AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY HELPED SPARK INDEPENDENCE WORLD-WIDE
"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." This is the best-remembered sentence from the Declaration of Independence.
When I was a child, I loved the Fourth of July because of the picnics, fireworks and the patriotic feelings inspired by the flags and red white and blue decorations. As I grew older, I began to appreciate the deeper significance of the holiday. An avid reader from a young age, I particularly enjoyed history and learned that America's bid for independence came close to failing. We were fighting Great Britain, which was the 18th Century's superpower. It was only through bravery and steadfastness that our forefathers emerged victorious despite numerous setbacks and defeats.
The Declaration of Independence, written so eloquently by Thomas Jefferson, neither began nor ended the American Revolution. By July 1776, the 13 colonies had already been involved in a shooting war against the British for over a year, and the Continental Congress had appointed George Washington as the commanding general. The untried Continental Army, augmented by local militias, had managed to force the British to leave Boston, but had been defeated on other battlefields. In the beginning, the fight was to assert American rights as British citizens, but the Declaration of Independence clarified the goal of the war, making it a conflict about the fundamental concept of liberty.
This concept was a powerful motivator as George Washington kept the poorly paid and equipped army together during the seven years of war. His strength of character, ability to learn from defeat and shrewdness helped drive the Continental Army, but the glue which held it together was the goal of the mission - liberty for all.
Sometimes Americans forget how revolutionary the idea of freedom was for the world in 1776. There were very few countries which were even vaguely democratic at the time. The Netherlands were a republic. England had its parliament but was ruled by a king. Some of Switzerland's Cantons, and various small city states in Germany and Italy, were republican in structure, but the great nations of Europe, including Spain, France and Sweden, were absolute monarchies. Elsewhere the oppressive autocracies of Imperial Russia, the Turkish Ottoman Empire and Imperial China were the rule.
The idea that a government existed for the benefit of its people and not the reverse was revolutionary. Even within our borders it took a bloody civil war and a bitter civil rights struggle to broaden the concept to include Americans of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The idea of freedom is still unsettling in many parts of the globe, from the dictatorships of Zimbabwe and North Korea to Cuba. Communist China still cracks down on democratic forces and is imposing strict controls on the freewheeling internet. The young people of Iran are rejecting the sham elections approved by the clerics who run that country. Resistance to our liberation of Iraq from the tyrant Saddam Hussein is driven by the fear that a free Iraq can threaten the strongmen who currently oppress so many who live in the Middle East.
Though the present struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan are difficult, I am confident that the power of freedom will help remake this region of the world, just as it remade Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany after the end of World War II. Though there will always be setbacks, history seems to be moving toward greater acceptance of democracy and free markets in South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. This will make the world more peaceful and far more prosperous.
This is why our Fourth of July is so important. It was a declaration of independence for 13 small colonies over two centuries ago, which has become a clarion call for freedom that is still being heard today.
July 24, 2005