What better time for a careful, considered reading of the Declaration of Independence. Two hundred and fifty years after our founding fathers penned this document, it continues to inspire freedom movements around the world.
But we need to remind ourselves why patriots from New Hampshire to Georgia revolted in 1776 against a tyrannical monarchy. This is particularly relevant today when we have a president who seems to want to be the kind of king that our forefathers shrugged off during the Revolutionary War.
Just five years ago, this very same president was complicit in a violent anti-freedom assault on the United States Capitol. Hundreds of bloodthirsty zealots misused and misappropriated the fundamental principles enshrouded in American freedom by trying to rip apart our democracy in favor of the very tyranny our forefathers fought in the fields of Camden and King’s Mountain, the swamps of the Lowcountry and forts from Ninety Six to Sullivan’s Island.
Donald Trump left office two weeks later. Joe Biden restored order. Hundreds of the zealots were prosecuted and convicted. But Trump stewed on his 2020 loss, only to run again and win a second term in 2024. Then he pardoned the felons and wrought a year and a half of dizzying new assaults on our democratic institutions.
So yes, now is a great time to read the 1,339-word Declaration, particularly if you haven’t looked at it since high school.
You may know by heart the opening words of the document penned by Thomas Jefferson and others that espouses the values of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” You also may remember the part that follows and discusses how it’s the people’s right to alter or abolish a government that fails, which is oft-cited by those who threw the destructive tantrum and bludgeoned the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But they conveniently forgot the cautious words that followed. Perhaps they missed that day in civics class. Or maybe they were so hellbent on getting their own way that they were blinded by the wisdom of colonial leaders who first focused not on a violent overthrow of power, but on reason and intellect to devise a new system to create a safe nation where all could pursue 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.”
The Declaration continued by offering a list of abuses by the King of England. As you read of compounding restrictions that denied liberty to colonists, it should dawn on you how our forefathers eventually corrected those abuses with a constitution that created a representative democracy that became the world’s beacon of freedom, a continuing experiment in liberty that changed the course of humankind.
Furthermore, the Declaration is remarkable in another way. It frames the patience of colonists who wanted better lives for their families. Compare their years of endurance to get redress of their grievances to the volcanic violence that erupted in the halls of freedom over a few hours in January 2021.
And so in 1776, 56 men from 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence. The oldest was Benjamin Franklin, then 70, of Pennsylvania. The youngest was Edward Rutledge, 26, of South Carolina.
The document ends like this: “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.”
And that’s the difference between what happened back then and five years ago: One was bound with honor, community, faith, goodwill and justice. The other had none.
Celebrate this Fourth of July with family, friends, burgers, barbecue, hot dogs and honor. And relish our Declaration of Independence to marvel about how these united states came to be.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com
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