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Today is the day to reread the Declaration of Independence.
Here is an interesting little commentary by homeschool guru Oliver DeMille.
It is mostly about the Bible; but, he reminds us, the Declaration of
Independence used to come a close second to the Bible in the American
imagination.
http://newsletter.gw.edu/pre/july2000.pdf
This leads to the question, "What is America's
national book?" Bloom argues that when he was teaching college at the
University of Chicago in the 1950s and 60s, he could tell what the national
books were by asking students what books formed the core of their lives, the
basis of society. The two answers he always got were the Bible and the
Declaration of Independence. In the late 1960s this changed: Bloom's students
really couldn't answer his question. They stopped referring to the Bible and
the Declaration, and they listed . . . nothing. No national books. The Bible
and the Declaration remained for the older generations, but the youngsters
came up with no core source of absolutes, no central fountain of truth.
In the 1980s it changed again: students began listing various rock n' roll
music tapes as the thing they revered and turned to for truth and answers.
Practically every college student knew this new fountain of truth, studied it
daily and for long hours, and felt passionately about it. If you doubt it,
Bloom suggested, try to tell a group of youth why their music is bad and they
will respond with the same energy and even anger as if you had tried to tell
a group 100 years ago that the Bible was bad.
This obviously has some very negative ramifications for America's future, but
even rock music isn't truly a national book because it is only shared by the
younger generations.
In fact, there is no true national book in America today. No national books
means no culture; and this is very ominous for the future. Any society which
loses its national book declines and collapses in ignorance, dwindles and
perishes in unbelief. In Bloom's own words: "The loss of the gripping
inner life vouchsafed those who were nurtured by the Bible must be primarily attributed
not to our schools or political life, but to the family, which, with all its
rights to privacy, has proved unable to maintain any content of its own . . .
.The delicate fabric of the civilization into which the successive
generations are woven has unraveled, and children are raised, not educated .
. . .
"People sup together, play together, travel together, but they do not
think together. Hardly any homes have any intellectual life whatsoever, let
alone one that informs the vital interests of life. Educational TV marks the
high tide for family intellectual life.
"The cause of this decay of the family's traditional role as the
transmitter of tradition is the same as that of the decay of the humanities:
nobody believes that the old books do, or even could, contain the truth . . .
. In the United States, practically speaking, the Bible was the only common
culture, one that united simple and sophisticated, rich and poor, young and
old, and . . . provided access to the seriousness of books. With its gradual
and inevitable disappearance, the very idea of such a total book and the
possibility and necessity of world-explanation is disappearing. And fathers
and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have
for their children is for them to be wise-as priests, prophets or
philosophers are wise. Specialized competence and success are all that they
can imagine."1
Bloom is not only correct about the failure of the American family to fulfill
its role as the primary center of education; his analysis of the modern
famine of classics as the source of education is equally important: "My
grandparents were ignorant people by our standards, and my grandfather held
only lowly jobs. But their home was spiritually rich because all the things
done in it, not only what was specifically ritual, found their origin in the
Bible's commandments, and their explanation in the Bible's stories and the
commentaries on them, and had their imaginative counterparts in the seeds of
the myriad of exemplary heroes. My grandparents found reasons for the
existence of their family and the fulfillment of their duties in serious
writings, and they interpreted their special sufferings with respect to a
great and ennobling past. Their simple faith and practices linked them to great
scholars and thinkers who dealt with the same material . . . . There was a
respect for real learning, because it had a felt connection with their lives.
This is what a community and a history mean, a common experience inviting
high and low into a single body of belief . . . .
"Without the great revelations, epics and philosophies as part of our
natural vision, there is nothing to see out there, and eventually little left
inside. The Bible is not the only means to furnish a mind, but without a book
of similar gravity, read with the gravity of the potential believer, it will
remain unfurnished."2
If Bloom is correct, and I think he is, then America cannot remain free,
prosperous or moral unless the overall culture adopts a central text of the
caliber of the Bible. This is not only profound, but it is actually a
marching order for parents and educators. The whole problem is a result of
families failing to teach, educate, train and civilize.
Much of what he says here about the Bible could as well be said about the
Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence was written, of course, by Thomas Jefferson,
one of the most extraordinary Americans that ever lived. If you want to learn
more about Thomas Jefferson, I recommend not reading most books out there.
Start with these two:
The
Real Thomas Jefferson (1983), by Andrew Allison
The
Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas
Jefferson (2016), by David Barton.
By the way, that story about Jefferson fathering a child with his slave Sally
Hemmings is not true.
I find it interesting that many of the claims made today (the slave-child
story, and Jefferson's supposed atheism), were actually promoted in the
rancorous 1800 presidential election as well. What a coincidence. Did you
catch the new Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton?
To understand the principles embodied in the U.S. Constitution, and what an
extraordinary accomplishment it really is, read:
The
5000-Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen
The
Making of America, by W. Cleon Skousen
The Making of America was the go-to book in eastern Europe, after the Berlin
wall fell in 1989, when people there wanted to understand the principles
inherent in the United States' form of government.
A good in-depth history of that whole time is:
Conceived in Liberty(1979),
by Murray Rothbard. It is conveniently available in free .pdf format.
To understand a little bit of what has happened to the Constitution since
then, read:
The
Tempting of America (1989), by Robert Bork
With that, let's read the Declaration of Independence.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems
of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be
obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of
people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in
the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose
of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to
be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have
returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in
the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to
pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions
of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to
Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers
to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent
of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the
Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts
of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which
they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province,
establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so
as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and
waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed
the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear
Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and
Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,
whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages,
sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the
most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated
injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define
a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have
warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an
unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our
common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest
of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these
United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and
ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they
have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish
Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of
right do. 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.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
And with that, the United States was born.
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