For The Fourth Of July: The Declaration Of Independence

The link is here.

OS hopes you take a moment to read it again.

Notice the clear use of language, and contrast it with our current culture's love of spin, of nuance, of deniability. Jefferson wrote eloquently, with the intent of conveying ideas with power and clarity. No spin here, friends and neighbors.

Also, observe the dual appeal to both Providence and Reason. Not either/or, but both. The French Revolution spurned Providence, and soon lost any sense of Reason. It disintegrated into a bloodbath, and ushered in Bonaparte, who bathed the world in suffering. Sans both Providence and Reason, any enterprise is doomed from the beginning.

Finally, these men had skin in the game. They knew signing that document was an act of treason against the Crown, and they knew that potentially meant the loss of all things--wealth, freedom, family, life itself. They signed anyway, big, clear signatures, to let the world clearly know who they were and what they were about.

OS's prayer on this July 4 is that we reclaim that clarity, that faith in both Providence and Reason, and the courage to live our lives with that sort of skin in the game.

July 4 is an anniversary of sorts for OS. The entire tale cannot be told, but on July 4, 1988, OS heard those words recited at a neighborhood celebration, and summoned the courage to make some large decisions about life. Sitting here now, surveying the scene, he could not possibly have imagined what awaited him. It was a long war to get here, and OS is pretty scarred-up from some of the battles he had to fight.

But he wouldn't trade it for the world.

Thanks, Mr. Jefferson. God bless the United States of America.

Lincoln On The Declaration Of Independence: 'Let Me Entreat You To Come Back'

Compliments of the University of Michigan Library Collected Works of Lincoln project.

In 1858, the United States were coming unraveled over the question of slavery, among several vexing issues.  The radical abolitionists, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison were unbending in their calls for immediate abolition, irrespective of consequences. Garrison himself, at times,  had called for dissolution of the Union over the question. Those on the other side of the question were just as unbending. Lincoln stood in the middle, for both the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery. It was a lonely stance at the time, as blood was already being spilled in the western territories. Lincoln pointed out that the founders attempted to address the long-term quandry by banning the slave-trade after 1808 in the Constitution. Obviously, this did not work, but he maintained that the effort was a noble intent, and warned against vilifying the Founders because their solution was imperfect. He appealed to the Declaration of Independence as the core set of ideas by which America should be defined, and by which all decisions should be judged.

This is an account of Lincoln's remarks, as transcribed by a stenographer:

[begin excerpt]

(Chicago Press and Tribune, August 21, 1858. The fragmentary text of this speech as given in the Press and Tribune was widely copied in other papers. Although there are reports in other papers originating from other correspondents, only this one gives a verbatim transcription of any considerable portion of the speech.)

These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: ``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.''

This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. [Applause.]

Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They 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 courage 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 being built. [Loud cheers.]

Now, my countrymen (Mr. Lincoln continued with great earnestness,) if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution.

Think nothing of me---take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever---but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.

You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of Humanity---the Declaration of American Independence.

Words That Sing Through History: The Declaration Of Independence

Here you will find the link to a transcription of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.

It's always a good thing to review these words from time to time, just to keep them fresh in one's mind. OldSouth offers them in the hope that they will be read slowly and deliberately. Thomas Jefferson did not mince words, each one was carefully chosen. In Jefferson's world, words were serious things, and each had meaning.

It was an announcement, to be sure, but also as an explanation, an appeal to reason, a plea for support from the rest of the world. The signers knew that they were in uncharted waters, committing treason against the Crown, so a careful explanation was in order.

(OS has taken the liberty of formatting the copy for ease of reading.)

It's the opening of the second paragraph that sings through 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all 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.

Words have meaning. Well-crafted words, crafted to be read in public, have a peculiar power.

If you have ever been in a crowd of people on July 4, and heard these words decalimed verbatim, you probably have sensed that collective sense of awe that so often asserts itself on the occasion. Some twenty-two years ago, on one hot July 4, OldSouth, a much younger man, stood in a crowd, heard these words, sensed that a whole lot more was possible in his life than he had perhaps suspected. He decided to take action to live out those possibilities, because it was just not going to be possible for the present state of affairs to continue. It had become a matter of life-or-death, change-or-die in 1988, just like in 1776. The details don't matter, but the decision led a war of sorts in his world, and a new life built out of the ashes. It wasn't pleasant, it wasn't pretty, but all OS now has and is flows from that decision. He owes Mr. Jefferson a real debt.

The final paragraph has a power of its own. It is the definition of freedom itself.

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.


A most happy Fourth of July, wherever you are in the world.