An inspiring birth certificate
The US Declaration of Independence at 250
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people … They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty”.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Take Away
The Declaration of Independence is a document created not around personalities or political passions, on the contrary it commenced around the enduring liberal key principles: Limited Government, Distributed Power and the Institutions meant to preserve Liberty. After being adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the 13 North American colonies cut all of their political connections to Great Britain. Including title, a long list of grievances against the British Crown and the names of all 56 signers the Declaration contains only some 1,460 words. The final paragraphs hold the formal and definite Declaration of Independence. Its spirit caused worldwide ripples almost immediately, most famously with the French Revolution in 1789, followed by the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 and independence movements in a number of Latin American countries. However, contrary to popular belief, the wording of the Declaration did not gain immediate prominence in the US and remained somewhat obscured for several decades.
With the Declaration of Independence at 250, it seems appropriate to briefly reflect on this venerable document that founded the United States of America, once the celebrated Land of Opportunity and beacon of individual liberty, of free markets and the freedom of speech.
Introduction
Around 1700, barely more than 300.000, mostly British but also western European immigrants and enslaved Africans lived in the 12 North American colonies under British rule. After Georgia joined them in 1732, the number of settlers in the now 13 protectorates have grown to approximately 1.2 millions in 1750. And when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, their population has swelled to 2.2 millions, including some 500,000 slaves. Stretched along the Atlantic coast for some 1,000 miles, ranging from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south, the colonies covered an area of 430,000 square miles with large parts sparsely populated. Drastically slashed by brutal conflicts and European diseases, by 1776 the Indian nations living within the 13 colonies or in the adjacent areas have been estimated to just about 30,000.
The philosophy of the Enlightenment that profoundly swept western Europe also eased the shedding of certain traditions and old ways of thinking in North America’s colonies and thus fostered a new socio-political culture with a sense of defiant spirit. As a reaction to the secularization in the territories, the so-called Great Awakening covered urban and rural areas alike during the 1730s and 1740s and revitalized a religious fervor that challenged time-honored church authority. Not only the encouragement to choose their own churches, also the settlers’ questioning the British rule eventually paved the way for the American Revolution. With time the colonists began to loosen their family ties and set themselves apart from their European ancestors by no longer defining their identity primarily according to class, education or background criteria. Rather they drew a clear distinction to other ethnicities in their surroundings. By enduring in the vast and often testing environment, the settlers adopted many new words from French, Dutch, German or several indigenous languages that eventually entered their shared tongue. Slowly they began to acquire a common American identity broadly depicted by optimism about progress, imagination, pragmatism, business acumen, and also by a good portion of self-confidence. These qualities strongly supported the colonists’ independence movement and over time came to be perceived as naturally American. Before long Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was considered the archetypical American.
I. Colonial roots and the road to revolution
Given that most immigrants were ethnically of European descent, predominantly coming from Great Britain, but also from the Netherlands, from France or Germany, they assumed and exclusively kept the right to vote within their coalition and viewed their assemblies as counterweights to the British colonial government. The 50 years between Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) and the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) tied down the British forces and thus presented the 13 colonies with a half century of relative neglect from British rule. Not only Queen Anne’s War shifted the balance of power in North America towards the British. The globally fought Seven Years’ War that ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 also dealt the British a major victory and forced France to abandon its Canadian territories and all its claims east of the Mississippi. After these massive land gains, the arrogant display of force by King George III (1738-1820) and the politically heavy-handed reorganization of the new territories created an explosive socio-economic setting. The inhumane conditions of the slaves and the harsh treatment of the bordering native tribes went hand in hand.
As clashes were looming with the nations of Mohawks, Massachusetts or Iroquois and other Indian tribes in the north and the Cherokee, Delaware or Seminole among several others in the southern regions, the British government prohibited all settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. This new ruling enraged farmers, ranchers and land speculators alike and King George III’s attempt to force the colonies to repay the British war debts through high taxes imposed on them, prompted first protests. With the rallying cry “no taxation without representation” the settlers refused to pay taxes levied by the British Parliament, as they had no elected representatives. Their angry protest escalated in Boston (MA) when British soldiers fired into angry groups and killed five civilians on March 5, 1770. As the colonists’ ire intensified, small bands of armed men covertly began to form and about 3 years later, on December 16, 1773 the outraged Sons of Liberty, an underground, die-hard group boarded British ships and dumped some 340 boxes of valuable tea into the harbor of Boston to prevent the import taxes. The British government considered this Tea Party protest an act of high treason and retaliated with severe punitive measures. As a result, in April 1775 the first bloody clashes between British ‘Redcoats’ and some ragtag militias were fought at Lexington and Concord some 25 miles northwest of Boston (MA) and triggered a rapid succession of pivotal incidents.
