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A declaration for self-governance heard around the world [1]

['More From Author', 'July', 'Jason Mercier']

Date: 2023-07-04  

Americans will celebrate the 247th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence on July 4. While this is undoubtedly the biggest birthday party we will participate in this year (please avoid putting Roman candles on the cake), it is important to remember what the Fourth of July is all about.

The Continental Congress declared on July 4, 1776, (in part):

“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.”

The signers of the Declaration of Independence then went on to list a series of grievances against King George. After winning the Revolutionary War, our founders then turned their attention to governing a new country with the hope of avoiding these types of problems again in the future. They did this by creating a republican form of government with strong separations of power and protection of individual rights.

This brilliant design of self-governance is not guaranteed to be perpetual, however, and requires vigilance from the citizens.

This is why Benjamin Franklin warned when asked what type of government Congress had created:

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

President George Washington implored Americans in his farewell address to protect our republican form of government and its critical checks and balances:

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