July 4th & the Declaration of Independence A Revolutionary Manifesto

On July 5, 1852, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke clearly in his speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”: 

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” he asked. “A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” He went on to call slave holding America’s celebrations “a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” 

Yet he went on to conclude: 

“Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country … I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”

He was referring to the growing abolitionist movement, which would triumph with the abolition of slavery only a decade later.

Progressive Americans are never shy of calling out Americas shortcoming and fighting against all of the "ism" present within the makeup of our nation (racism, imperialism, militarism, classicism, sexism).  Women are just reaching and in some areas just now cracking the proverbial glass ceiling. Our foreign policy continues to be defined by our arrogant imperialism as directed by the overreaching influence of the industrial military complex. Domestically our national identity is scarred by the vestiges of slavery, Jim Crow and racism. It is a scar that runs so deep it continues to defines generations of American.

Yet Progressives we rarely take time to notice and celebrate, that America at its core is a nation of ideals, of hope and progressive movement. The Declaration of Independence — America’s foundation — is built on continually progressing — and revolutionary — principles. We are a country with a noble history of struggle for equality, secularism, liberty and civil rights. 

It is frequently forgotten that my namesake, a radical internationalist "the original American Immigrant",  the revolutionary  Thomas Paine created the blue print for what America should be.  In his  brilliant pamphlet “Common Sense,” he urged the end of monarchy, poverty, war and slavery from the beginning. Issued on January 10, 1776, it was considered the manifesto of the revolution.  It strongly influenced Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence six months later, which in turn became the guiding principles for the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man. 

Our American Revolution, which we Celebrate today,  has inspired revolutionaries all over the world since 1776. Contemplating the relationship between the American and French revolutions,  Karl Marx saw the American revolution as “the first impulse … to the European revolutions of the eighteenth century” and said its declaration “informed the whole world of the foundation of an independent great Democratic Republic on the American continent.” He refereed to it as the “first Declaration of the Rights of Man.” The Nicaraguan revolutionary/nationalist Augusto Cesar Sandino, was so inspired by the principles of the American war of independence that he translated and adopted or "liberty or death" motto to "Patria ó Muerte!" Almost two centuries later in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh called the opening words of the Declaration of Independence “immortal.”  In the recent upheaval in Egypt and the democracy movement throughout out the Middle East, bootlegged copies of our declaration of independence inspired young people to challenge some of the most brutal regimes of our age. 

In his landmark speech “Towards a More Perfect Union”  then Senator and Presidential candidate Obama spoke about what is truly great about this country. 

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. 

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. 

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. 

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. 

This was the tasks we set forth... - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America...

Ours is not a stagnant nation beholden to the customs, mores, and moral dictum of the 18th century or permanently committed to  all of the "ism's" of today. 

This is a nation that believes at its core that all of humanity is created equal. Enjoy the 4th of July barbecues, fireworks and celebrations. Because on the 5th of July our our work continues; "to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time".