The Spirit of ’76

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln begged his fellow citizens to “come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence … heed these sacred principles.” He argued that “if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our charter of liberty … let me entreat you, come back.” In the same speech he called the Declaration “the immortal emblem of Humanity.”

If not immortal, the words of the July 4 Declaration of Independence are inspiring: they recognize a Creator, the value of the human life, and the proper role of civil government:

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 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 …

This uniquely American assertion, rooted in older truths from the Bible, Magna Carta, and the Mayflower Compact, was the lodestar for generations of Americans. For instance, the suffragist movement declared in 1848 at Seneca Falls , “All men and women are created equal.”

Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, and civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., all reverenced the Declaration. In one of his most famous addresses, Douglass observed that the “great principles of political freedom and of natural justice,” are “embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” King referred to the Declaration many times, such as in a 1965 sermon:

Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us—and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day—that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.

The Declaration continues to inspire Americans, but what about people in foreign countries? What is the influence of the Declaration abroad?

One scholar has suggested that nearly 200 countries and overseas political movements have cited the Declaration, from Haiti to Kosovo. For instance, in the decades that followed 1776, Spanish colonies in Latin American were inspired to seek independence and published their own declarations of independence. In Mexico, the authors asserted their purpose was

… to the exercise of all the rights given by the Author of Nature and recognized as unalienable and sacred by the civilized nations of the Earth, in liberty to constitute itself in the manner which best suits its happiness and through representatives who can manifest its will and plans …

Over the years, the Spirit of ’76 continued to expand beyond the Western Hemisphere. One example is the 1930 Declaration of Independence of the Indian National Congress, written by Mahatma Gandhi, which begins:

We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or to abolish it.

During the Cold War, liberty-loving anti-communists emphasized the way that Marxism tramples on individual rights and denies any conception of the transcendent. Vaclav Havel, Czech dissident, playwright, and later president of free Czechoslovakia, asserted the religious nature of liberty and of the Declaration: “The Declaration of Independence … states that the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.”

The great Polish pope and champion of freedom, John Paul II, commented on the profound global impact of America’s founding principles:

The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain “self-evident” truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by “nature’s God.” Thus, they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called “ordered liberty:” an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good.

From 1776 to today, the principles of the Declaration of Independence remain the bedrock of the American experience and, as Lincoln described, an “emblem for humanity.” As we celebrate our Independence Day, let’s put at the center a rededication to the value of every human person, individual liberty respected by restrained and limited government, and a sense of citizen responsibility for the common good.