Take time to reflect on the Declaration of Independence

OPINION

BY LEN CABRERA

Today we celebrate the birth of our nation: the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is a unique document that makes our country special. Unlike the Constitution, which is a technical document about the organization of our government as a representative republic, the Declaration defines who we are as a nation. We are not a nation defined by race, by ethnicity, by language, or by custom. We are a nation founded on a creed: the idea that all individuals are created equal with rights granted by God, not government.

The Declaration spells out six inviolable principles on the morality of a just government in the most powerful 85 words of any governing document in history:

“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, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”

1. Natural rights from God

Our Declaration states that all individuals are born with natural rights from God, not from government, not from historical precedent, and not from the whims of the majority. The author of the document, Thomas Jefferson, wrote: “The god who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” Just because government can prevent the free exercise of your rights does not mean that you do not have those rights; it is just a sign that you are controlled by an illegitimate government, probably one that questions the legitimacy of our founding documents. Jefferson also wrote, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?”

2. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

The signers of the Declaration did not feel the need to enumerate all our rights, but simply listed three all-encompassing terms: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These terms were clearly understood at the time. James Madison, author of our Constitution, warned against adopting a Bill of Rights because enumerating any list of rights would restrict our natural rights and imply that the specific rights listed originate from government rather than God.

During the discussions leading to the final version of the Declaration, the original language changed from “property” to “pursuit of happiness” to make the term even more broad. Also implied in the Declaration is a natural right to self-defense. Several years before the Declaration, Samuel Adams, one of the signers, wrote:

Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.

(Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists, Nov 20, 1772)

John Adams went even further in explaining the importance of property in the pursuit of happiness: 

If all were to be decided by a vote of the majority… Perhaps, at first,… shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich… but the time would not be long before pretexts… [would] be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors. Debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich… and at last a downright equal division of every thing be demanded, and voted… The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law… to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet,’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.

(John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, Vol. 3, Chpt. 1)

James Madison pointed out that the term “property” is more than just physical stuff: “In its larger and juster meaning, [property] embraces every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to every one else the like advantage. In the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandize, or money is called his property. In the latter sense, a man has property in his opinions and the free communication of them.” He went on to write, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property” and that it is more sacred than a man’s castle.

3. Government is supposed to protect rights

Our Declaration clearly states the purpose of government is to protect our unalienable rights.

The Founders were idealists but were practical enough to know that government is a necessary evil. Without government, the law of the jungle means the strongest will oppress the weakest. Government should not just protect us from common thugs and thieves but also from the powerful within the government who would abuse our rights. It was very eloquently stated in Federalist 51:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controuls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to controul the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to controul itself.

Federalist 51

James Madison wrote, “Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.” 

4. Government by consent of the governed

On issues not affecting individual rights, government may exercise just powers primarily for the safety and stability of society, but it must be based on the consent of the governed. That means that an elected representative branch should make laws and big societal decisions, not unaccountable executive agencies or the judiciary, and definitely not sources outside the society like international organizations or foreign citizens.

5. All men are created equal

The most controversial statement in the Declaration, the one that set our nation apart from all others, consists of these five words: “all men are created equal.” While our society has not always lived up to the ideal, the phrase was always understood to mean every individual is equal in access to and defense of unalienable rights. This is not equality in societal outcomes, which runs counter to natural laws because some will always be stronger, smarter, more disciplined, etc.

While modern-day critics want to ignore our Founders because some were hypocritical slave owners at the time they signed the Declaration, true statesmen have used these ideals to make our nation better by forcing it to live up to the ideals. Abraham Lincoln did so in his 1858 Lewistown speech, arguing against Congress and the Supreme Court, using the Declaration of Independence to support the abolition of slavery: 

[Our Founders] erected a beacon to guide their children and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take course to renew the battle which their fathers began–so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was built.

(Abraham Lincoln, Lewistown speech, Aug 17, 1858)

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr., appealed to our founding documents to encourage all Americans to end segregation:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir… I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

(Martin Luthern King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech, Aug 28, 1963)

6. Consent of the governed

Perhaps the most ignored part of those powerful 85 words in the Declaration of Independence is the right and obligation of the people to alter or abolish a government that is destructive to our rights. In fact, it is mentioned a second time in the Declaration:

[A]ll experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Declaration of Independence

In many respects, our Constitution is a dead letter. It has been ignored for so long that the federal government doesn’t even pretend to limit itself to the specific enumerated powers in Article 1, Section 8. All levels of government try to insulate themselves from the people. Incumbent politicians serve for decades with little or no opposition. Judges have converted the condition of serving “during good Behaviour” into lifetime appointments. The executive bureaucracy hides behind civil service laws to undermine elected Presidents. They would all like us to forget the words of the Declaration of Independence.

Today, too many Americans insist that there is no Creator, that the right to life is a choice, that liberty should be restricted if someone gets offended, and that happiness is defined as equal outcomes for all. Independence Day is simply called The Fourth of July, an excuse to miss work and watch some fireworks. Fortunately, the American Revolution showed that a relatively small number of committed individuals can succeed in fighting for liberty.

We need to take time to reflect on Independence Day. Read the Declaration of Independence and think about what true liberty means. Consider the 27 grievances and compare them to current government abuses. If we do not recognize what it means to be free and independent, if our response to every problem is more government, we are guaranteeing a loss of freedom to future generations. Dependence on government grants power to government, and power inevitably leads to tyranny.