Happy Independence Day

The Fourth of July is the day we adopted the Declaration of Independence, 240 years ago. We're not celebrating the day, we are celebrating our independence! And not just some proto-Brexit. The big idea was that persons were by nature free in thought and spirit, and that the powers of civil and just order rested in the will of the people. We had not only the right but a duty to free ourselves of tyrannical governance.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, 

​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.

Think about that. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 

What we are about to say should be obvious to anyone,

that all men are created equal, 

That there is no divine right of kings (it's obvious that we're not all the same, but nobody has special privileges under the law, or in the eyes of God), 

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 

That we are born with basic human rights that cannot be granted by any government, because they're ours to begin with,

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

To name but three, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Life, Liberty and Property were the three rights listed in common usage by Classical Liberals. However, Jefferson changed Property to pursuit of Happiness. What seems like a a mere dated turn of phrase today, probably caused a swivel-neck double-take at the time.

​WE surmise that Jefferson didn't want to enshrine Property (as in Slavery) in a document like this. Slavery was a property rights issue back then. But slavery was the antithesis of all men being created equal. 

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 

To secure these rights (not grant them!), governments are instituted among men (government is man made, there is no divinity about it). As Monty Python put it so graphically in The Holy Grail, "I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just
because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!"

And of course, this government does not lord it over the people; rather the government derives its power 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. 

And so, when the aforementioned conditions are not met, We the People must do something about it. To wit, change it, or replace it with something that is organized such that it will secure our rights, i.e., 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.

We're not talking about change for the sake of trivial change. And we've demonstrated a remarkable willingness to put up with quite a bit of abuse, for as long as we can stand it, than to replace a familiar but dysfunctional state. 

​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. 

We reach a point, however when enough is enough. When we see a series of rules and regulations that continue to limit our ability to pursue happiness, crushes our liberty, and threatens our lives, we should, we must, do something about it. 

Has our government crossed that line? WE believe it is becoming dangerously arrogant about it's role in our lives. Are WE proposing a revolution? Secession? No, and no. But we can, and we should compare the role of today's government to the principles that Jefferson lays out.

WE believe somebody (look to the left and to the right) needs to monitor our government much more closely than we have of late. Our city and county councils meet twice a month, and the bureaucracies run five days a week, vigorously churning out new programs, rules and regulations, depleting our earnings, and limiting what we can and cannot do.

Government is taking our liberty, and selling it back to us as permits. WE haven't been asking for this, but rent-seeking, grant-grubbing special interests have. Here's a news flash: special interests are not We the People. They are not created equal. They do not deserve special treatment under the law. 

This Independence Day, let's consider what insufferable evils, abuses and usurpations led our founders to a bloody revolution. Let's consider what we can do to avoid the need for another revolution. Let's restore our founding principles peacefully, while we still can. 

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If you want to read a fascinating historical account of how Thomas Jefferson came to write the Declaration of Independence, click here. 

Here is the original draft of the Declaration. Note the passage about slavery, fourth paragraph from the end, that the southern colonies rejected.