The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
On July 3, 1776, a 41 year-old patriot named John Adams wrote a letter to his wife describing the Declaration of Independence that the Continental Congress would adopt the next day. The future president wrote, "I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means."
Nearly 240 years later, the work continues to "maintain this Declaration." While everyone recalls that we are endowed with the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," many have forgotten what the next sentence of that great document states: "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…."
In his 1964 "A Time for Choosing" speech, Ronald Reagan challenged us to consider "whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves." It's a dilemma we still face today.
On this July 4th, let us celebrate the Declaration of Independence and honor the Founders' legacies by remaining vigilant in our defense of freedom to prove that the end is still "more than worth all the Means" in the greatest country the world has ever known.
I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July.
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Sincerely,
