America 250

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is an extraordinary event and worth celebrating. The Declaration and the American Revolution changed the course of history. In a first of its kind, the people required the government to serve them instead of the people serving the government. It introduced powerful principles that reverberate across our country today.

"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."

Self-evident. Although Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, this word was chosen by Benjaman Franklin. Self-evident requires no further proof or evidence. The truths enumerated in the Declaration were indisputable. They existed not because they were granted by a king or a governor, but because they transcended kings, rulers, and governments.

What were these truths? First, "all men are created equal". In his original draft, Jefferson attacked slavery. While his attack did not survive the editing of his peers in the Declaration, the foundational principle of equality set in motion the end of slavery worldwide. It would take 90 more years and a horrific civil war to wrest slavery from the United States and generations more to acknowledge and address discriminatory laws and institutions, but the principle is correct. All men and women are created equal.

The second truth was that men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". These rights are not granted by government. They are not at the discretion of neighbors or individuals. They are endowed by God and they can't be taken away. "Among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". The Declaration didn't grant these rights. It didn't demand them. It insisted that they were unalienable--they were incapable of being surrendered or taken away. These rights also superseded kings, rulers, and governments.

The third truth was that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed". This was a direct challenge to the belief that the people were subjects of the King, and the King had a divine right to govern the people. The Declaration asserted the people had a right to choose their government and when the government failed to be accountable to the people, the people had the right to alter, reform, or abolish the government.

The founders gave us more than a Constitutional Republic when the United States was ratified more than a decade after the signing of the Declaration. They identified three truths that transcend the form of government, and they helped us understand that certain rights come from our creator, regardless of who was in charge of that government.

The founders also reminded us in the preamble to the Constitution, "in order to...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" that we would have honor these truths and protect these God given rights through succeeding generations.

Each generation is responsible to carry the fire of the Declaration and the founding principles of this country as a steward for the next. While we may not be required to "pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" in the way the founders did, we can make a small but meaningful contribution in our celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration this July 4th weekend as we help our children remember how blessed they are to live in the United States of America.