Each year on Independence Day or very near it, I post the Declaration of Independence on my column. What makes this posting special is that in the signature blocks, it contains the clickable names of each of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and their short biographies. This year, it happened that someone saw a link to this on my personal Facebook page, and took no small umbrage to my yearly personal characterization of the Declaration as a "right wing radical manifesto" because I have always been certain that were the Declaration published anew today, the lead opposition to its principles would be those on the political Left, who seem to favor arbitrary and unconstitutional rule when it suits them (the current Washington regime for example, who blames everyone else for their problems but themselves) but protests the same when it is to their political advantage (Leftist protests over the PATRIOT Act-a good thing to protest, but note that there is no move repeal it since our liberal friends can now use its provisions against their political opposition).
A commenter on Facebook thought I was mocking conservatives or even the Declaration itself, when I was making light of the political correctness of the Left, as I frequently do. However, the entire exchange did get me thinking about what today's conservatives would have in common with the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Today's "TEA Party" movement rails against the involvement of lawyers and so-called "professional politicians" in public office, but an examination of the signers of the Declaration of Independence reveals that most would probably be classified as "professional politicians" in today's world, and while not al of the signers were practicing attorneys, a great many of them had law degrees. Among those who didn't, most of those were farmers, doctors, ministers, and soldiers. There were, among the signers, a few judges who didn't have a law degree, but that wasn't a requirement in most places in the colonies in those days. These men were among the most politically active and educated men in America at the time. Many of them, such as Rhode Island's Stephen Hopkins, Virginia's Benjamin Harrison, or Charles Carroll of Maryland, spent much of their adult lives in politics or public service. What, then, is the difference between the signers, who themselves were the conservative class of their day, and the so-called "career politicians" of our time?
Perhaps the difference is that these 56 men didn't just risk their lives for the sake of our independence and freedom, they risked every bit of their wealth, means, reputations, and even their families to stand on principle for something-independence-that they knew was at that time a long shot. None of them really knew whether the battle for independence would be successful, and there were many among the signers, we now know, who believed at that time that the cause was lost but they signed anyway because they believed the cause was right. Many of them lost everything they had and had to build again.
Would our leaders of today, both in Nashville and Washington, be willing to risk not only their lives, but all that belongs to them and their progeny for the sake of what is right?
Comments
It is a shame that current politicians on the right or left would wonder what the signers of the Declaration of Independence would do today. First, you are correct in indicating that they were pledging the lives, the lives of their families, and their wealth that they would be able, somehow, to defeat the strongest military power in the world. Fortunately, UK was busy with matters in Europe. But, possibly more important is that we are wasting time trying to compare these times with those. There are few if any similarities. These were not common men. They were the elite of society. Many were slave owners (Thomas Jefferson - the author of the document - was a plantation owner and owned a significant number of slaves)and some were involved in the slave trade. If we looked upon them today they would be declared traitors traitors. The tea party group are not traitors, they are just plain ignorant, and their comments concerning how we should go back to the way it used to be.
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