When the Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence almost two-and-a-half centuries ago, they were launching the most successful nation in the history of the world.
To be sure, the nation has been tested throughout its history, but it has always emerged stronger and remained a beacon of freedom for the world. In challenging times, Americans have called on the ideals set forth by our Founders. The Declaration of Independence inspired Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in 1863, just as it inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” address in 1963.
President Lincoln and Reverend King understood that we are united by shared beliefs in our founding principles. While Americans represent a number of faiths and races, we all are citizens. And, in order to preserve the nation, it’s necessary to continually remind ourselves what unites us.
Americans, however, rarely hear what exactly makes us good citizens, and certainly there are many opinions. But fundamentally, citizenship in our nation is about loyalty to the principles that are uniquely American and have served our nation well thoughout its history.
Citizenship, like our nation, is based on a set of ideas, namely the ideas on which the country was founded. These are the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the principles that our great leaders have called on at momentous occasions. Today, however, too many Americans are not being taught these first principles as truths and, therefore, aren’t learning what is necessary to be a citizen.
For example, according to a recent survey by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 15 percent of college seniors did not know that the Declaration of Independence denotes the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the nation’s report card, roughly a third of fourth graders and eighth graders fall below what is deemed a “basic” level of proficiency in U.S. history. Our high-schoolers fare much worse - more than half of 12th graders fall below the “basic level.”
The nation’s first principles are the foundation of citizenship, but it is American values, like faith, morality, and patriotism, that form the unique American spirit. Our values are the ties that bind. When many different people share these common beliefs, they can unite as Americans, as the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of Many One”) signifies.
School texts often treat these values much like they treat our first principles - as little more than “one person’s view” among many competing views. Some consider these values too old-fashioned for our modern and diverse world.
But, these values are essential to a well-ordered society and a functioning democratic republic. They are essential to the nation’s experiment in self-government, which requires its practitioners to possess a certain character in order to succeed.
For the sake of our nation, we must reinvigorate citizenship because if Americans don’t know this country’s ideals - why our country is great - they have no reason to defend it against others. We must ensure that each generation of Americans learns about the founding principles and is instilled with the values that sustain our nation.
Years ago, John Foster Dulles, briefly a U.S. Senator and later the Secretary of State to President Eisenhower, described the “tragedy…that seemingly our national ideals no longer inspire the loyal devotions for their defense.” Unfortunately, the same could be said today. Our challenge is to revive our founding principles and restore our values so that they inspire and guide future generations.
“Don’t Know Much about History” by David Feith, Wall Street Journal
“Our National Alienation and Amnesia” by William Bennett, National Review
Founding.com: A Project of the Claremont Institute
The Bradley Project on American National Identity
Lehrman American Studies Center