Just about one month later, on May 15, 1775 the 2nd Continental Congress declared a State of Defense compelling the delegates to endorse the formation of a Continental Army on June 15 and appointed George Washington (1732-1799) as Commander-in-Chief of an outgunned, ill-equipped and outnumbered defense force. However the thought of a downright separation, let alone of independence from the British Crown was still merely whispered in pubs after some drinks or in hideouts. The newly arrived English journalist and radical liberal Thomas Paine (1737-1809) published his bestselling pamphlet Common Sense in early January 1776 and at once broke the taboo by openly calling to action and for independence. At the same time the colonial territory of Virginia declared itself free from British rule and adopted its bold and daring Declaration of Rights on June 12, 1776. Motivated and guided by the English legal and cultural traditions, especially by the Magna Carta of 1215, the English Petition of Rights of 1628 and England’s Bill of Rights of 1689, Virginia’s founding document was primarily written by George Mason (1725-1792). It is one of the most emulated constitutional documents, affirming the classic principles of liberty and constitutionalism, of limited government, or the concept of equality before or under the law. Thus Virginia’s Declaration of Rights thus provided the philosophical framework for natural rights and popular sovereignty.
On June 11, 1776 the 2nd Continental Congress charged John Adams (1735-1826) of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston (1746-1813) of New York, Roger Sherman (1726-1793) of Connecticut and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) of Virginia with drafting a formal statement justifying the utter break with Great Britain. Although the quiet and untested Jefferson was not an obvious choice for this task, this Committee of Five entrusted him with penning the document. Profoundly influenced foremost by Virginia’s bold Declaration of Rights particularly regarding the inherent rights of men, but also by Thomas Paine’s powerful booklet Common Sense (1776), Jefferson finished his first rough draft in little more than two weeks. He had hoped the principles enshrined in his text became a beacon to the world. However, only after some 85 serious revisions to his phrasing, the 2nd Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and hence announced the full separation of 13 North American colonies from Great Britain.
Some 10 years after the Declaration of Independence has passed, George Mason was one of the three steadfast and principled delegates who refused to sign the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, primarily on grounds that the document lacked a Bill of Rights that would protect individual liberties against federal power. Mason felt that the US Constitution created a rather weak legislative branch and an overly strong executive/senate, arguing it blended power in ways that threatened state sovereignty. Virginia’s largest public university is named after him (GMU) and has worldwide by far the highest number of prolific faculty members and adjunct scholars who are leading proponents of the 6th and 7th generations of the Austrian School.
II. Liberty, slavery, and the contradictions of independence
While the commendable, courageous and indeed inspiring content of this foundational document deserves the utmost respect, the blatant hypocrisy of the signatories should neither go unmentioned or suppressed, nor should it be considered long gone. While Jefferson drafted his stagey pledge that all persons are not only created equal but are also endowed “with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, he owned well over 600 slaves at his vast plantations in Monticello (VA). Never tired of denouncing slavery as a “hideous evil” and a moral travesty, Jefferson however by no means was alone. After all, 41 out of the 56 signatories of the Declaration were slaveholders prior and after July 4, 1776. This prevailing double standard prompted the British playwright and poet Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) publicly asking the American colonists how they would justify the fact “that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”.
In other words, the American push for independence was for the most part led by people who more often than not proclaimed individual liberty for all while earning their livelihood by owning slaves and keeping them unfree and frequently in chains. Moreover, the Declaration’s famous promise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness did neither apply to the masses of slaves nor to the approximately 30,000 surviving Native Americans who lived within the limits of the colonies. Indians were neither free citizens of the emerging United States, nor did they enjoy security or freedom under British rule. Instead, they were referred to and treated as foreign enemies or every so often condescendingly as conquered people. While white colonists were fighting for independence, most Indian tribes were battling to defend their own territorial autonomy from colonial expansion.
It took almost 100 years and the vicious Civil War (1861-1865) until slavery was formally abolished and the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution at long last granted African Americans the US citizenship in 1868. For the 500+ Indian tribal Nations living in the contiguous USA, it took even longer. Dramatically reduced by genocidal wars, European diseases and violently forced into barren and remote reservations, the once proud Indian nations were granted citizenship only in 1924, when US President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) signed the Indian Citizenship Act.
However it should also be mentioned here, that the birthright citizenship dogma was unknown to the British common law that governed the 13 colonies. Given that the prevailing legislation during the 1770s referred merely to birthright allegiance, in the view of the colonists this phrase implies a feudal relation between a master and his/her servant and thus is not applicable to them. Consequently the signatories of the Declaration firmly rejected this concept. After all, their signatures on the document clearly stated that the united colonies are not only a “separate and equal” nation, they are also “absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved”. For them the ancient dogma of an eternal allegiance thus could not serve as a convincing argument for an American citizenship. In other words, the signatories distinguished between subjects and citizens as citizenship does not exist by nature but is created by law.
III. Natural rights and the foundations of liberal government
As the majority of eligible voters in the 13 colonies during the 1770s were of western European descent and for the most part arriving from Great Britain, Scotland or Ireland, the colonists were not distinct in that respect from their fellows left behind in the old world. The colonists’ efforts were solely driven by their hardship and resolve to shake off the oppressive actions of the British Crown. In this point, among the most compelling distinctions between the US Declaration of Independence and other autonomy movements throughout the past 250 years or so, arguably is the fact that it was neither grounded in ethnicity nor in nationality. Thus the reference that “it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve” in the opening paragraph of the Declaration simply applies to the rebellious settlers who were determined to get rid of British rule and to establish a new and independent nation.
