that
speech, so I looked it up. Here we are 94 years later, and the words are still
fresh and true. Maybe even more apparently true for those of us witnessing the
assault on our ideals.
So I’d like to share some of his message. The rest of these
quotes are all from Calvin Coolidge in that speech.
These are the reasons for our celebration:
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| President Calvin Coolidge image from here |
[T]o reaffirm and
reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic
of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting
interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn
for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those
two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever
perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the
knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an
adequate defense and protection.
This birth of a new nation was not based on geography or
tribe, as had been the basis for all new nations heretofore. This new nation
was based on principles. I highlighted the three main principles:
It was not because it was
proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a
nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of
the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world
unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time
usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the
principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite
propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and
therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that
therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the
consent of the governed.
Even the act of declaring independence showed the order of a
self-governing people:
It was the fact that our
Declaration of Independence containing these immortal truths was the political
action of a duly authorized and constituted representative public body in its
sovereign capacity, supported by the force of general opinion and by the armies
of Washington already in the field, which makes it the most important civil
document in the world. It was not only the principles declared, but the fact
that therewith a new nation was born which was to be founded upon those
principles and which from that time forth in its development has actually
maintained those principles, that makes this pronouncement an incomparable
event in the history of government.
It was an orderly process. It wasn’t rebellion, but
resistance to usurpations. It conserved rights the citizens had come to
expect from lawful order:
The Declaration of
Independence was the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the
dominant portion of the people of the Colonies. Adopted after long discussion
and as the result of the duly authorized expression of the preponderance of
public opinion, it did not partake of dark intrigue or hidden conspiracy. It
was well advised. It had about it nothing of the lawless and disordered nature
of a riotous insurrection. It was maintained on a plane which rises above the
ordinary conception of rebellion. It was in no sense a radical movement but
took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations. It was conservative
and represented the action of the colonists to maintain their constitutional
rights which from time immemorial had been guaranteed to them under the law of
the land.
It was the movement of the people. Who were these people?
It was in no sense a rising
of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the
reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the
people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If
they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities,
but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American
Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of
independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and
possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.
These were God-loving people. That made their movement a spiritual
movement. An irreligious people couldn’t have come up with those three founding
ideals. And the people recognized the morality of their movement; they
recognized God’s stamp upon it:
…Thomas Jefferson, who
acknowledged that his “best ideas of democracy” had been secured at church
meetings.
Samuel Adams could say “The
people seem to recognize this resolution as though it were a decree promulgated
from heaven.”
They preached equality
because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They
justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all
partakers of the divine spirit.
Placing every man on a plane
where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule
over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of
self-government. This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines
would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country.
This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have
freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action,
whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the Colonies. These
great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say
of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.
In its main features the
Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration
not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular
sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and
touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious
convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American
people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our
Declaration will perish.
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| our family Bible |
Their intellectual life
centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship.
While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who
had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much
engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were
going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide
acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures
the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only
in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political
thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual
development and acquired a great moral power.
To carry out this self-governing experiment required a
self-governing people. The documents are things of beauty, but, without the
people acting on them, they would be simply pieces of paper with fancy writing
on them:
The people have to bear
their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be
shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws,
that creates the character of a nation.
There might be governing details that can be improved upon,
new laws written. But those three founding principles cannot be improved. They
are the final word. Progress exists only in adhering to them. Any other
direction is regression:
About the Declaration there
is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world
has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and
new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that
day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for
something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great
charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with
inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made
beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their
soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not
forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of
the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that
direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are
not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
It is often asserted that
the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new
thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the
people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their
conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to
this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are
endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no
progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth
or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is
not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights
of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that
direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are
not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
Looking back, we see the fruits of a nation that has put
these ideals into action:
In all the essentials we
have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even
in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider
and wider distribution of wealth. The rights of the individual are held sacred
and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is
bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established
beyond question, it is self-government—the right of the people to rule. If
there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there
is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them.
It would do us well to understand their thoughts, so we can continue
to think them:
Under a system of popular
government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by
clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere,
there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little
of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our
institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in
any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of
them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our
forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of
action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand
their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We
must think the thoughts which they thought.
We’re in great need of a review of the ideals that went into
the founding of our great nation. To forget is to lose. I remember. As it says
in the third verse of our national anthem,
Oh,
thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between
their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest
with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise
the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then
conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And
this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And
the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er
the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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