For the past several years, I have made a practice of spending the Fourth of July — not gawking at the mindless entertainment of fireworks, nor cheering brass marching bands, nor hanging out and drinking beer at barbecues — but rather quietly contemplating (and thereby celebrating) the Declaration of Independence, the unanimous ratification of which, by the elected Continental Congress in 1776, was registered on this day.
So let’s begin (as I always do) by looking at Paragraph 2 — the iconic lines, written by Thomas Jefferson, and carefully revised by a top-notch editorial subcommittee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, and John Adams, that set forth the main thesis of this declaration:
“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 power from the consent of the governed…”
Even allowing for the unconscious patriarchal premises of this statement (the use, that is, of “men” as a synonym for “human beings,”) coupled with a devout belief — again universally accepted in Europe and its colonies at the time — in a “creator” god (in a time well before Darwin) — this statement sets forth a truly remarkable, and still revolutionary, theory of government.
While every other nation on the planet was born entirely of historical contingencies — shared languages, ethnic ties, and border-defining conflicts with neighboring tribes, kingdoms, or factions — ours, rooted in speculations by the foremost political theorists of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Europe (who are now known, collectively, as “the European Enlightenment”) — was based on a radical departure from every prior theory of government, implicit or explicit, on the planet.
Prior to this, the dominant theory of government throughout the world had been (and for much of the world, still is) authoritarian. Whether the strongman figure was a hereditary monarch, a warlord who had seized power, or the leader of a popular uprising, the assumption was that he (or occasionally she) was divinely ordained to rule over all others. Furthermore, a large body of political theory had grown up to support this trope of absolute rule, based on divine ordination — whether it was “the divine right of kings” in Europe or “the mandate of Heaven” in China, or the belief in the divine ancestry of the monarch himself, as in the Pharaohs of Egypt or the modern-day Emperor of Japan. In all these cases, loyalty to the king (or reigning queen) was mandatory, while any form of opposition to the ruler’s will was treason, punishable by death. And while, in Europe, the duty of the sovereign was only to God, the duty of all his (or her) subjects was only to the sovereign, through his appointed representatives. In short, the power of the ruler was absolute, and disobedience meant death.
Democracy, of course, began in the ancient Greek city states, and primarily in Athens, under the inspired leadership of Pericles. But even then, the only participants were property-holding free males, who comprised roughly 30% of the population, excluding both women and bondslaves (who were mostly POWs). And it was fragile, first overthrown by Peisistratus, and then by Athens’ defeat by Sparta, and finally crushed by the Macedonian conquest under Phillip (Father of Alexander) in 338 BC.
But the US was unique, in that democratic principles were clearly embedded in its national charter, the Declaration of Independence, which marked its birth as a sovereign entity, free of British rule. So in that sense, the only thing that makes us “Americans,” regardless of ethnicity, social class, or heritage, is the Declaration itself, and the principles it articulates.
This being, the case, the Declaration always repays close reading, to help us understand who we really are, and what principles unite us as a people. So let’s take a close look at the above quote, which is the cornerstone of this iconic document:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…”
Self-evident is the first key term here; it means truths that any reasonable person would accept without requiring any evidence to support it. Ordinary examples are usually rooted in physical science and/or human perception, e.g. “if you drop a wine glass on a hard floor from a certain height, it will shatter.” Or “the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.” But Jefferson, et al. are making a much bolder claim here: that any reasonable person can see that all “men” (i.e. human beings in their common understanding of that term) are created equal.
“Equal” in what sense? As we all know (also “self-evident”), people differ widely in their talents and skills, as well as their size, body type, disposition, social advantages or disadvantages, and so forth. So we must look to the following statement as an appositive, to understand what the authors mean by “equal” in this context: “that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is what they meant by “equal.” People are “equal” in that they have equal rights from birth. No one is born any “higher” than anyone else.
An “unalienable” (or inalienable) right is one which, by definition, cannot be arbitrarily taken away by any authority without cause (determined by due process of law). All people, that is, have the right to live, the right to say what they think and live their lives as they please (as long as they do not restrict others’ rights to do likewise), and the right to pursue their interests and passions as they wish. These rights are “self-evident” because we all expect them for ourselves, and therefore have no right to prevent others from doing likewise.
One obvious note here about the main author. As everyone knows, Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong slaveholder, who though theoretically opposed to this cruel and barbarous institution, spent his entire career owning, buying, selling, and benefitting from his enslaved labor force, both in his home and on the expansive tobacco fields that formed the basis of his wealth. His hypocrisy and moral cowardice regarding this abhorrent institution is likewise self-evident. So I make no attempt to defend him on this score. Like the entire ruling landowner class of Virginia in which he was born and raised, and which he supported and defended to his death, he was in complete denial about the horrific institution that formed the foundation of their whole economy, along with the blatantly racist ideology which rationalized it.
And yet…and yet…a true, dyed-in-the-wool racist could easily have written “all white men are created equal” to ensure that no one misunderstood the implications. Yet Jefferson declined to make such a qualification. So while we must condemn his personal hypocrisy and racist attitudes, we nevertheless must avoid the ad hominem fallacy of mistaking the man himself for the ideas he expressed. Who among us, after all, has always practiced what we preach? But does our own hypocrisy invalidate the principles we espouse? As Hamlet says, “Use every man after his deserts, and who shall ‘scape whipping?”
And so we go on. The next sentence, in my view, is the most important sentence in the whole document — even more important than “all men are created equal.” So let’s read it carefully, once again:
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.” (italics mine). This sentence succinctly outlines a theory of government that is diametrically opposed to monarchy, fascism, or any other form of authoritarian government. And this too, is what it means, above all, to be an American. Here is the breakdown of what this theory of government entails:
1. That governments are instituted among [people] — not imposed by divine, military, or any other fiat upon an unwilling population.
2. That the sole legitimate purpose of government is to secure the rights of “all men” (i.e. all people) to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — not to enrich the already rich, nor to oppress or demonize the poor and marginalized, nor to destroy the natural environment upon which our lives depend, nor to impinge upon our liberties to read what we wish and speak our minds freely, nor to prevent women from making their own reproductive choices, nor to deny health care to those who are sick, or education to those eager to learn.
3. That the legitimacy of any government depends entirely on the consent of the governed, as expressed in free and fair elections — not fascist insurrections.
It follows, therefore, that to be an American is to be anti-fascist. Let us all keep this in mind, as corporate-backed, antidemocratic, fascist forces spearheaded by loathsome, malignant would-be dictators and supported by mass propaganda networks are threatening our democracy today, as never before. Happy Fourth of July!