Why We MUST Celebrate Independence Day

Today we celebrate Independence Day, the day in which the Declaration of Independence was signed. With centuries between the penning of that document and the now hallowed place it holds in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in the National Archives, it’s easy to forget the somber, serious moment in history such a document highlights.

On July 4, 1776, the men who affixed their names to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence did not know whether their quest for freedom would be successful. They did not know what government would form from the dust of revolution if they were successful. In truth, the only thing they knew for certain when they put quill to parchment that day is that by signing their names, they were putting huge targets on their backs. Most of the signers of the Declaration suffered horrendous loses because of the stance they took- whether it was the complete desolation of all their physical holdings, destruction and loss of life for their family, and- in most cases- the actual forfeiture of their own lives.

It stands to reason when weighing the pros and cons of signing that document, they took into account that death for their beliefs was a very real possibility. Yet, they still signed it. From this one step, through much blood, sweat, and travail, the United States of America was formed. Her inception was not easy. While the American Revolution ended in 1783, it was not until 1788 that the Constitution was adopted as the official framework for this newly created nation.

Why did it take so long for a framework to be built?

The reason it took so long for the Constitution to evolve and becomes ratified is because the many disparate views of the founders of America had to be taken into account. The men we look to as intrinsic to our inception as a nation were great thinkers, men (and women- lest we forget the influence wives, mothers, and sisters had on the men in their lives, case in point, Abigail Adams) who possessed a firm grasp on the tenants of Western Civilization. They knew they were afforded an opportunity rarely seen in the history of mankind: to form a government on a foundation of the highest principles of humanity.

Drawing from the theories, essays, suppositions, and writings of such great minds as Plato, John Stuart Mill, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Aristotle, Cicero, and Thomas Aquinas as well as principles and truths found in the Bible, our framers crafted- through much argument and discourse- a document that is full of the most lofty principles found in the echelons of mankind.

The fact that these documents clearly outline and put forth PRINCIPLES is of the utmost importance because PRINCIPLES are infallible regardless of the foibles of persons. Meaning that where the foibles of men will seemingly erode a principle (or principles), those principles will ultimately outlive the persons who disregard or misrepresent them. Because the principles and truths fleshed out in the Constitution are ideals, it has allowed for enlightened men and women to challenge injustices and systematically begin eradicating them.

Case in point, on July 5, 1852, when Frederick Douglass stepped up to speak in Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, he delivered a scathing rebuke of the current condition of the United States.

Most famously is the line:

“The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”

He refers to the unjust blight of slavery that afflicted the nation in 1852. But, Frederick Douglass does not leave his audience with such a hopeless and tragic conclusion. Rather, he holds the feet of his critics to the fire. He takes the principles of America and argues why they are being violated.

Douglass familiarized himself with the founding documents. He studied them, absorbed them. And then he took the PRINCIPLES of FREEDOM and EQUALITY espoused in those documents, even penned by men who didn’t fully apply those principles within their own lives, and he held them up as a standard to be applied to all man- including those fettered in the chains of slavery.

“Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand, it will be found to contain certain principles and purposes entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”

Douglass, and many men and women like him who did not have his eloquence of speech, indicted the actions of pro-slavery Americans with the very principles of America. And because their indictment was founded in truth, the demise of slavery had to happen. If America stood for freedom and equality, where there was slavery and inequality, it had to end. Because they held Americans accountable for the IDEALS they espoused, the Fourth of July became a true celebration for Fredrick Douglass and the freed slaves, too. Holding their line, they brought the PRINCIPLES penned by the Founders to fruition.

Thomas Jefferson penned these words:

“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.”

The Constitution was written to ensure those principles could be lived out by a nation.

Men and women throughout our American history have latched on with bulldog tenacity to these principles and made certain that the areas where they were being violated were fully addressed and rectified.

Today we celebrate the PRINCIPLES and PURPOSES laid out for this nation. The IDEALS that were worth fighting and dying for in 1776 and are still worth fighting and dying for today.

The people who founded America, who gave their blood for the establishment of these worthy IDEALS and PRINCIPLES, were not perfect individuals. They failed in their personal lives just as people today who strive toward these same PRINCIPLES and IDEALS fail. But their failure does not diminish these PRINCIPLES. Yet, they put forth those IDEALS and paved the way for other men and women to apply those IDEALS to their fullest.

The PRINCIPLES of America, freedom and equality, the ability to pursue that which you were divinely purposed for, still remain. The cannot be altered or removed, but rather, can only become more and more their true selves.

That is what we must celebrate today, this Independence Day, this Fourth of July in 2020.