I figured I would write about the 229th anniversary of a Great Experiment that is still being played out today. 229 years ago, men from different backgrounds--planters, politicos, pamphleteers, merchants, philosophers--and different cultures--the rigid Puritanism of New England, the unique melding in the Middle Colonies, and the distinct culture of the South--came together to list their grievances to their monarch. I should say soon to be former monarch, as they would incite a revolution that would change the world and provide the greatest lamp of freedom the world has ever known.
I could write ad nauseum in history teacher mode about mercantilism and benign neglect, but I would choose to postulate some other musings on the dissolution of the bond with England. In the decades since they first came to the shores of Jamestown and Plymouth, the colonies had developed their own identity. They had developed a distinct style, a distinct way of thinking. Where did the ideas that led to the greatest beacon of freedom come from?
They came from America being more literate than the mother country. The philosophies of representative government had been germinating in higher circles. What led them to be put into practice in America had to do with their filtering down from the high courts of debate to the common American in the form of the popular literature of the time. After the Bible, political philosophy and thought were very highly printed. Enlightenment ideas had filtered down. While Hobbes was respected for his thoughts on government being a creation of man as opposed to a natural order (something the Greeks thought), Hobbes supported monarchy and ruthless running of government in the name of the common good. Locke and Montesquieu were really influential. Locke would become a fundamental part of this new experiment, with his ideals of the Social Contract, and the three God given rights of men--life, liberty and property (sound familiar?). These philosophies would be put to the test during that summer in Philly.
The delegates came together to list their grievances and their beliefs in the foundation of government. It was the fundamental consensus that any government exists to serve and protect the rights of the governed, not to serve its own interests. This was something that had never really been fully articulated, though the Rights of Man and the Magna Carta alluded to this principle. It was only the Declaration that gave it full voice and form.
These men have been derided as rich white men who cared only for their own profits and self interest. I beg to disagree. Many scholars have labeled them as rich effete idealists who didn't understand what they were getting into. Again, I disagree. The Founders were fully aware of the discord that would follow. Remember, the actual war had begun in 1774-5 with Lexington and Concord. These men soberly knew what they were doing, the toil, but they saw the sunny future beyond. The naysayers of the fighting for freedom today would be good to look at this letter from John Adams to his beloved Abigail in July of 1776:
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. - I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. - Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction
And they recognized that people would one day celebrate it, though perhaps in not the ways suggested, but there is some analogous celebration...Again, from John Adams:
The...Day...Will be the most memorable epoch, in the History of America.- I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
And what of these delegates, what about them and their fates? Here is an excellent article (not the standard urban legend tale on the net):
What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the Crown? To each of you the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock, and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?
I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.
With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th century.
Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so "that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward." Ben Franklin wryly noted: "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone."
These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember: a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor.
They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics, yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.
Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic is his concluding remarks: "Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens."
Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is still intact.
And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to the infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York harbor known as the hell ship "Jersey," where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."
Whether even these recountings are steeped in legend or hold many facts, the fact remains: these men risked their lives, pledging their lives, wealth and sacred honor, and they trusted in God. Yep, these men, of various religious beliefs, believed in a Divine Creator, who they felt would bless the cause of freedom, especially since Galatians 5:1 in the Bible says Christ came so men could be free. This same God surely would watch over the cause for freedom. Look at how reverentially the Almighty is invoked throughout the Declaration and the personal writings of the Founders. God was a big part of this nation, no matter what the revisionists might think.
But, not just these men, but the populace paid the price for freedom. Many homes were lost, fortunes destroyed, and families rent asunder. All of the Americans who lived in those times 'paid the price'.
Again, as the underappreciated John Adams wrote:
I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. - Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction
Those who oppose the fighting for freedom today would do well to think about the words of our 2nd President.
Freedom is worth that much....and so much more. Remember that as you swim in the pool or BBQ or go out to eat. This is not just a day off or a time to sleep in and watch pretty starbursts at night. This is the celebration of the founding of the greatest beacon of freedom in the world.
This day, the 4th of July, is celebrating the parchment that made possible the ending of slavery, the parchment that made possible a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated indeed, as Lincoln wrote, that ALL are created equal. The nation that would lead the charge against empires of Prussians and Turks, against Fascism and Tyranny, and that led the charge against dehumanizing godless Communism and its infringement on freedom and privacy, and which now leads the freedom against islamofascist fanatics who kill not for anything other than a twisted self-serving perversion of a religion. They kill not for freedom but for oppression, and America, true to her founding and roots, true to the words of Richard Henry Lee, exists as an example to freedom:
a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates .... She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose
Are we a perfect society? No, not by any means. Do we not have some dark times? Absolutely. Some of the founders were slaveholders, though many believed it a necessary evil that would die soon, but sadly the invention of the cotton gin changed that a bit. We have seen times where people have been excluded for what they looked like, but this birthday of our nation provided the foundations for the movements that united us through the years and provided the basis for the redress sought by those who may have been oppressed.
America has had some good and bad times, but if we stay true to the fundamental belief in rights given by a benevolent Creator, and respect the rights of our fellow man, we will ever move truly onward toward fulfilling the promise of the Shining City on a Hill that Winthrop envisisioned upon landing here so many years ago.
It all comes back to this:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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, ...
...We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --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.
God bless the founders of the unique American freedom, those who fought to establish it, those who fought to defend it, and those who defend freedom and seek its onward march today!
Happy Birthday America, May God shed His grace on thee!!!!!!
