Independence Now, Independence Forever

Written by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence stands as a timeless statement of human liberty, rights and equality. Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the signers of the Declaration pledged to it their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Jefferson said, “The Declaration of Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of man.”[1] The Declaration is America's first and foremost founding document. It sets forth our understanding of human rights based upon the principles of natural law, and the legitimate authority and purpose of government. The first three sentences constitute its most significant and oft-quoted words:

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.

Upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams said (as quoted by Daniel Webster):

“But whatever may be our fate, be assured . . . that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick and gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection or of slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I begun, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence, now, and Independence for ever!”[2]

May we remember the Declaration and its immortal words as we celebrate this Independence Day.

By: J. David Gowdy

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[1] Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, 1819, ME 15:200.
[2] The Works of Daniel Webster, 4th ed. (Boston, 1851), 1:133–36.

The Importance of Civic Education

Just outside of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson, sculpted by Moses Ezekiel, and “presented to the people” on May 25, 1910. When I first visited the University in May 2004, as I admired this great work of art, I noticed the inscription on the upper base of the statue which reads: “TO PERPETUATE THE TEACHINGS AND EXAMPLES OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC.” I was profoundly impressed with the spirit and significance of this statement. I reflected upon it much, recorded it in my journal, and later decided that this testimonial should serve as basis for the Charter of The Washington, Jefferson & Madison Institute.

As conveyed by the words of this inscription, it is incumbent upon each of us to study and ponder America's Founding Documents and the writings and lives of our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson said: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”[1] He also stated: “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome direction, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”[2] The diffusion of knowledge and an enlightened citizenry are essential elements required to maintain liberty.

We may ask, have we studied and learned the principles of the Constitution in the tradition of the Founding Fathers? Are the Constitution and principles of liberty expounded by the Founding Fathers being taught in our schools? Has their history been diluted? Abraham Lincoln stated: “Let it [reverence for the laws and Constitution] be taught in schools, seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation.”[3] In his Inaugural Address on April 30, 1789, as our nation’s first President under the newly adopted Constitution, George Washington said: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”[4] Vigilance in learning and imparting liberty's knowledge is part of liberty's price.

By: J. David Gowdy

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[1] Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384.
[2] Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278.
[3] Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings: 1832-1858, Don Fehrenbacher, ed. (Library of America, New York, 1989), pp. 32-33.
[4] Saxe Commins, ed., Basic Writings of George Washington (Random House, New York, 1948), p. 560.

The Proper Role of Government

What are the proper ends of government? James Madison stated, “[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general.” Thomas Jefferson said, “What more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned” and, “If we can prevent government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they must become happy.”

“John Adams wrote, ‘Happiness of society is the end of government.’ George Washington stated, “The aggregate happiness of the society, which is best promoted by the practice of a virtuous policy, is, or ought to be, the end of all government ….” As revered in our past, industry, thrift and self-reliance must be upheld as crowning attributes to each generation. There were no "social programs" for the pilgrims or the pioneers. Thoreau said: “This government never of itself furthered any enterprise … [t]he character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished.”

Locke, in his “Essay the True End of Civil Government,” quotes Dragonetti on Virtue and Rewards, stating: "The science of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense." This, then is the great dilemma for citizens, representatives and leaders in all ages: how do we efficiently augment the well being and contentment of society, i.e., maximize societal well-being and happiness? Endless social programs have been devised, enacted and administered to this end. While there is no single solution or easy answer to all social ills, there is a formula proven in nature: "For whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap." Thus, wisdom and virtue must fashion each seed sown by government.

By: J. David Gowdy

The Foundation of Public Virtue

" 'Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?" George Washington (Farewell Address)

John Adams said, "Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” Self-government, or democracy, can only be perpetuated by the self-governed. Henry Ward Beecher said: "There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves." Goethe stated: "What is the best government? -- That which teaches us to govern ourselves." Self-governance consists of self-regulation of our behavior and passions.

Virtue ennobles individual character and lifts society as a whole. Virtuous principles eschew prejudice and discrimination, confirming that: "all men are created equal." Virtue encompasses characteristics of good will, patience, tolerance, kindness, respect, humility, gratitude, courage, honor, industry, honesty, chastity and fidelity. These precepts serve as the foundation for individual and societal governance. William Cowper said: "When was public virtue to be found when private was not?" Public virtue, or society's goodness, may be measured then by totaling the virtuous characteristics of its individual citizens. In order to strengthen our nation, should we not diligently seek to fortify our private, and thus, our public virtue?

"[T]he foundations of our National policy . . . [should] be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality." George Washington (Inaugural Address)

By: J. David Gowdy

See: "Seven Principles of Liberty"

Abraham Lincoln on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: "A Word Fitly Spoken"

As we celebrate Lincoln's 200th Birthday on February 12th, let us reflect on his favorite quote: “... 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.” Abraham Lincoln said: “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence” and “Let us revere the Declaration of Independence.”

