{"id":50024,"date":"2020-07-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=50024"},"modified":"2020-07-02T15:28:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:28:48","slug":"first-came-the-declaration-then-the-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2020\/07\/first-came-the-declaration-then-the-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"First Came the Declaration, then the Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s birthday\u201d is not October 19, when the British army was defeated at Yorktown in 1781.\u00a0 Nor is it September 3, when Great Britain formally granted its American colonies independence with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.\u00a0 Nor is it June 21, when the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789.<\/p>\n

Rather, \u201cAmerica\u2019s birthday\u201d is July 4 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776.\u00a0 \u00a0Notice that independence was not yet achieved.\u00a0 That would take seven years of\u00a0 bloodshed and turmoil.\u00a0 But the Declaration of that independence to come, long\u00a0 before it was a reality, marked the beginning of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

\n

The foundation, though, for the new nation was clearly declared<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just as political independence was a long time in coming, personal independence\u2013the principles of equality, rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness\u2013would also take a long time to be realized.\u00a0 Indeed, like other ideals, they are never fully realized, and we must always struggle to live up to them.\u00a0 But that by no means invalidates them.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cAmerica\u2019s birthday\u201d is August 20, when the first slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619.\u00a0 The newspaper\u2019s\u00a01619 Project<\/a> echoes the contention of some progressive activists that the institution of slavery was the true founding of the United States of America.\u00a0 If this is true, the nation is intrinsically<\/em> racist, oppressive, and evil.\u00a0 It follows, as we have been blogging about this week,<\/a>\u00a0that, according to some Americans, we should start over completely, with a new name, a new flag, a new constitution, a new economy, a new language, and a new culture.<\/p>\n

In this view, the essence of America is not freedom, but its opposite:\u00a0 slavery.\u00a0 The founders of the new nation were not really interested in \u201cindependence\u201d but in establishing its opposite:\u00a0 bondage.\u00a0 The Declaration of Independence was written by a slave owner.\u00a0 Thomas Jefferson did not apply equality, rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to his slaves.\u00a0 Therefore, according to this view, the Declaration of Independence is a lie.<\/p>\n

First of all, the truth of an idea is not refuted just because the person who holds it has a bad character.\u00a0 That is the ad hominem fallacy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Just because Jefferson didn\u2019t live up to his own ideals does not mean the ideals are not valid.\u00a0 Nor does his personal failure take away from his achievement in articulating those ideals.<\/p>\n

The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is a not a lie.\u00a0 The founders from all of the thirteen colonies\u2013those who owned slaves and those who even then opposed slavery\u2013voted to approve the document unanimously, making a common commitment:\u00a0 \u201cWe hold these truths<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The liars would be those who, by their words or by their actions, deny<\/em> that all men are created equal and that their Creator endowed them with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u00a0 Even those who signed that document\u2013or the one who wrote it\u2013would thus be denying \u201cthese truths.\u201d<\/p>\n

That parts of American society were contradicting those founding ideals was recognized even at the time.\u00a0 The Declaration of Independence became a rallying call for those who wanted to abolish slavery.\u00a0 It took the Revolutionary War to win political independence, and it took the Civil War to win independence for the slaves.\u00a0 And even afterwards, it took the Civil Rights movement to ensure that black people are included in those founding declarations.\u00a0 Martin Luther King, Jr., said it best<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cWhen the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, in this annus horribilis<\/a> 2020, Americans are still<\/em> struggling to implement these \u201ctruths.\u201d\u00a0 Racial equality is still an issue.\u00a0 We still must contend for our \u201crights.\u201d\u00a0 The right to \u201clife\u201d is being denied to infants.\u00a0 \u201cLiberty\u201d is under assault.\u00a0 There is, perhaps, more consensus over \u201cthe pursuit of happiness,\u201d but different people\u2019s \u201cpursuits\u201d and definitions of \u201chappiness\u201d creates conflict.\u00a0 And it may well be that none of these principles can last for long without belief in a \u201cCreator.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was a declaration affirming these principles that gave America life.\u00a0 They still<\/em> give America life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration:\u00a0\u00a0The National Archives UK \/ No restrictions via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The birth of America is celebrated not on the date the British were defeated, or independence was granted, or the Constitution ratified. America was born with the “Declaration” of Independence–not its achievement. It took many years to gain political independence, and it took many more years to apply equality, rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all Americans. And the “pursuit” of these ideals must always continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":50039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,15,20,21],"tags":[8643,4739,648,1078,3122,2025,2208],"class_list":["post-50024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-culture","category-ethics","category-history","category-holidays","tag-1619-project","tag-american-values","tag-declaration-of-independence","tag-independence-day","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-slavery","tag-thomas-jefferson"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Came the Declaration, then the Achievement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The birth of America is celebrated not on the date the British were defeated, or independence was granted, or the Constitution ratified. 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