James_March-April_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 65
When you think of the signing of
the Declaration of Independence,
what comes to mind? Many Americans envision John Trumbull’s
famous painting of the scene in
Philadelphia on June 28, 1776, when
the first draft was presented to
Congress— in other words, a bunch
of white guys in powdered wigs and
stockings standing around a table
covered with documents. The event
seems frozen in some distant past.
This July 4, as the United States
marks the 250th anniversary of its
independence, the familiar rituals of
celebration like parades, fireworks,
cookouts and historical reenactments will fill the day. But an anniversary of this magnitude is about
more than recalling what happened
in 1776. This is an opportunity to
reflect on what that moment has
meant ever since and what it still
demands today.
From the beginning, the United
States was different than other nations. Ours was not a nation defined
by ethnicity, religion, language or
ancestry. Our history has shown that
being American has always been
less about who you are by birth and
more about what you believe, specifically about the ideas and values
expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
That’s why the American Revolution is a vibrant and powerful living
idea. It continues to drive Americans,
however imperfectly, toward the
expansion of human freedom and a
more perfect Union. Even when we
have disagreed bitterly over who
should be free and who should be
equal, the Revolution has provided
a common language and a shared
point of reference.
The 13th Amendment ending
slavery, the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, and
the civil rights movement are all
examples of how the principles of
the Declaration were expanded to
include more people. In that sense,
they are a continuation of the American Revolution.
Few expressed this truth more
powerfully than Abraham Lincoln. In
November 1863, as Americans killed
one another by the hundreds of thousands, Lincoln stood on the killing
fields of Gettysburg and reminded
a fractured nation of its purpose.
America, he said, “was conceived in
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
In that moment, Lincoln made clear
that adherence to a shared set of
principles, rather than ancestry, is
what made people truly American.
One hundred years later, standing
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,
Martin Luther King, Jr. returned to
that same proposition. In his iconic “I
Have a Dream” speech, King argued
that the architects of the Declaration of Independence “were signing
a promissory note to which every
American was to fall heir.”
These principles have proved so
powerful that they have echoed far
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