As all are aware, today marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, the birthdate of our nation. Its signatories were men of education, means, and standing; they were not a bunch of wild-eyed crazies; they understood that they were all going to be hanged and their assets forfeited if they lost what had already become a military conflict with Great Britain. They were accordingly moved not only to recite the principles upon which they were founding a new nation, but to set forth a bill of particulars – in effect, an indictment – listing more than twenty reasons why they felt it necessary to take the drastic step to renounce the sovereignty of a King. These are a few of its passages, some known to every school child, several, arguably particularly pertinent today, perhaps not as frequently cited:
“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 …
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The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
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He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither …
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice …
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He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
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He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us …
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We, therefore … solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES …
[W]e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
When the Second Continental Congress determined that it was time for the United States of America to formally declare their independence from Great Britain, the Committee selected five men to undertake the task: Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. I have seen it reported that Mr. Franklin declined drafting responsibility because he would not write what others might edit (we all have our quirks 😉), and Messrs. Sherman and Livingston delegated their responsibility to Messrs. Adams and Jefferson; Mr. Adams in turn deferred to Mr. Jefferson as the far superior and inspirational writer. Mr. Jefferson, arguably the most broadly-talented man to ever hold the presidency, fulfilling the confidence Mr. Adams had in him, drafted the document in only a few days.
Only three of those whom we most commonly think of as our “Founding Fathers” actually executed the Declaration: Messrs. Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson. George Washington was away leading the Continental Army, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were away serving in the Army, John Jay was in New York helping to develop that state’s Constitution, and Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, Common Sense, had been perhaps the most instrumental factor in stirring sentiments of independence among the American colonists, couldn’t sign because he wasn’t a member of the Continental Congress.
Although in the Declaration of Independence Mr. Jefferson penned words that have become as close to immortal as one can achieve in this finite existence – that it was “… 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,” today some of our people understandably object to the hallowed place he holds in our history because of his ownership of slaves – making him a perpetuator of the malignant human suffering that we later had to fight a Civil War to exterminate. I understand such views; I recommend Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass if one wishes a firsthand description of the inhumanity of slavery. I will nonetheless assert that the words Mr. Jefferson left us have served as the springboard for the rights and freedoms enjoyed by a billion people living in true democracies today, and capture the aspirations of many billions more. I cannot place qualifiers upon such an achievement.
Messrs. Adams’ and Jefferson’s relationship over many decades was complex and contradictory. Firm compatriots prior to and throughout the Revolutionary War, following the ratification of our current Constitution Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, became bitterly estranged during the years of George Washington’s presidency. Mr. Adams, our country’s first Vice President, believed that the nation required a strong federal government in order to survive; Mr. Jefferson, our country’s first Secretary of State, believed that the federal government should retain as little power as possible, with the great bulk being left to the states and local entities more closely attuned to the sentiments of the people. Mr. Adams defeated Mr. Jefferson in 1796 in the first contested election for the presidency; Mr. Jefferson defeated Mr. Adams and assumed the presidency four years later. Mr. Adams thereupon retired to private life in Massachusetts.
It took over a decade – several years after Mr. Jefferson had left the White House – for Messrs. Adams and Jefferson to reconcile; they thereafter engaged in warm correspondence throughout the remainder of their lives. Historians frequently note that they both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the issuance of the Declaration of Independence, 200 years ago today. Newspaper reports after Mr. Adams’ passing indicated that his last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still lives.” Most historians conclude this account by somberly stating that Mr. Adams was wrong – that Mr. Jefferson had died a few hours earlier.
I’m personally not at all sure that these learned scholars have understood Mr. Adams’ meaning. Messrs. Adams and Jefferson knew the other was dying; each of them was striving with the last ounce of his respective will to live to that particular day — July 4, 2026, the 50th anniversary of the birth of the nation they had helped institute and both had led; and both were aware that Mr. Jefferson’s words, perhaps more than any other factor, had provided the inspiration for the battle for the rights and freedom that they had spawned and won. Both had to have wondered over the preceding 50 years whether a nation founded on the principles of general freedom and equality – a theory espoused by such as John Locke but dismissed as unsustainable from a practical perspective by no less than Plato – a fledgling country threatened by much more militarily powerful European nations, beset by rivalries between American regions, states, and political parties, and challenged (as they saw it) by the indigent populations of the west, could endure.
Given Mr. Adams’ knowledge of Mr. Jefferson’s own failing health and the amount of time it then took correspondence to travel between Mr. Adams’ Massachusetts and Mr. Jefferson’s Virginia, Mr. Adams had to be well aware as he spoke his last that there was some doubt as to whether Mr. Jefferson was then still alive in a corporeal sense – as he indeed was not. Call it fanciful, but I would suggest that Mr. Adams understood full well what he was saying as he expired: that in spite of all the travail that had occurred during the preceding half century, the Founding Fathers’ experiment, in which all people – inspired by and embodied in Mr. Jefferson’s words — could participate equally in their polity, still lived. Today, yet another two centuries later, some of us fear that Mr. Jefferson’s pulse might be beating a bit more faintly, but I would submit that there is nothing that cannot be restored through a little exercise by Americans who believe that all of us of every persuasion – and those who wish to join us lawfully and peacefully — should have an equal opportunity to contribute to and be part of the promise of America.
“Resolution is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us.”
- Thomas Paine; Common Sense; February 14, 1776
Thomas Jefferson Still Lives.
God Bless America.
McCoy's Noise 