IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen 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.
These opening words of the Declaration of Independence are the genesis of our ancient political faith, nothing less than the foundation of political freedom, the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Akin to secular scripture, these profound sentiments and ideals are of lasting value to all men because they are absolute. They are not merely temporal concepts based on a relativistic man made standard; instead, they are timeless truths, not created by the founders themselves but discovered, unearthed as treasure mined from the depths of Eternal Truth.
"The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." President John Adams
At certain times, the document states, when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce a people under absolute despotism, it is the right of the oppressed, it is their duty in fact, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. The laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them to freedom from such binding bands of tyranny and an interested world has a right to know the reasons why such a separation is necessary in their case.
The document goes on to provide a long list of grievances and abuses of power perpetrated by the king who sat in authority over them; however, first thoughts and initial justifications did not bend toward the immediate. Indeed, it is fascinating to note that the founders grounded their actions first and foremost on the foundation of certain self evident, sacred and undeniable truths, the first of which was that all men are created equal.
"Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift [James 1:17] we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land..." James Madison
"We've staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us . . . to govern ourselves according to the commandments of God." James Madison
This statement of absolute, innate equality, they stated, was all inclusive and eternal. Certainly, 1776 did not find all experiencing equality of experience or opportunity; even still, today, as a people, we are striving for that more perfect Union. The striving and the advancements toward freedom for all would not have been possible had not the founders stated the ideal and established a nation upon it. Historians often speak of all that the founders did not do or failed to accomplish, but rarely are we reminded of what they did do - establish a lasting political paradigm upon the ideal of human freedom and eternal truth granted by the benevolence of the Almighty, not the largesse of the state.
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were.... the general principles of Christianity." President John Quincy Adams
"It is extremely important to our nation , in a political as well as religious view , that all possible authority and influence should be given to the scriptures , for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty , and the most effectual support of republican government. The principles of all genuine liberty , and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by it's authority.The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer...." Noah Webster
"The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions...." Noah Webster
"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws...." Noah Webster
Basing freedom upon natural right principles and not civil right auspices guaranteed that the world would, if the experiment were successful, have an enduring model of self - government based upon Christian truth, not a transient promise from mutable, self motivated authority.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ…. We shall not fight alone… God presides over the destinies of nations… …Patrick Henry
"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles.... This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."Noah Webster
Scripture teaches that all are born in the image of God and that each life is formed, purposed, and overruled by a superintending providence. All men are dependent upon the Almighty and all men are equally blessed with the same guarantee of equal value before God and men.
In 1841, showman P.T. Barnum opened his American Museum in New York City. One of the exhibits, entitled "Connecting Link Between Human and Brute Creation," included an orangutan. In 1859, the same year Charles Darwin published 'On the Origin of Species," Barnum replaced the orangutan with an 18 year old black man from Georgia nd placed a sign above the cage he was in which stated, "What is it?" We consider such a barbaric action today as inconceivable, but the image and the question is, sadly, still valid as many in our modern world still suffer under the oppression of discrimination, dehumanization, and slavery. Men who would have freedom for themselves must be willing to offer it to all; otherwise, they are not worthy to grasp it to their bosom and ultimately heap destruction upon their own heads.
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln
Perhaps the greatest example of these malevolent forces is seen currently in the legalization and acceptance of the practice of abortion in the United States. As with American slavery, American abortion represents a violation, an ignoring, a rebellion against the eternal and absolute truths of the value of human life and equal justice for all. While this amnesia has led to a legalization, it can never lead to a justification of immorality. As Lincoln so eloquently stated when debating the pro choice, popular sovereignty position of Sen. Steven Douglas regarding slavery, "There is no right to do wrong." The concept of majority rule is a staple of republicanism; however, the rule only applies when considering questions of common good, not immutable moral truth.
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles --right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time..." Abraham Lincoln
The declaration speaks of endowment, of being given gifts, again by the Creator, of certain unalienable rights - rights that cannot be justly taken away by human authority. These blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are so beloved because they are inherent within the nature of man - their reality has been communicated to the soul through the spiritual voice of the Giver. For human power to attempt to silence that voice or usurp that blessing is an act so despotic, so tyrannical, as to compel men to fight to the death to thwart it. Better to die as free men than live in chains. As Patrick Henry so eloquently queried and answered,
"Is live so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty of give me death!"
Life must be fought for, liberty must be exalted, and the pursuit of realizing the fulfillment of individual potential and purpose unto happiness prized above all. The revolution of '76 was truly a radical transformation of human practice regarding the Source and Sustainer of power and rights. Man's dependence was not upon humanism, but upon the Author of liberty above. Free men forget such truth at their own peril.
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. . . . We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"--Abraham Lincoln, "Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day," March 30, 1863
The higher law, rooted in the divine, was supreme over any and all human law. Indeed, the United States Constitution, developed eleven years after the Declaration was to be understood as the Supreme Law of the land, but not as supreme over the law of the heavens.
"...The Smiles of Heaven can never be expected On a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of Order and Right, which Heaven Itself Ordained." President George Washington
"We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." John Adams, address to the militia of Massachusetts, 1798.
Finally, the document's preamble emphatically states that the civil authority is subservient to the people and to their God - one nation of free men, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Notice was immediately served, that if civil authority abrogated it's right to rule by denying the ancient faith or abusing the governed and thus forfeiting their consent, it was the moral right of the people to act in civil disobedience so as to uphold obedience to the divine.
"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine....Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other." James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution and an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
Abolitionist Wendall Phillips stated that 'Liberty Requires Eternal Vigilance," and so it does. There will always be men who deny the ideal and seek to dethrone the Sovereign so that they might rule in self interest and chain the eternal to the post of the temporal, the spiritual to the material, the individual to the state, the absolute to the relative, and the divine to the human.
The responsibility of the free man is to stand strong, as a bulwark against the foes of freedom, fortified with knowledge and imbued with faith in the God who has given and the ideals which endure.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Ronald Reagan
To accept the chain and the post is to deny the truth that sets us free and see as weak the power which breaks the tyrannical ties that bind. So long as men everywhere remember and revere the Source and Nature and Power of liberty and give the last full measure to uphold the same, the last, best hope of earth will endure and inspire those who love freedom.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." President Thomas Jefferson
"You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad . . . It is from within, among yourselves--from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power--that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed to your keeping."--Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837
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