“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.”
In 1776, the United States rightly declares that “all men are created equal”
On a warm summer day in 1776, the Continental Congress declared: “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.” (Source: Declaration of Independence, 1776) It has often been noted that the man who wrote these words was a Virginia slaveholder named Thomas Jefferson. Clearly, the promise of equality had not yet been realized when he wrote these words, even in his own household. There was much to do in the coming decades to give these words a fuller meaning. But people have rightly looked to these words as a “promised beginning.” We made a promise that, one day, all men (and also women) in this country would see legal recognition of their equality. Some interpret this to mean that all of us must have equal wealth, or equal income, or equal status of some other kind. If so, then the promised equality could never be realized, because there will always be people who succeed, and there will always be others who desperately struggle to make ends meet. No utopian scheme ever proposed for ending poverty has ever yet been brought to pass, despite fervent efforts to implement such schemes. Whether or not these schemes bring any actual progress … may be a better topic for another post. But the Founding Fathers did create a “land of the free, [and] home of the brave.” They created a land of opportunity, where one could rise through industry and honest toil. And they created equality of opportunity, arguably the kind of equality that was meant to be enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
John Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence”
The ongoing controversies about the kind of equality enshrined in that document
We are not perfect even in this respect, but we have come closer to offering this salutary kind of equality than we have to offering any other kind – and that is as it should be. In “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the lawyer Atticus Finch proclaims that “there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court … Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.” (Source: Chapter 20) In that novel, Atticus Finch was defending a man who did not yet enjoy the rights that his attorney had just described for him. His skin color, sadly, then prevented him from claiming these rights that were so much his due. But, like the Founding Fathers of more than a century earlier, Atticus was describing an ideal to which our justice system was aspiring, in the hopes that it would one day be realized in fact. Whether it has yet been realized for all Americans … is a topic for another post. Suffice it to say here that our Declaration of Independence expressed an ideal to which countless Americans would aspire, and on whose altar many other Americans have laid down their lives … by making the ultimate sacrifice.
United States Declaration of Independence
A constitutional amendment to abolish slavery is introduced during the Civil War
The Declaration of Independence promised “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our Constitution further promised to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Source: Preamble). And, in so many ways, the Constitution actually succeeded in doing so. This subject is so important that it might be better addressed in its own post – such as this one, where I defend our Founding Fathers in a similar way. But the Constitutional Convention was forced to make some compromises regarding the issue of slavery. These resulted in some notorious clauses like the Slave Importation Clause, the Three-Fifths Clause, and the Fugitive Slave Clause. The Constitution was still a step in the right direction, but it still clearly had some work to do. It would fall to the Civil War generation to bring some of the needed changes. These changes started when Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (a story for another post). Briefly, it said that “all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” (Source: Text of the document) Later in that same year (1863), Lincoln proclaimed in his Gettysburg Address that “we here highly resolve … that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom.” (Source: Text of the speech) During his presidency, he helped to get the Thirteenth Amendment through Congress. This amendment said that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (Source: Section 1 of the amendment)
Abraham Lincoln
After the Civil War, it gets ratified, and finally becomes the supreme law of the land
You might already know that amendments are initially passed by Congress, and that the president is not directly involved in the constitutional amendment process. But Lincoln insisted on the privilege of signing the Thirteenth Amendment anyway, even though his signature was not legally required. After his death, this amendment would be ratified by the necessary number of state legislatures – three-fourths of them, to be more specific. Thus, it came into effect on December 6th, 1865. It is true that many Americans (sadly) fought on the side of slavery, and even died for the infamous Confederate cause. But many others fought against slavery – and still more were fighting against its expansion westward. African Americans were only 1% of the Northern population, but they made up 10% of the Union Army in that conflict. Abraham Lincoln had promised in the Emancipation Proclamation that the former slaves of “suitable condition” would be received into the “armed service” of the United States. Despite ongoing racism in the North, many former slaves took him up on this offer, and risked their lives in the cause of freedom. Many paid for these risks with their lives.
African American soldiers fighting for the Union
Citizenship and suffrage are expanded, and Americans defend democracy in World War II
After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment soon proclaimed that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” (Source: Section 1 of the amendment) This was the first amendment in this country to promise citizenship for ethnic minorities. A Fifteenth Amendment went even further, proclaiming that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (Source: Section 1 of the amendment) Half a century after this (in 1920, to be specific), the Nineteenth Amendment would proclaim that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” (Source: Section 1 of the amendment) Much work on civil rights still needed to be done at this time – but these things were still indispensable steps on the long, hard road to legal equality. Americans of all races fought for freedom again, in the crucible of World War II. I should acknowledge that there were many other nations, such as the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, who sacrificed greater percentages of their populations in that costly (and ultimately successful) war. But many of them (certainly the British and the Russians) received military and financial aid from the United States. It was the United States, not the Soviet Union, that was the greatest superpower in that particular war. Thus, no reasonable person can dismiss the contributions of the United States in the Second World War, because they are just too numerous in absolute strength and numbers. We were an indispensable part of the final victory – and, in FDR’s words, we were indeed the “arsenal of democracy.”
Invasion of Normandy, 1944
We continue to be the kind of place to which immigrants would like to come today
No country has ever been perfect. We have certainly had our national sins, such as the crimes against Native Americans. But if one can only be patriotic to a “perfect” country, there is no country on earth (past or present) to which one could ever give any loyalty. As a wise man once said, I “cherish patriotism and love of country in all lands” (see source). I am happy to see Englishmen be patriotic to England, Frenchmen be patriotic to France, and Canadians be patriotic to Canada. I hope that, one day, people in certain other lands will love their countries enough to remove their own tyrants from power, and enter the free world as true equals. I am happy to see our various world neighbors be as patriotic to their own countries as I am to mine. Indeed, I admire those countries that have a similar legacy of freedom, who have fought for theirs (and others’) liberty around the globe. Thus, I hope that they will not mind me singing the praises of my own homeland as well. We continue to be a place to which immigrants would like to come, and which welcomes many that still come here seeking a better life. As Emma Lazarus proclaimed in 1883, “‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’” (Source: “The New Colossus,” 1883) We continue to “lift [our] lamp” today, and welcome the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Tired and poor they still come, to become as American as those whose families have been here for ten generations. What level of immigration remains appropriate today … is a better subject for another post. But, either way, we continue to welcome the “homeless, tempest-tost,” to provide them with an opportunity for something better. To a large degree, this is as it should be.
United States Constitution – still the supreme law of the land today
We can destroy ourselves like the Roman Empire, or embrace our birthright of freedom
The United States has always been a place of opportunities – an experiment with popular government to rival Athens in Ancient Greece, or the Republic in Ancient Rome. It is a world superpower to rival the mighty British Empire from which it originally came, and whose democracy it heavily drew upon. But, like the Roman Empire, our society has the chilling power to destroy itself, and may one day discard all that is good about its own heritage. Or, alternatively, it may survive and thrive for centuries to come. The future of our republic rests in our hands, and in the hands of our children – both born and unborn. I hope that it will last for ages, and be a “shining city on a hill” for generations to come. Overall, the world is better off for the presence and ideals of the United States, and for its rise from a vulnerable backwater to a great world superpower. Rather than going the way of Rome, let us charge forward into the future, and stay true to that Constitution which has made us great. Perhaps, then, we will continue to be a beacon of liberty for the world, and an inspiration for many of the oppressed peoples around the globe.
“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.”
*****
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