In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.
Drafted by a distinguished committee headed by Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, the Declaration of Independence is one of the most memorable freedom documents of all time, proclaiming as it does, every human being's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
One of our Nation's Founding Fathers and our second U.S. president, John Adams of Massachusetts, left us some words to consider on this Fourth of July: "You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."
Adams and his political rival, Jefferson, our third U.S. president, both died on July 4, 1826, after several years of a fascinating correspondence in which they reconciled their differences.
Ten days before he died at Monticello, Jefferson sent a remarkable letter to the citizens of Washington, D.C. saying he was too ill to honor their invitation to be with them for their 50th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence.
While his words were addressed the citizens of Washington, Jefferson speaking to all future generations of Americans – to you and to me. You can read his letter here.
Jefferson's letter is considered one of the sublime exaltations of individual and national liberty -- his personal vision of the Declaration of Independence he helped to write and of the American nation as examples to the world of the blessings of self-government. In that last letter Jefferson expressed his wish that "the annual return of this day" would "forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."
What Would He Think?
It is disquieting to speculate, in light of Jefferson's admonitions about preserving our rights, what he would think should he return to see what has happened to those cherished rights in modern America.
Jefferson was a man of the world, a brilliant intellectual, but also a wily politician. I suspect that the third president of the United State might be surprised to see an African American serving as one of his successors.
Years before the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner himself, admitted the horrible nature of this institution. In his 1782 "Notes on Virginia" he made a prophetic statement in regard to U.S. slavery: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
Three Fifths of a Man
When the Founders wrote the Constitution in 1787 the compromise they reached arbitrarily counted each slave as 3/5 of a person. That allowed slaves to be counted in determining how many representatives the free whites would have in the House of Representatives; hence the name "3/5 compromise." Not wanting the word "slave" in the Constitution, the delegates agreed to say that population would be determined by counting the number of "free Persons...plus three-fifths of all other Persons..."
As surprised as he might be at see one of these "other persons" had achieved the U.S. presidency, I think Jefferson would be even more astonished, even sickened, at what has happened to the rights about which he spoke in last letter -- the liberties for which Adams noted such great sacrifice had been made by so many.
Do We Care Any More?
Ask yourself, have we as a nation and as a people shown "an undiminished devotion" to the rights Jefferson, Adams and so many others fought for -- rights for which over a million Americans have died in all our wars?
How could the 3rd president comprehend that a "conservative" 43rd president and a "liberal" 44th president both had forsaken the constitutional rights about which he spoke so eloquently?
Bipartisan Shame
President Barack Obama, a lawyer and professor who taught constitutional law, has failed to live up to his campaign pledge “to restore our Constitution and the rule of law,” both of which President George W. Bush, certainly no student of the law, did so much to weaken and distort.
On civil liberties issues, Mr. Obama has quietly, even sanctimoniously, solidified most of the worst legal positions and anti civil liberties policies of the Bush administration. He even chose to stand in front of the original Constitution and Bill of Rights at the National Archives as he announced his agreement with certain of these Bush policies.
Mr. Bush claimed to have sweeping powers as commander in chief that allowed him to bypass the Constitution and other legal constraints when fighting terrorism, an approach that trampled individual rights. Mr. Obama’s policies have not changed that approach.
Torture, State Secrets, Surveillance
Mr. Obama has continued Bush policies such as the C.I.A.’s “extraordinary rendition” program in which detainees are transferred to other countries, possibly to be tortured. Mr. Obama has invoked the overly broad “state secrets” privilege to shut down some lawsuits, as did Bush.
Mr. Obama proposes a system of unlimited preventive detention for terrorism suspects who, he says, would be hard to prosecute and dangerous to release, as did Bush. Forget guarantees of confronting one’s accusers, a speedy trial and a jury of one’s peers.
Mr. Obama’s has ratified the basic outlines of the wiretapping, surveillance and detention policies he inherited from Mr. Bush. In a "signing statement" last week Mr. Obama even echoed Bush's repeated claim of a right to ignore laws passed by Congress, in this case, five sections of an appropriations bill related to international financial institutions.
A Tragic Mistake
A leading constitutional scholar suggests that Mr. Obama's embrace of Mr. Bush's radical policies will reverberate dangerously down to future generations. By bestowing bipartisan acceptance on these serious violations of individual rights guaranteed in the Constitution and embodied in the Bill of Rights, he suggests (and I agree), that Mr. Obama is making the tragic mistake of consolidating these enormities as entrenched policies of government.
American independence from Great Britain was fought and won against great odds. But to an incredible degree the U.S. government, under both political parties, has now replicated and become even more destructive of American liberties than King George III and the British ever were.
Political Wars Against Our Freedoms
Under the undefined, open ended "war on terror" and the failed "war on drugs" politicians have steadily eroded our American liberties. The PATRIOT Act brought back the hated colonial British Writs of Assistance and has all but destroyed Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Indefinite detentions and military commissions resemble the Crown’s secret Star Chambers that had ended before the Revolution began in 1776.
Undiminished Devotion Needed Now
On this 233 anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, 184 years after Jefferson expressed his dying wish that "the annual return of this day" would "forever refresh our recollections of these rights and an undiminished devotion to them," no honest observant American can say with any certainty that we have honored his wishes.
Yet is not too late for Americans to reclaim and reassert the rights for which so many gave their last full measure of devotion.
May God bless America – now more than ever.
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