“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, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. The signatories thus were mindful not only by setting forth universal truths for all people and appealed to reason, not to faith or mere will. They also set forth the moral order first, followed by the political and legal order it entails. In other words the phrasing of the Declaration is applicable to all people, without regard to their devotions, ancestry or creed, but to pure reason only. Beginning with the simple premise that all human beings are created equal, the text relates this equality to the indisputable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, this implies that all people are equal only insofar as they possess equal unalienable natural rights, and that no person holds rights superior to those of others. More importantly it also allows for inequality that predictably arises when people exercise their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as they see fit. By basing their vision on rights rather than on values, virtues or other moral concepts, the signatories paved the way for the proper understanding of the Rule of Law. It was well understood that any effective defense of individual freedom must be soundly put under the law, without concessions to considerations of expediency. Rights reflect actions that are permitted, prohibited or required, regardless of whether those actions are valuable or virtuous. Thus moral requirements are viewed as external rational principles that are discoverable by reason and people are free to pursue their happiness as long as they renounce to restrict the equal rights of others. The pivotal, celebrated and often quoted passages following the justification of the colonists’ efforts, were grounded in the Enlightenment philosophy and inspired by the works of John Locke (1632-1704).
In general terms adhering to Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689) the 56 cosigners of the Declaration proposed a government as the natural instrument, and thus suggested an authority that not only derives its power from the consent of the governed. The governing assembly is also charged with the protection of the people’s natural rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and those rights, men create as they live their lives. In order to promote a civilized society that is based on natural rights and mutually consented and enforceable contracts, a government needs to be limited in two crucial ways: First by its intentions, i.e. the securing and protecting of individual freedom and rights and secondly, by its means to act justly by consenting to its powers. Accordingly the Declaration affirms that a secession or a revolution is justified “whenever any form of government oppresses or opposes these aims”. In other words, the colonists wanted to establish in principle a free society that every participant would have the capacity to discuss, debate, and deliberate with others in an atmosphere of respect, thoughtful consideration of differing opinions and a shared desire to solve problems. Locke’s thoughts are among the foundational texts of classic Liberalism.
IV. Grievances against power: Then and now
The Declaration also holds a list of 27 very specific grievances against King George III. and his rulings. It concludes with the formal Declaration of Independence. Referring to King George III. in a scorning “He”, some of these itemized complaints, sadly also apply to the actions of the current US government. A few examples should suffice:
*”He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; … laws and refusing to pass other legislation that would encourage immigration”:
Currently President Trump is waging a massive and often cruel deportation campaign against illegal and at times legal immigration and also attempts to revoke the status of numerous naturalized citizens without granting them even the bare minimum of due process.
*”For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world”:
The Trump government is presently engaged in several self-destructive trade wars against various nations worldwide, including even the closest allies. These illiberal policies destabilize the venerable liberal ideal of free trade.
*”He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people”:
Despite the establishment of a Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE), the US regulatory and law enforcement apparatus is vast, comprising over 18,000 agencies, 1.2 million local/state personnel, and over 136,000 federal officers. It governs nearly every aspect of life and the full tax code, including regulations, case law, and IRS guidance, spans over 70,000 pages. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers, swarm inner cities and harass bystanders or innocent people without due process.
*”He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, …”:
Sadly on January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, aiming to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election. A bipartisan House Select Committee investigated the incident, concluding it was an attempt to overturn the election results. However, in January 2025 President Trump granted blanket clemency for almost 1,600 individuals convicted of or awaiting trial or sentencing for offenses related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
*”He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers”:
Ever since President Trump assumed office several political and legal cases are pending on his alleged obstruction of justice, including the legally explosive Epstein files.
V. The enduring legacy of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a document created not around personalities or political passions, on the contrary it has been devised around the enduring liberal key principles: Limited Government, Distributed Power and the Institutions meant to preserve Liberty. It is an ideal that is continuously worth striving for and merits a tireless pursuit. Its words have inspired many different causes, from suffragists and civil rights leaders to unruly crowds trying to overturn the US government. From a constitutional perspective, the document was an innovation because for the first time ever, a government was established in a large, territorial state without one formal leader. The fact that the constitutions of the 13 individual colonies invoked the principle of popular sovereignty was unique and influential, although the political systems in the colonies were by no means democratic in the modern sense.
Most likely no American (or other for that matter) has ever lived up to the Declaration’s universalist ideals. Racial and ethnic oppression of Blacks, Native Americans or colored people, xenophobic exclusion of and discrimination against immigrants and also naturalized citizens, bias against religions, countless breaches of governmental contracts, political corruption or abuses of power have been all too common in the course of the past 250 years. The declaration’s lofty claim that government should derive its powers from the consent of the governed was and is more often than not blatantly ignored. However and despite the many deviations from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, it would be a mistake to assume they prove ineffective. And yet, it is doubtful whether an eye-catching but vain celebration of this venerable declaration of ideals ever can bring such a fragmented and drifting nation together again?
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