“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
This is the final line in a Declaration of War, which we, by habit and tradition, refer to as “The Declaration of Independence.” It was signed by 56 men in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 — 250 years ago.
However, why should those simply declaring independence need pledge their lives to each other if they were only speaking rhetorically and did not mean to back their declaration with force, if necessary? Hostilities had commenced in the spring of ’75 and blood had been shed in the field and the streets. One leading name is absent from the signatories: that of George Washington. He was not in Philadelphia that summer but with the Continental Army in the field. He had been named to command the troops and those troops were being provisioned by those who signed the Declaration.
It was a Declaration of War, based on a long list of injustices by England’s monarch; the first being, “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Failure to assent or abide by the laws was considered a serious offense by Thomas Jefferson, the young author of the Declaration who had just a few months earlier turned 33. Jefferson was an acolyte of Montesquieu, the renowned French political theorist and author of the monumental, “The Spirit of the Laws” 20 years in the making and finally published in 1748. The rule of law, not men, was foundational to Montesquieu’s study of governance. “The Spirit of the Laws” includes separation of powers, three branches of government, checks and balances, and civic virtue (placing the good of the many over the self-interests of the few) — all required to sustain a democratic republic. It may be said that Montesquieu was the “influencer” of the Age of Enlightenment and most certainly of what would become our Constitution in 1787.
By what authority did these 56 men declare independence? Jefferson announced in the first words of the document, ”In Congress,” he wrote This was the Second Continental Congress of representatives sent by each of the 13 colonies. There was no national executive, nor courts. There was only the first branch of government and it gave to its body as Congress authority 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.” They took and expanded legislative authority over the monarch — or executive — that had first been granted in the Magna Carta in 1215. The Congress conducted and won a war of independence that lasted for six years from 1775 to the end of hostilities in 1781, then negotiated peace, and ratified the Treaty of Paris in 1783. It was a competent and energetic Congress.
Our current Congress and entire federal government has a low approval rating. Any machine, including the one designed by Montesquieu, may through usage and time become out of balance and need adjustment to be refreshed into efficient working order. Congress needs to reclaim its Constitutional authority from the overzealous Executive and the encroaching Judicial branches. We have the tools to resist tyranny, restore our democratic republic, refresh our civic virtue and renew our bonds of affection for each other. Let us get to work for those who will follow in the next 250 years.
Happy Birthday America!
— A citizen