Celebrating Our Dependence

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia approved a revised draft of the Declaration of Independence. In that document, largely the product of Thomas Jefferson’s pen, representatives of what had been 13 colonies of England declared themselves to be “free and independent states.”

True independence would still be years away for the colonists. Military victory came with the English General Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781. The ultimate political victory came in 1793 with the ratification of the Treaty of Paris. Yet it was that bold statement signed by the 56 representatives that we celebrate as the point that marked our independence.

The Declaration of Independence was no mere rehash of old ideas. The brief document presented a radically new way of thinking of government. Jefferson wrote that the government served the people and therefore needed the consent of those governed. This was a fundamental shift in political thinking toward democracy.

Though it contains a few references to God, the Declaration is a very political document, setting out the various ways in which the colonies felt the English Crown held “an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

While acknowledging the Declaration of Independence as being primarily political and not theological, one can’t help but note that the best known phrase is clearly making a theological claim, “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.”

Jefferson was borrowing heavily from the English Philosopher John Locke, who wrote of inalienable rights to life, liberty and property. The wealthy landowner Jefferson substituted the right of “the pursuit of happiness” for “property.” For Jefferson, happiness is the product of civic virtue and public duty.

Jefferson and the other members of the Continental Congress held that King George III of England’s tyrannical policies violated not English law, but natural law—the order of the universe if you will. Jefferson appealed to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” in declaring all men to be created equal. The idea is that there is a deity who willed independence for all and the policies of England abridged those God-given freedoms.

The new nation was not yet willing to take the statement about all men seriously, with regard to slaves, but they were already making bold strides toward freedom. In doing so, they relied on belief in a creator. The Declaration of Independence appealed to “the Supreme Judge of the World” and ended with an assertion of the signers “firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence.” They placed the outcome of their declaration in God’s hands.

It is an oversimplification of the facts to say that the founders of our nation were united in their efforts to create a new nation founded on Christian principles. Certainly many persons who fought and died for our nation wanted just that, while others were more concerned with issues of politics and business—self-governance and decreased taxation. Yet there is no doubt that the founders did appeal to God in justifying their independence from England.

The Declaration of Independence forged a new path for nations to be governed according to a mandate from the people. America has served as a model for other governments seeking to reform their governments so that they serve the common good.

It is the ongoing task of us Americans to live up to the ideals espoused by the founders and ensure that our government serves the needs of those governed rather than the needs of the government itself. Every generation must take up this task anew.

But what struck me as most significant in rereading the Declaration of Independence as I wrote this column is how in the process of declaring independence from the King of England, the colonists acknowledged their dependence on God. When all was said and done it was to natural law and the God who created the world they appealed.

This appeal to God echoed the concerns of the first colonists who landed on what would become American soil as they sought a place to worship God in the way of their choosing. On this Fourth of July, I give thanks for the freedom to acknowledge my dependence to God alone.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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