Words (A Reflection on Independence Day)
By Jack Wyman, Guest Contributor
The setting sun was drawing another momentous day to a gentle close.
The candles were lighted in the upper room of the small boarding house on Market Street in Philadelphia.
The tall young man sat down in a chair. He had a full head of thick red hair; his hazel eyes were expressive and well-set, his face lean and long and his jaw firm.
He carefully unfolded a small wooden writing desk on his lap.
That’s right; it was called a “laptop.”
He took a page of writing parchment and dipped his quill in ink.
As England’s vast army marched toward New York Harbor, he started writing.
He was the one chosen to compose the first draft.
The young Virginian wasn’t much of a public speaker; one had to strain to hear him. Reserved, even shy, in manner, he had said little during the debates over American independence.
He was an astute observer, careful listener and quietly charming conversationalist - but no orator.
Thomas Jefferson was instead fluent - eloquent - on paper.
John Adams, voluble and fiery on the floor, declined the offer to write the Declaration of Independence. He argued with Jefferson.
Jefferson was reluctant.
Adams, ever the skilled advocate, pressed his case. While professing to be otherwise occupied, the man from Massachusetts recognized his friend’s extraordinary gift of written expression.
Why should he write it, Jefferson asked.
Adams was ready.
“Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.”
Whether feigned or otherwise, Jefferson’s reluctance was vanquished.
Adams had done right by his country and the cause of liberty. It was an unusually self-effacing gesture on the part of an often vainglorious patriot.
World-shaping history turned on two friends arguing over who should write one of the greatest documents known to man.
Benjamin Franklin, senior delegate and member of the drafting committee, had been invited to write the declaration but said he could never stand to have anything he wrote edited by others.
Jefferson was not the only person responsible for the finished product; it was edited by the Continental Congress several times, and Franklin and the committee also made changes.
A fourth of the original manuscript was scuttled.
Jefferson himself crossed out whole sentences and inserted new words, fresh thoughts.
He took the drafting seriously and labored at it mightily. It took him nearly three weeks in June.
Jefferson began by acknowledging that there are times in history when people must take drastic measures. It is because of the inherent worth of the individual that “one people” must “dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another.”
This “becomes necessary.”
Why?
Because “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them” to full equality “among the powers of the earth.”
“Nature’s God."
Jefferson believed that the rights you and I have - and should have - are not bequeathed as a generous token from the powerful hands of an omnipotent and capricious state. They are granted to us by a sovereign God.
For all time, this should remain “self-evident” truth.
All people - for Jefferson wrote not just for the 13 colonies but for the whole world - “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Immortal words, cherished by those who cherish freedom.
Words written to convince the colonists to lay their lives on the line for independence.
The American Dream is what we used to call it. We’ve always known it belonged to everyone, regardless of race, religion, nationality, color or creed.
Governments are instituted to protect these rights - not to deny them, infringe upon them, or punish, regulate, or tax them. Government is not the master of the people. Government is their servant.
It does not exist to subjugate and curtail liberty but to welcome and protect it. Government gains its legitimacy not from itself, but from “the consent of the governed.”
Here, the people rule.
These were the convictions in the hearts and minds of our founders.
It’s true that we the people make concessions to live in harmony - 332 million of us together in a big, rich and diverse land. It’s also true that what makes America the greatest and most wonderful nation on earth - and the enviable desire of so many in other places - is simply this: Freedom.
When one gets to the list of 27 grievances in the declaration - “the causes which impel them to separation” - it’s clear that as varied as they were, they share in common the firm objection to the denial of individual liberty.
The list reminds us of the corrupting power and arrogance of a state too big to care.
The dignity, rights and freedom of individuals is the scarlet thread that runs through our founding document. From beginning to end.
Here was the proposition of which Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg. Jefferson wrote that proposition, for all people and for all time. Lincoln rededicated it.
In the midst of profound and seemingly irreconcilable divisions, America would benefit from a reaffirmation of the great unifying themes that instilled courage in our first Americans and forged a new nation.
In the year before he died - on July 4th, the same day as John Adams - Thomas Jefferson wrote that the Declaration of Independence did not express any new ideas - or original thoughts.
Instead, “it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.”
The occasion was freedom. The declaration was its eloquent exposition.
Here are the words that made America.
The words that changed the world.
The words that still live.
May God bless you and your family.
In His Grace,
Jack.
Copyright 2021 Jack Wyman. Published with Permission.