Today marks the two-hundred and thirty-third anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those fifty-six brave signers pledged to one another their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.
The Declaration of Independence is, among other things, a proclamation of man’s inherent rights, rights that predate government, rights that our Creator endowed us with and wants us to keep.
Thomas Jefferson called these rights “unalienable rights” because they are an elemental and integral part of man. When he is arbitrarily deprived of them, he is no longer complete, and lacks the capacity to pursue his dreams and aspirations. Therefore, he becomes something less than a man.
A good government, Thomas Jefferson believed, should not only acknowledge these special rights but it should “secure” them as well. To him, that was the prime purpose of government.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were confident men. They did not lack courage or initiative. They wanted to control their own destinies, but they knew that in order to realistically do that they would need full possession of all their unalienable rights. And that holds true to this day.
Admittedly, not everyone who is granted life and liberty will find true happiness. It may still elude many of us. But without life and liberty, real happiness is virtually unattainable.
The signers knew this, and we need to know it too.
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