On July 4th, Americans will celebrate their nation's 235th birthday by visiting family, throwing frisbees around in parks, going to picnics, swimming and of course - watching fireworks after sunset. Flags will be prominently displayed, and the colors red, white and blue will decorate everything from cakes to T-shirts. Festivities will include parades, marching bands, concerts and a famous hot dog eating contest in New York City..
If asked to explain the meaning of the Fourth of July, most Americans would rightly define the celebration as one of 'freedom' and 'liberty.' Yet, July 4, 1776 represents far more than an emphatic pronouncement of separation from Britain. Ultimately, it was an unprecedented, watershed event in world history.
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On his tombstone, Thomas Jefferson's (1743-1826) self-written epitaph reads "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia." His political career, which included being a successful two-term president of the young republic, is not mentioned. The reason? Jefferson understood his place in history - as the person responsible for ushering in a timeless day of revolution.
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When Congress unanimously accepted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it was endorsing a truly radical document that not only called for throwing off the "tyrannical" rule of King George III but also established a modern definition of human dignity.
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As our days are filled with tasks, chores, errands, obligations, requirements, appointments and duties, it is all too easy to view July 4th as simply an American holiday or a three-day weekend. By reading or re-reading just a few lines of the Declaration, reproduced below, the significance of his document and that moment can fortunately be recaptured.
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, That all men are created equal"
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If Jefferson had stopped here, these thirteen words would have already constituted one of the most controversial and radical statements in history. In these few words, Jefferson managed to level centuries of hierarchical order. Kings and rich nobles were no better than workers or poor peasants. They had simply acquired their status through power - self-appointed, unjust power used to subordinate others. From these thirteen words, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) would justify ending slavery, and American women would campaign for female suffrage (finally granted in 1920). If "all men were created equal," why not black men - and why not women as well? The genius of Jefferson's phraseology is its elasticity. It allowed future generations to reinterpret the bounds of rights and liberty as society evolved from one of tradition - to one of enlightened reason.
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"That they (all men) 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"
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In his second self-evident truth, Jefferson gave "unalienable Rights" not to the state but to individuals. Hence, citizens were paramount in the order of society - not the rulers or the ruling class. The idea that governments were called into existence by people to promote their livelihoods rather than people being subjects and servants to government was indeed revolutionary. In short, it turned the eighteenth century order completely upside down.
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"That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it"
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Politics is an unending negotiation and renegotiation of rights, resources and rules. As such, government, which exists for the sole purpose of promoting 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' for its citizens, must be responsive and competently broker conflicting interests in a fair and equitable manner. In the event government fails to do so, the people can 'alter' (vote it out) or 'abolish' it and create a new government altogether. The sovereignty of the people is unequivocal.
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Jefferson's Legacy
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Five decades later, Jefferson, who had become an old man of eighty-three, picked up his quill on 24 June 1826 to write - what would be - his final letter. Many of his fellow revolutionaries were dead. Others had grown older and become conservative since the days of the American Revolution. Not Jefferson. In declining an invitation to speak in Washington, DC on July 4th, Jefferson graciously thanked the Mayor and expressed his hopes on the future of his document as an ideological force for change stating,
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"May it be to the world what I believe it to be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or are opening to the rights of man."
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If Jefferson were alive today and able to consult a textbook of modern world history, he would see his hand - his writing hand to be precise - all over the globe. From the European Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848, to Simon Bolivar's (1783-1830) South American Revolutions in the nineteenth century, to the quest for decolonization and self-determination after World War I, to 1960 - the grand year of independence on the African continent, to Eastern Europe and China in the struggle to overthrow Communism in 1989 and to the Revolutions in Iran, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere still in progress, Jefferson's lines of revolutionary thought have inspired countless numbers of people to overthrow their tyrannical governments for democracy.
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Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence has served as the basis for the human rights revolution of the twentieth century - most notably in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) - one of the foundational texts of the United Nations.
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On July 4th, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and of the United States as a nation, ninety year-old John Adams (1735-1826), one of Jefferson's fellow revolutionaries and a former US President (second after George Washington and just prior to Thomas Jefferson - the third president), lay dying at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts near Boston. As his mind turned to the legacy of his generation for the betterment of mankind, he comforted himself with one final thought - which he expressed in his last words, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." His revolutionary brother, however, had died a few hours earlier at his stately home in Virginia on the same day - July 4th.
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In fact, John Adams' final words were correct and remain correct. Thomas Jefferson, through his transcendent Declaration, does indeed still survive. He survives wherever and whenever people assert their right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" over oppressive institutions and governments - a struggle that confronts much of the world today.
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To everyone in the United States and around the world who subscribes to Jefferson's ideals - the ideals of mankind - truth, liberty, justice, security and hope, you are wished a Happy Fourth of July.
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(Photo: Thomas Jefferson, portrait by Rembrandt Peale in 1800)
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(For additional pictures, including ones of Thomas Jefferson's architecturally brilliant home (Monticello) in Charlottesville, Virginia, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and view postings under 30 June)
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J Roquen
In fact, John Adams' final words were correct and remain correct. Thomas Jefferson, through his transcendent Declaration, does indeed still survive. He survives wherever and whenever people assert their right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" over oppressive institutions and governments - a struggle that confronts much of the world today.
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To everyone in the United States and around the world who subscribes to Jefferson's ideals - the ideals of mankind - truth, liberty, justice, security and hope, you are wished a Happy Fourth of July.
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(Photo: Thomas Jefferson, portrait by Rembrandt Peale in 1800)
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(For additional pictures, including ones of Thomas Jefferson's architecturally brilliant home (Monticello) in Charlottesville, Virginia, please click onto kleostimes.tumblr.com to the right and view postings under 30 June)
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J Roquen