History

Declaration of Independence and Other Documents

A new president is about to take office, and these are momentous days in the nation and in the world. My reading year concludes with this little gem, The Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History 1775-1865. It’s a slim volume, only 95 pages long, but it was a challenge to read attentively with its florid 18th-century prose and its sheer historic weight.

Contained here are 14 documents, some in their entirety and some excerpted. My reason for buying the book was that I wanted to read the Constitution, and it’s included in its entirety along with all 27 amendments.

It’s not possible to quote everything I’d like to quote, or respond to everything I feel like responding to as I read these works. They’ve served as a rudder for this nation. I thought I’d just offer a few general observations from the perspective of a layperson:

  • The most important words pass by without fanfare, couched in boring administrative jargon or, like Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, seen as insignificant footnotes at the time they’re delivered.
  • These documents are a truly remarkable balance of idealism — all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain rights, made for liberty — and pragmatism, as in Amendment 9 (”The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”) or in Lincoln’s observation in his inaugural address: “By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals.”
  • There is incredible foresight here. I quoted a few passages by Washington to illustrate that here.
  • There are a number of things I may have known at one time but had forgotten. I’m not altogether sure I ever knew them. For instance, my husband and I learned when we went to Philadelphia a few weeks ago that Jefferson exaggerated his role in writing the Declaration. Here I read that Adams and Franklin made no less than 47 revisions to Jefferson’s draft before presenting it to the whole Congress — which made 39 more changes before it was ready for signing. Among those changes were a removal of a condemnation of the British people (not just their government), and the removal of a condemnation of slavery.
  • Once written, the Constitution had to be eloquently argued for and sold to the people, who feared centralized government of any kind. How huge modern government has become!

This was a good, very condensed refresher course in some of the basics. It would probably be a good idea for me to read it once a year as an American citizenship primer. I enjoyed the intangible benefit of subjecting the consciousness to the written record, and revisiting in their original context the high-sounding phrases I’m familiar with because they lend themselves to speechmaking.

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