The Shadow of Jefferson…

I decided this year that, to celebrate the anniversary of America’s birth, that I would spend this Independence Day in our Nation’s capitol. You see, this most American of holidays is like like Christmas to me. No, in fact, it’s better than Christmas because it celebrates everything our society is about, good and bad.
I thought for a while about where the best vantage point for fireworks might be in Washington, DC. I knew that trying to get a seat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial would be nearly impossible. While visiting the Jefferson for the first time today, I appealed to the representative from the US Park Service at the memorial.
I went up to ask her the best viewing point for the fireworks and as I did, another tourist went up and asked her the same thing. She said, “well, the best place is to sit on the steps of the Lincoln–but you’ll never get a spot there. The second best place is right here, and it’s the one I would personally recommend.” That settled it for me right there. I would watch fireworks for the first time in my Nation’s capitol in the shadow of a memorial dedicated to a man I’ve long thought is the father of this Republic. Perfect.
As I waited for the skies to grow dark, it occurred to me that most of the other people gathered on the steps of the Jefferson have probably never read the Declaration of Independence. Each person gathered there to see and marvel at the fireworks, but each of them would utter phrases like “Happy Fourth of July!” or “Have a good Fourth!” It seemed to me that none of the hundreds gathered in his shadow knew exactly what Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries labored for in the cause of American Independence. They all benefit from the end result, and don’t even realize it. Few Americans recall or even respect the blood that was sacrificed to effect a separation from Great Britain.
As people tossed footballs and sat picnicking with their families in front of Jefferson’s statue, they don’t stop to ponder that the colonists of his time would not have been able to congregate in such a manner.
The rights and freedoms we enjoy as Americans are taken for granted every day by the vast majority of her citizens. They forget that this day has a name, because it’s all but disappeared from the American lexicon. “The Fourth” has become a weekend of automobile sales and low, low prices on merchandise at the local mall. It’s become a day where Americans get to sleep late, drink beer, eat red meat cooked over an open flame, and watch fireworks light up the night sky–and fewer and fewer people remember why we celebrate this day–Independence Day–every year.
There are, and have been, patriots in every generation since America was born. Some have helped forge this country from the ideas of men. Others have helped defend the sovereignty of our nation, with some even paying the ultimate price so that we may all live in freedom. Their strength of will and their courage live on for us all, even 228 years later. They may not all have monuments and memorials commissioned in their honor, but each of them has made a significant contribution to our enduring freedom. We can never forget what they have done, or why we celebrate.
It is my hope that you all have a safe and happy Independence Day, filled with all of the celebrations that make this the most American of holidays. We celebrate the patriots of years past, and the yearning of Americans every where to live in freedom as our own nation.
In other words, bring on the burgers and beer. That’s what our forefathers would have wanted us to do, right? One thing is certain, though. Next year at this time, you’ll find me in the same place: on the steps, in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson. Anyone who wants to join me, is more than welcome.
Below is a transcription of the Declaration of Independence, provided by the National Archives. If you’ve never read it, you should. It’s masterfully written and it is the essence of why we fought for our own nation. Don’t just skim through it…read it aloud. It takes on a whole new life that way.
If you have read it, then I ask you to read it again this year–and every year on this day–and consider the evolution of a nation and where we are today. Then, tell your children or your family of its importance in modern-day American society.
The transcript is also available at the web site for the National Archives, as well as many high-quality images of the Declaration and the Constitution.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com
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The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
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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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and 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. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 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.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured 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, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.
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The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton