The American way of life is perhaps best described as “rightly ordered liberty.” There are other ways of life – wrongly ordered liberty and slavery are two possibilities that spring to mind. For those who have reflected on the matter, going all the way back to Plato, it has been clear that wrongly ordered liberty is the surest road to slavery. When we abuse our liberty, we are likely to lose it in fairly short order.
Our Founders understood this, and they resolved to attempt the foundation of a republic – a political community of rightly ordered liberty – that would stand the test of time. They knew that such a republic could only endure if it was founded on the true principles of liberty – the truths from which real liberty derives – and if those principles were to be found not only in the books of the wise, but in the souls of the people as well. Getting it right on paper wouldn’t be enough. “We the people” had to get it right in our actual lives together.
The significance of the Declaration lies in this dual requirement. In the Declaration the political leaders of the infant America not only declared the true principles of political liberty, but they declared on behalf of the entire American people that these principles are self-evidently true. The crucial implication is that the principles of rightly ordered liberty can be understood by all men of good will, and that the survival of liberty depends upon a people understanding, assenting to, and living according to those principles.
Consider the fact that the power to amend the Constitution of the United States rests ultimately with the people. Is this intended to be an arbitrary power? To what authority are the people to look when considering alterations to the law that establishes the very structure of their political institutions? The Declaration makes clear that any people considering the alteration of their political order – and political orders can and sometimes must be changed – must look to what does not change. And what does not change are the self-evident principles of rightly-ordered liberty. For Americans, this means that we must resolve all fundamental political questions in accord with the philosophy of the Declaration, or we have thrown away our map to happiness.
By the way, this is why the notion that all we need is the Constitution is so dangerous. The procedural and institutional arrangements that make up the core of the Constitution simply cannot stand alone. The Constitution is the practical fulfillment of the political philosophy articulated in the Declaration – it is the set of primary man-made laws crafted to allow the spirit of the Declaration to give life to the American political community. Absent the spirit of the Declaration, the Constitution is little more than the dead bones of arbitrary law. This is not to take away from its surpassing excellence – only to point out that, like the skeleton of a man, the Constitution has its excellence only within the living thing it is meant to serve. If we forget or deny that the Constitution is our Founders’ best effort to build a house that the spirit of the Declaration could inhabit, then its requirements and compromises will quickly be seen as the arbitrary will of a convention of dead white males. Calhoun, disregarding the Declaration, thought that, unlike men, all clauses of the Constitution were created equal, from the preamble to the fugitive slave provision. It was the Declaration that ultimately enabled us to tell the difference, and which ultimately redeemed the Constitution from the necessary but tragic imperfections imposed by the circumstances of the Founding.
Accordingly, we must continually have recourse to the Declaration if we are to stay on track. The path it lays out for us is very clear. Jefferson’s much-praised conciseness is not just a literary achievement – if the liberty of an active and busy people is to depend upon their grasp of a political philosophy, the public words expressing that philosophy need to be simple, deep, and memorable. And, indeed, there are few political projects that would be more beneficial than a national drive to have our children (and their parents) memorize the Declaration. In better days, this was done.
But another thing we must do is to restate, as best we can and in our own words, what we understand the teaching of the Declaration to be. Jefferson himself said that he was merely summarizing what was held to be true by all Americans at the time. In substituting our own words for Jefferson’s, we ensure that the Declaration exists in our souls not simply as poetry, but as thought.
Here, then is what I believe to be the philosophic core of the Declaration. I offer it in the hope that all my fellow citizens will pause to make sure that they too have considered the thoughts, and not merely the words, of our great statement of principle. Only then can we offer to the Declaration, and to our Republic, the informed and truly human assent from which a nation of free people can be built and, in troubled times like ours, renovated.
The Declaration is fundamentally a statement of the principles of justice that define the moral identity of the American people. It presents a certain concept of our human nature and draws out the political consequences of that concept.
All human beings are created equal. They need no title or qualification beyond their own simple humanity in order to command respect for their intrinsic human dignity, their “unalienable rights.”
The basic purpose of government is to secure these rights, and its highest end is to further the safety and happiness of the people by doing so. Accordingly, no government is just or legitimate if it systematically violates the rights on which so much of our hope rests.
But the Declaration is more than just an assertion of rights. It also makes a clear statement about the ultimate source of authority which commands respect for those rights. God, the Creator, the author of the laws of nature, is that source.
Thus the effective prerequisite for human rights is respect for God’s authority and His eternal laws. This is also the prerequisite for government based on consent, which includes free elections, representation, due process of law, etc.
If we accept the logic of our Declaration of Independence, this reverence for God is not just a matter of religious faith. It is the foundation of justice and citizenship in our Republic. Therefore, our freedom is derived from our respect for law, especially the highest law as embodied in the will of the Creator.
Thus freedom, rightly understood, cannot be confused with mere licentiousness. It first of all involves the duty to respect its own foundations in the laws of nature and nature’s God. That’s why our rights are “unalienable,” which means that we do not have the right to surrender or destroy them by our choice or actions.
Indeed, if we make the judgment that our rights are being systematically violated, we have the duty to resist and overthrow the power responsible. This duty involves both the judgment and the moral and material capacity to resist tyranny.
These concepts constitute our character as a free people, which it is our duty to maintain.
This summary of the nature of true liberty and its relation to government power is just a beginning, of course, as was the Declaration itself. Among tasks that remain to the citizen, after he has considered what the Declaration means in its glorious generality, is what it means for the questions of public policy in his particular lifetime. What are the implications of the Declaration for tax policy, abortion, education, and the other “issues” into which our political lives together are compartmentalized by politicians and the media? Considering these questions is the vocation of the American citizen, which means that we are all called, in our way, to be not just citizens, but statesmen as well.
It has always been a prejudice of the elite to think that “common people,” the “masses,” don’t have the capacity or interest for philosophy. Do “real Americans” philosophize? I don’t know whether “real men” eat quiche, red meat, or both. But I do know that real Americans think about the Declaration. I invite you to join us at the Declaration Foundation in discussing the philosophy of our great Founders. Then ask your family and friends what they think. For where the Declaration is forgotten, the American Republic is dead.
It isn’t dead yet, and as Memorial Day approaches it is good to remember what so many brave Americans have died to preserve. They died to protect and defend the same truths for which our Founders pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor – the truths of the Declaration. As you look for opportunities to remind your fellow citizens of those truths, know that you also are protecting and defending the Republic we love.
(Dr. Keyes recently founded and serves as chairman of the Declaration Foundation, a communications center for founding principles. To visit their website click here.)
