Thoughts on the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence has an odd place in American history.

For one thing, it’s not part of the legal system. Unlike the Constitution, you can’t cite it in court. It has no force of law. It exists outside of the legal framework of the United States, a thing unto itself.

For another thing, it was not actually the way that the colonists chose to declare their independence from the British Crown. That happened on July 2nd, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress formally adopted Richard Henry Lee’s resolution on independence – “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.”

This vote prompted John Adams – who would later become the nation’s first president not named George Washington – to exclaim that “the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

But of course we don’t celebrate July 2nd as our Independence Day. We celebrate July 4th, the day that the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, a document that was simply meant to explain why the vote two days earlier had turned out the way it did.

“WHEN in the Course of human Events,” the Declaration begins, “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.”

It is basically the manifesto of the American Revolution, the only place where the Founding Fathers ever sat down as a group and explained why they were rebelling against the premier military power of the day.

Most Americans forget this.

When most Americans walk down the street thinking about the Declaration of Independence – as one does – what they think about is that one exquisitely crafted jewel of a sentence, the first sentence of the second paragraph:

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 sentence has become as close to an American Creed as we have, our secular catechism. This transformation began in the 19th century, long after the Revolution had been safely won, forgotten, half-remembered, and then mythologized, and was largely complete by the time Abraham Lincoln made it one of the key parts of the Gettysburg Address in 1863.

But as far as the Founders were concerned that sentence was just part of the introduction, a piece of rhetorical flourish before the important bit which was the justification of a rebellion already in progress. The shooting war had begun over a year prior to this, after all. We already had an Army, a Navy, and a Marine Corps. It all needed to be justified and given a rationale, and the Declaration provides it.

[T]o 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.

Most of the Declaration of Independence is in fact just a long list of the abuses committed by King George III, at least in the eyes of the Founding Fathers. There’s a reason for that. In English revolutionary tradition – and you may wish to pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that the English do this sort of thing often enough that they have established traditions for it – if you want reform, you blame all of the ills and issues on Parliament or the agents of the Crown (royal governors, customs officers, and so on), and you saw this with the Revolutionary Crisis of the 1760s and 1770s. But when you want revolution, you blame it all on the King personally, and that’s what you see here.

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.

It is a fascinating list, in light of current politics, as our present self-declared King of the United States wages war on the American people in order to establish his own Tyranny.

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.

It always surprises people in this country today to discover that one of the things that the Founding Fathers felt justified the American Revolution was the fact that new immigration was being restricted and the immigrants already here were being legally harassed. The current tyrannical and lawless assaults on immigrants in the United States would have horrified the Founders.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

Someone needs to let Unelected Co-President Elon “Sieg Heil” Musk and his band of feral teenagers know about this item, as it speaks directly to them.

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:

There are a lot of such jurisdictions and the specific one referred to here isn’t really an issue anymore, but we have been subjected to a new one instead. Much of what Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump is doing has no Constitutional basis, as the courts have been repeatedly forced to rule. The United States was not set up to be a dictatorship and for this guy to decide he can simply rule by decree is a betrayal of everything the American republic stands for. The Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution these days is our own president, sadly enough, though DOGE fits here as well.

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

Trade war, anyone? Random bizarre tariffs? Yeah, right here.

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

A tariff is a tax on you, the consumer. Foreign nations don’t pay those tariffs. You do. Congress had no role in these tariffs. Your representative did not get any voice in whether these should exist or not. The American people did not consent, yet we are taxed just the same.

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump and his minions, cronies, lackeys and slaves have been all over the news in recent weeks declaring that they had no obligation to provide due process of law to those they have accused of crimes – that they can act as judge, jury, and executioner without any further input. This is a doctrine alien to the laws of the United States and one that the Founders felt was sufficient to justify revolution.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

Did you catch the preparations that Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump is making to start ripping American citizens out of their homes and shipping them off to prisons in foreign nations? Did you think that would stop with the people he’s testing it out on? You are not safe, my fellow American. Without due process, without restrictions on his power, there is nothing to stop this lawless regime from disappearing anyone they want. Eventually that will be everyone. Even you.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us.

This all could have been avoided if the US legal system had responded appropriately to the Trump Insurrection of January 6, 2021. The Founding Fathers likely would have had everything resolved permanently by sundown on January 7 and we wouldn’t have had to deal with this any further. Yet here we are.

The historian Charles Beard once observed that “You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.” But there are times when such things are necessary, when we all must “get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America,” as John Lewis said.

These are such times, and the facts speak plainly.

The History of the present self-declared King of the United States is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

The Founding Fathers didn’t stand for it.

And no American today should do so either.