The Declaration – Then and Now

The Declaration – Then and Now

by Stephanie Raha, Editor-in-Chief of The Christophers

July 5, 2010

Happy Independence Day! This great national holiday means so much more than Red, White and Blue celebrations with parades, picnics, fireworks and family get-togethers. At some point during the day, call to mind that on July 4, 1776, the 13 British colonies in America chose liberty and changed history.

Our founders risked their lives to make the American Revolution possible. The Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution of the United States were magnificent documents filled with power and promise. They set in motion a nation of great ideals, energy and accomplishment.

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration, later said, “The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed.”

He was right. Those founding documents, as profound as they were, had flaws which led inexorably to another war for the liberty of slaves whose rights had been ignored. So yet another generation took a stand to fight – and often, die – for what they believed.

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. …” When President Abraham Lincoln said those words in 1863, he was referring to the Declaration of Independence. His address at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the middle of the Civil War, has come to be almost as well known as the Declaration which he treasured as both a living document and a moral imperative.

Take time to read the Declaration. The words with which Lincoln identified are the same ones most Americans relate to today:

“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.” It concludes: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Most of the signers suffered for their support of America’s independence. Some even died along with many other patriots on the battlefield. The Civil War claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands. And many more died during the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and now in Afghanistan and Iraq. Liberty comes at a price.

Democracy is a difficult, dangerous business for every generation. But if we want to insure, as Lincoln said, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” we need to commit ourselves to the cause. May God grant each of us the courage to stand up and speak out for peace, justice and truth – whatever it takes.

(This essay is this week's "Light One Candle" column, written by Stephanie Raha, Editor-in-Chief of The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.)