PD Editorial: A nation divided and yet still united

On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote a triumphant letter to his wife, Abagail, at home in Massachusetts.

Adams, a sharp-witted lawyer who would become the second president of the United States, anticipated that July 2 would be our national holiday, commemorating a proclamation of independence from Britain adopted on that date by the Second Continental Congress.

“The Second Day of July 1776,” he wrote, “will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.”

The date, Adams wrote, “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Adams was right about the Pomp and Parades and Illuminations, though he missed by two days on his prediction. Americans celebrate on the Fourth of July, when the Continental Congress formally adopted a bold declaration that consent, not divine right, is the basis of government.

Drafted in large by Thomas Jefferson, and adopted in Philadelphia as British troops landed in New York, the Declaration says in part:

“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. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Monday will be the 246th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As we mark the occasion, our nation is as polarized as it has been at any time in recent history. America is fractured along partisan and regional and cultural lines, our differences highlighted by recent Supreme Court decisions on issues including guns, religion and reproductive rights and extending even to which parts of our history should be taught in school.

Yet even with our differences, Americans profess a commitment to the nation’s founding principles. This space isn’t large enough to accommodate all 1,322 words of the Declaration of Independence, but you can read the full text at pressdemocrat.com/ opinion. If you’ve never read it, you should. If you’ve read it before, this is a good time to read it again.

Happy Birthday, America.

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