Concerning the relationship of the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln wrote the following meditation on the Old Testament, Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver”:

“[The prosperity of the United States] is not the result of accident. It has a philosophic cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of "Liberty to all" -- the principle that clears the path for all -- gives hope to all -- and, by consequence, enterprise and industry to all.

The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this, as well as with it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but without it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government and consequent prosperity. The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word "fitly spoken" which has proven an "apple of gold" to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple -- not the apple for the picture.

So let us act, that neither picture, or apple shall ever be blurred, bruised or broken …

That we may so act, we must study, and understand the points of danger.”

From Roy P. Blaser, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953), vol. iv, 168 (italics in original).

As Lincoln did throughout his life and Presidency, may we ever cherish the Declaration of Independence, and may its principles of liberty and equality ever be protected under our Constitution.

By: J. David Gowdy

A True Martyr of Liberty

Three hundred and twenty-five years ago this December in the year 1683, in England, an innocent man met his fate at the executioner’s block. Parliament had been dissolved by King Charles II two years previous. In June of that year a plot to assassinate the King was discovered, and many well known Republicans were arrested …

As dawn broke on the morning of December 7th, the sky was overcast and the air was cold and damp. The London fog seemed thicker than usual, which added to the gloominess. In the Tower of London, locked in prison, sat a solitary figure – previously sentenced to die by execution that day. His alleged crime? – “Treason against the King.” With the pen and ink and paper provided as his last request, he was writing in the dim light of his cell. Who was this man, and how is he connected to America’s Independence?

When Thomas Jefferson was asked to name the sources for the principles of the Declaration of Independence, he named the writings of our prisoner -- titled “Discourses Concerning Government” -- as one of his primary guides. When Jefferson established the University of Virginia, he instituted a course on the Constitution with “Discourses” as a required text. He also said that “Discourses” was “probably the best elementary book of the principles of government … which has ever been published in any language.”

"Discourses Concerning Government" stands for the proposition that, "the principle of liberty in which God created us . . . includes the chief advantages of the life we enjoy, as well as the greatest helps towards felicity, that is the end of our hopes in the other" ... and, "If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety secured, justice administered, virtue encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true interest of the nation advanced, the ends of government are accomplished ..."

During the Revolutionary War period, our prisoner was a patriot’s hero. In addition to Jefferson, his book was cited by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and others, as authority for both the revolution itself -- and as a guide to the formation of our republic.

Was this man guilty of treason? – only in the same sense that the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence were also guilty of treason against the King of England -- because he (and they) believed 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 …”

One who attended his execution reported:

When he came to the scaffold, instead of a speech, he told them only that he had made his peace with God, that he came not thither to talk, but to die; [he] put a paper into the sheriff’s hand, and another into a friend’s, said one short prayer as short as a grace, laid down his neck, and bid the executioner do his office …

Algernon Sidney was beheaded on December 7, 1683.

By: J. David Gowdy

Power in the Republic

The continuing challenge of any people and government is to maintain a balance of power with adequate controls to ensure the safety and felicity of the people. The entire treatise of the Federalist Papers serves as reference to the need to delegate and diffuse governmental powers in order to ensure our safety and felicity from potential external and internal harms.

James Wilson wrote: "Liberty and happiness have a powerful enemy on each hand; on the one hand tyranny, on the other licentiousness [anarchy]. To guard against the latter, it is necessary to give the proper powers to government; and to guard against the former, it is necessary that those powers should be properly distributed." Woodrow Wilson said: "The history of liberty is a history of the limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it." Both the limitation and balance of power lie at the heart of the Constitution.

More than any other form of government, the maintenance of our republic requires wise and virtuous leaders, who respect the Constitution and the principles of delegated power. James Madison said, “The aim of every political Constitution, is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." Under the Constitution, "We the People" are the ultimate determinants of who will be our leaders ...

When the Constitution was signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, it then went to the several states for ratification. The states each held their own ratifying conventions wherein they debated its provisions. In one such convention held in North Carolina in July 1788, a representative named William Goudy (who may be a distant relative), spoke on the subject of tyranny:

“Mr. Chairman, I wonder that these gentlemen, learned in the law, should quibble upon words. I care not whether it be called a compact, agreement, covenant, bargain, or what. Its intent is a concession of power, on the part of the people, to their rulers. We know that private interest governs mankind generally. Power belongs originally to the people; but if rulers be not well guarded, that power may be usurped from them. People ought to be cautious in giving away power. These gentlemen say there is no occasion for general rules: every one has one for himself. Every one has an unalienable right of thinking for himself. There can be no inconvenience from laying down general rules. If we give away more power than we ought, we put ourselves in the situation of a man who puts on an iron glove, which he can never take off till he breaks his arm. Let us beware of the iron glove of tyranny. Power is generally taken from the people by imposing on their understanding, or by fetters [shackles].”

--William Goudy (July 21, 1788, “The Debates in the Several State Conventions, (North Carolina), on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution”, Elliot's Debates, Volume 4, page 10).

Just as our founding fathers, we as citizens “ought to be cautious in giving away power” or in allowing it to be "taken" from us.

By: J. David Gowdy