Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, our nation declared its independence from the British empire with the adoption by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence, a document written almost a year after the commencement of the Revolutionary War to explain and justify the position of the former colonies who were revolting from the tyrannical rule of the King of England, George III. That document, as a statement of principle, has become a cornerstone of our democracy.
The nation that was founded upon that Declaration and the subsequently-enacted Constitution was very different from the one we live in today. In 1776, there were approximately 3.6 million citizens of the 13 original states, today’s population of Oklahoma. Their lives were primitive by today’s standards, and most had little education as we know it. The writers of the Declaration were exceptional men for any age, but especially for that time. The “divine Providence” – upon whose protection the signers of the Declaration of Independence stated that they relied – can be credited with bringing together these remarkable men to achieve such a remarkable result.
The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, contains some of the most famous, eloquent, inspirational words in the world: “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.”
Inspirational words, indeed. Yet, it was not a perfect world. Despite the declaration that all men are created equal and entitled to liberty, slavery – which denied liberty and did not recognize equality – existed at the writing of the Declaration, and would legally continue in this country for another hundred years. The promotion of liberty and equality in a country that tolerated the slavery of other human beings was a contradiction that was accepted or ignored by the founders of our country.
Almost a hundred years later, in 1863, that concept of freedom and equality of all persons was adopted by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, when he spoke the words that are equally eloquent, equally famous: “Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
At the time those word were spoken, Lincoln and the country were involved in a great war to resolve the moral and economic issue of slavery that had severely divided the county and threatened to bring an end to the United States. The nation was held together by that war, and slavery formally ended, although liberty and equality continued to be something less than an unalienable right for a large portion of the nation’s citizens, a condition that would continue largely unchanged for yet another hundred years.
In 1963, one hundred years after Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a March on Washington was held by a hundred thousand people from across America to protest the deprivation of civil rights to the country’s minorities. On that occasion, Martin Luther King, Jr., made what became known as his “I Have A Dream” speech, in which he described the consequences of discrimination and segregation, and then invoked the Declaration of Independence:
“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. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
King then invoked those famous words of the Declaration: “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. … When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Almost sixty years have passed since that speech. Legislation has been passed and court decisions rendered since that time that have made the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – “truths” that were considered by the writers of the Declaration of Independence to be “self-evident” 230 years ago — available to more and more Americans. As a result, the United States has made much progress toward ensuring that its citizens have liberty and equality.
Yet, we as a nation are still not at the point where that American dream is available to all of our citizens. So much still depends on the color of one’s skin, one’s gender, one’s sexual preferences, one’s religion and political thinking. The deprivation of the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness today is not so much a matter of legal deprivation – although some of that still exists – but one of attitudes of the majority toward the minority. While it is not always easy to change laws, there are many ways that can be done. It is far more difficult to change deeply-ingrained attitudes.
A Federal Judge with the unusual name of Learned Hand once wrote: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”
Statements of ideals such as those contained in the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and the immortal speeches of our leaders inspire us to strive for a more perfect union. They, perhaps more than laws, can mold our hearts and minds to desire liberty and the fulfillment of the American dream for our fellow citizens.
(Richard Mays, a Heber Springs attorney and environmentalist, offers a liberal viewpoint on politics and social issues in each Friday’s edition)
