"Two Hundred and Fifty Years!"

 Happy Mothers’ Day!

 

Yesterday was the 81^st Anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Germany. That victory was followed by the re-building of Europe, led by the generosity of the United States through the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.

 

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I recognize that Independence Day is almost two months in the future, but I don’t believe it is too early to be thinking of the magnitude of what was created in Philadelphia in 1776. 

 

Two hundred and fifty years is a long time. Two hundred and fifty years from now it will be 2276, a future as unimaginable to us as 2026 would have been to the Founders in 1776. Yet here we are, and with luck and forbearance our great-grandchildrens’ great-grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, may be around to celebrate the quincentenary of the Declaration of Independence.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Two Hundred and Fifty Years!”

May 9, 2026

 

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”

                                                                                                                George Washington (1732-1799)

                                                                                                                Letter to James Madison

                                                                                                                March 2, 1788

 

On July 4 we will celebrate the semiquincentennial (250^th anniversary) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This is not a celebration of the start of Revolution, which began more than a year earlier in Lexington and Concord. Nor is it to celebrate the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. And it is not to commemorate the signing of the Constitution, which occurred in September 1787, nor to mark the ratification of the Bill of Rights by the thirteen states in June 1788. And this year’s festivities are not to memorialize the inauguration of George Washington as the new Nation’s first President in April 1789. 

 

It is the Declaration of Independence we celebrate. It represented the severance of the colonies’ obedience to the British Empire. In a speech at the University of Texas in Austin on April 15, 2026 Justice Clarence Thomas stated: “The Constitution is the means of government; it is the Declaration that announces the ends of government.” Fifty-six delegates from thirteen British colonies put their signatures to a document that terminated the political bonds that had connected them to the British Empire, then the most powerful in the world. In doing so, they pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Had the Revolution failed, it is likely that all fifty-six would have been hung for treason.

 

The Declaration was unique at the time (and is still so today), in that the delegates believed that “Truths” were “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.” Recognizing the wisdom of James Madison, “...if men were angels, no government would be necessary,” the Declaration calls for a government to be established to secure those rights, one created by consent of the governed, and one that “...should not be changed for light and transient Causes.” The bulk of the Declaration is a list grievances, and it ends with the declaration “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.” 

 

Of course, given the time and place, all fifty-six delegates were white men of British heritage. Eight were immigrants, but all from the British Isles. They had an average age of forty-four, which seems young, but average life expectancy at the time was under forty. Nevertheless, there was diversity. Among them were lawyers, planters, doctors, merchants and farmers. They included both slave holders and abolitionists. While most were Protestants, their numbers included two Quakers and a Catholic.

 

From the perspective of 250 years, we can find fault with some of the men, but we should judge those who created this document by the standards of their time, and we should be cognizant of change over time. We should recognize regional differences, that travel was primitive by our standards. For example, in 1776 it took anywhere from two to four weeks to travel from Williamsburg, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. The Declaration was drafted by five men from five different colonies: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. Drafting took weeks and debate was often raucous. 

 

All fifty-six delegates were sons of the Enlightenment, which by the late 18^th Century was in its final innings, with reason and science rejecting blind faith; yet the Founders believed God – not the state – to be guarantor of our unalienable rights. That belief held true for most of our Nation’s existence. In the June 7, 1944 issue of The New York Times (the day after D-Day) the editors wrote of the U.S.: “This nation was born in the only revolution in history made in the name of God.” Belief in a Higher Being persisted over the years. In November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln invoked God in his Gettysburg Address: “...that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” On June 26, 1876, celebrating the Centennial, President Ulysses Grant spoke in Washington: “...acknowledgement should be made to Almighty God for the protection and the bounties which He has vouchsafed to our beloved country.”  President Calvin Coolidge, in speaking on the Nation’s sesquicentennial on July 5, 1926, spoke of the “miracle of the birth of a new nation.” And President Gerald Ford, on the occasion of the Bicentennial Ceremony on July 4, 1976, said: “The Declaration is the Polaris of our political order – the fixed star of freedom. It is impervious to change because it states moral truths that are eternal.”

 

These men and others conceived of and created a government that still stands. It is a government composed of three separate but equal branches, designed to prevent the concentration of power. It is a nation based on law, not men. It is a government that honors individual liberty, values meritocracy, regardless of gender, skin color, or religion. And it is a government accountable to the people.

 

Today, as we remember our Country’s forefathers, belief in God is waning; there is concern that our democratic institutions are failing. Our politicians have become polarized. Our news outlets no longer report dispassionately but rather speak and write passionately in favor of one side or the other. Identity politics have divided us into victims and victimizers, the oppressed and oppressors. Sixty-two years after the Civil Rights Act was passed there are politicians who wield racism as a political tool. And, frighteningly, anti-Semitism is on the rise. There are threats, from both the left and the right, to the principles that infused the fifty-six men who met in Philadelphia 250 years ago to debate their (and our) future.  

 

Yet the draw of the United States remains strong: It is the preferred destination for migrants. Among the world’s major developed nations, its population ranks at the top in terms of diversity. Its universities are among the best in the world. Capitalism allows innovation to soar, productivity to gain, and standards of living to reach heights unimaginable to our forefathers. There is no country in the world with a population over ten million who ranks as high as the U.S. in terms of GDP per capita. Despite political bickering between Parties, and the cynicism and partisanship that that bickering gives birth to, political power has swung back and forth. In the 126 years since 1900, Republicans have served as President for 66 years and Democrats for 60. Democrats have controlled both the House and the Senate more often than Republicans but not by a large margin. Likewise, the Supreme Court has leant both towards conservatives and progressives. This dynamic indicates a country where political change is, in fact, moderate and welcomed – unlike the situations in countries from where migrants emigrate. 

 

The United States is not perfect. It is (and always has been) a work in progress. The challenge, as James Madison warned, is that men are not angels, neither the governed nor governors. It is why individual liberty and limited government, with separation of powers, have been critical to our success; it is why no branch of government should have superiority over another, and why rule of law has prevailed. Despite constant challenges, the architects of the Declaration of Independence produced a document that has guided our country for two and a half centuries. The Declaration set in motion the birth of a nation that is (and has been) exceptional, one unique in the annals of history. Those of us who live here are truly blessed.