The Signers of the Declaration

Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, 56 men stood around a table and signed their names to a document we’ll be celebrating this weekend- the Declaration of Independence.  Together, they pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” to a grand experiment, an idea of a republic in which balanced order and individual liberty were the law of the land, charity and religion were free to thrive, and sovereignty rested with the citizens who granted government its rule.

It was not a hasty act ill-considered or without careful thought.  “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,” they wrote.  Listed in the Declaration were a long list of actions deemed so inconceivable for free men, that the signers truly believed that posterity would never understand how oppressed they were.  When they held the Boston tea party, the tax they protested was 8% on a pound of tea.  Today, we work from January 1 to April 9 before we pay our taxes at the local, state and federal level- before a penny of our wages for our work goes to our own pockets.  Our Founders did so much more under so much less, while we have done so little under so much more.

The document those 56 men signed that day was an act of treason- yet they considered it not, for they were acting within the natural law that they knew meant for us to be free.  The claims they made were revolutionary- “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”  They claimed not the expertise of a lawyer, the counsel of a priest, nor the words of a statesman to explain their rationale.  They appealed to human nature, to the reason and rationale inside us all, for their testimony.  “That all men are created equal.”  In an age of monarchy and hierarchy, when you died in the class into which you were born, and the ruling class ruled not because they were equipped or chosen, but because of their family lineage.  The claim that we all start on the same page was radical in its time- and lately, I’ve grown to realize that to many people, it is radical still today.  “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.”  Rights come not from the consent of the government but are ours naturally, as humans created.  Government’s cause and purpose is not to be a benefactor of rights, for then it could retract them, but rather a protector of what God has already given to us.

These words were novel at the time, and the signers had no justification for the bravery they felt.  The colonies could receive no loans from any bank- what financier would give money to a group of farmers and merchants who were taking on the world’s greatest superpower at the time?  They had no army, no means of communicating quickly, no sophisticated tools.  Many times in the years to follow, entire British armies would be stopped and conquered by groups of farmers with as many pitch forks as they had guns. When they signed their names to the document that day, they were prepared to give their all.  Five signers were captured and tortured; twelve had their home and property burned; some saw their sons captured or killed during the war.  Patriots who stood with the signers fought in battle, many as leaders, and some financed the war through their own personal credit and treasures.

This idea that government is not the ruler but the protector of our God-endowed rights cost these signers greatly- and they were aware of the gravity of their decision when they put ink to paper.  This weekend we celebrate the acts and bravery of these founders, and even more, we celebrate the idea of liberty that has out-lasted kingdoms, empires, wars, depressions and famines.

Ronald Reagan said that America’s best days are ahead.  Looking back, sometimes it seems that our best days are behind us, in those days when people actually used phrases like “our sacred honor.”  But meeting single parents, business men and women, stay at home moms, college students, grandparents, immigrants, and sometimes even babies at our trainings has taught me this- we don’t suffer from a lack of quality people or strong ideas.  We have everything we need to make tomorrow better, brighter, freer.  And we owe those courageous signers that much.

So celebrate Independence Day this weekend. Pull out your flags, light your fireworks, sing the anthem, eat apple pie, and remember why we celebrate. And then on July 5, donate to a congressional candidate, go door to door for your state representative candidate, speak up about freedom at your kids’ soccer game, the chamber of commerce meeting, or in Sunday School.  Work yourself to the bone through the primary- and if your candidate loses, get right back up and find someone else to support again. Let’s keep celebrating Independence Day and this brilliant experiment of America all the way through November.  And then let’s get up on November 3rd, and keep right on at it.  I truly believe America’s best days and brightest moments are ahead, if we’re willing to work and sacrifice “lives, fortunes, sacred honor” just like our signers did.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite political campaign ads- “It’s Morning Again in America” from Reagan’s campaign.  Nothing gets me in the mood for the Fourth of July quite like this.  Happy Independence Day.