Two Lessons from the Founders

Statement

This weekend as Americans all over the country gather to celebrate our nation's Independence Day we should all take a moment--in the midst of our barbecues, firework displays, and outdoor festivities--to commemorate this holiday by reading aloud the Declaration of Independence, America's great charter of freedom.

Beyond the rhetorical eloquence of the document, the Declaration of Independence is worth reciting on its anniversary because its words remind us of the permanent and universal truths to which the founding of our nation was dedicated.

For the purpose of the document was not to declare America's independence from Britain--that was done by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776--but to justify it. As such, the Declaration sets down the timeless principles--about human nature and the nature of government--that would unite the separate colonies into a single union and commit them to a common cause.

Contained within these principles are two major political teachings meant to guide the future of the fledgling nation and lay the foundation for America's new government.

First, because all men and women are "created equal"--that is, each has an equal claim to govern their own lives--government must derive its "just powers from the consent of the governed." Second, since all human beings "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," the primary purpose of government is "to secure these rights," chief among which are the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Some may try to claim that these foundational principles are simply relics of a bygone era, but the political teachings of the Declaration of Independence--and the self-evident truths upon which they rest--are as true and relevant today as they were in 1776.

As Calvin Coolidge put it, "About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful."

"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final."

Though our society has advanced a great deal since 1776, Coolidge explained, "no progress can be made beyond" the propositions of "this great charter." Any denial of the truths of the Declaration is a movement "not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people."

Yet our government today has grown so powerful and so unaccountable that it poses a serious challenge to Silent Cal's conviction.

The moral and political wisdom expressed in the Declaration of Independence may be true at all times and in all places, but we cannot expect this wisdom inevitably to prevail in our society and in our government.

Indeed, the fate of the American experiment in self-government depends on whether or not the principles of the Declaration remain alive in the hearts and minds of the people and their representatives.

For those of us who are concerned about the perpetual dysfunction and unsustainability of today's government, it's important to remember that advocating for the revival of America's founding principles does not mean that we should return to the government we had 200 years ago.

Our founding principles are not an answer key, but a road map--an eternal reference point to guide us as we attempt to solve contemporary social problems. To fix our big, broken government, we must turn for guidance to these principles and figure out how to apply them to the great challenges of our generation.

Rather than focus only on reducing the size of government, we need a comprehensive reform agenda to address the increasing immobility among the poor, insecurity in the middle class, and special-interest privilege among well-connected Washington insiders.

An anti-poverty, upward mobility, and anti-cronyist agenda would replace our distant, unresponsive, bureaucratic government programs with policies that build on, rather than crowd out, the institutions that are best suited to solve our social problems: a free enterprise economy, voluntary civil society, and local and state governments.

Guided by the wisdom of the Declaration, such an agenda would make government more accountable to the people and better able to fulfill its primary purpose of securing the rights of the citizens.

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