The Wisdom of the Declaration of Independence

On this day 248 years ago, America’s true founding document, the Declaration of Independence, was adopted. If you grew up in America, you have hopefully read the Declaration and been educated about its significance.However, despite its status as the most important document in American history, most people couldn’t quote more than a few lines from it. Most don’t know the beauty of its form and the courage it took to be one of its signatories.Although a short essay will never do it justice, to celebrate the 4th of July, here are a few of the most substantive elements of the document that can serve as reminders from the Founding Fathers for Americans today.“They are endowed by their Creator”The most well-known line from the Declaration starts the second paragraph, “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.”In reference to “their creator,” most non-Christian Americans will argue that this isn’t arguing for a Christian creator because Thomas Jefferson himself was a deist. However, this understanding of a creator fails to justify why the creator would endow humans with specific rights. If the creator was just a “first mover” of the universe, why would he care about the creatures of a specific planet?Therefore, only a religious creator, and in the case of America, a Christian creator, could grant specific “unalienable Rights” to human beings. Since this sentence is the foundation for the rest of the Declaration and, therefore, the American governing system, America is a Christian country.“A Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations”To justify the independence from Britain, Jefferson points to “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Because of the severity of these injuries, Jefferson argues that a revolution to declare independence from this tyranny is justified.Unfortunately, though, most of the injuries listed could’ve been written today. For example, “For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.” The same thing has happened in the case of many who peacefully participated in Jan. 6, many of whom were imprisoned for multiple years without trial, oftentimes in solitary confinement.In addition, the most important injuries of the British Crown were the injuries that restricted their ability to govern themselves: “He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”Today, these injuries are again a reality. Numerous wars overseas that do not help American interests, the establishment of lockdowns for a disease not significantly worse than the flu for the young and healthy, and the restriction of speech show that we are again in a situation where the people who write the laws aren’t primarily accountable to the American people. Rather, similar to the founding, our lawmakers primarily represent the interests of unelected officials, lobbyists, and specific overseas interest groups. This is by no means a call to violent revolution, but acting like the American system today is business as usual and doesn’t require foundational reform betrays the country the founders created.“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”This Declaration did not come without sacrifice. To secure the freedoms outlined in this document, the signatories put their lives on the line to support the ideal of self-governance: “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.”This wasn’t an empty promise, either. During the Revolutionary War, five of the signers were captured and tortured as traitors, and nine died from wounds or diseases they received fighting the war. Two lost their sons in the war, and two others sons were captured. A dozen had their homes pillaged and burned.On the contrary, today, most won’t fight for what they believe because they are afraid of the harassment they might receive. They won’t push back against DEI in their schools or workplaces for fear of losing their friends or jobs.This is the exact opposite mentality of the founders, who were all willing to be jailed, tortured, and killed to support their vision for America. To secure our freedoms as Americans, those fighting for America will again need to put their responsibilities to their fellow countryman above their own self-interest.Happy 4th of July.