The source of rights

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Justice Clarence Thomas spoke last week at the University of Texas at Austin in honor of this country’s 250th anniversary. Hosted by the Civitas Institute, Justice Thomas reflected on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and how his own life shaped his understanding of it. Here now are excerpts of the hour-long speech, edited to fit our available time.

CLARENCE THOMAS: The second paragraph of the Declaration proclaims, “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.”

Throughout my youth, these truths were articles of faith that were impervious to bigotry and discrimination. ……. Despite the multiplicity of laws and customs that reeked of bigotry, it was universally believed among those blacks with whom I lived and who had very little or no formal education that in God's eyes and under our Constitution, we were equal…. At home, at school and at church, we were taught that we are inherently equal, that equality…came from God, and that it could not be diminished by man. …

….When you lived in a segregated world with palpable discrimination and the governments nearest to you enforced laws and customs that promoted unequal treatment, it was obvious that your rights or your dignity did not come from those governments, but rather from God. … We knew that life, liberty and property were sacrosanct.

All too often…Intellectuals want you to believe that our founding principles are matters of esoteric philosophy or sophisticated debate. …But the principles of the Declaration of Independence, as I encountered them, are a way of life. They are not an abstract theory.

…We should not forget that the Declaration established the principles that produced— despite all of our imperfections— our miscues and our tragic mistakes, it gave us the freest, wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world. It provided the moral principles by which Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King would criticize the institutions of slavery and segregation. …..

In essence, the signers of the Declaration were saying that they were willing to die for the principles they were asserting the supreme act of courage. Those principles were more important than their fear….. What changed the world was not the words, but the commitment and spirit of the people who were willing to labor, sacrifice and even give their lives, what Lincoln in Gettysburg called the last full measure of devotion for the Declaration's principles….

It is that devotion that we are missing today and that we must find in our hearts if this nation is to endure…..

When Americans look to Washington and wonder why it so often disappoints, it Is not because there are too few people who know what is right….It is instead because there are too few people who are willing to do what it takes to do the right thing, to sacrifice the popularity, flattery, comfort and security that are the purchase price for principle.

What are your principles worth to you? My answer then was the same I would give today….they are worth life itself. …

…. Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government. …The Century of progressivism did not go well. The European system that Wilson and the progressives scolded Americans for not adopting…. led to the governments that caused the most awful century that the world has ever seen, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Mao all were intertwined with the rise of progressivism…Many progressives expressed admiration for each of them shortly before their governments killed 10s of millions of people. …. we must find in ourselves that same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration had so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs.

Each of you will have opportunities to be courageous every day. It may mean speaking up in class tomorrow when someone around you expects you to live by lies. It may mean standing up for your religion when it is mocked and disparaged by a professor…. It may mean running for your school board when you see that they are teaching your children to hate your values and our country…. One thing I do know to be true: it will mean waking up every day with the resolve to withstand unfair criticism and attacks.

….So by all means, celebrate the Declaration of Independence. …But I implore you to celebrate it by standing up for it, by defending it, and by recommitting yourselves to living up to its ideals…Take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure and with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence let us mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred honor. Thank you and may God continue to bless our country. 

[The full speech is available here.]

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.