In Freedom We Trust

The Fourth of July is going to look a bit different this year, but it is still no ordinary day on the calendar. It is, as always, the anniversary of the greatest day in the history of humankind: our Independence Day!

In this time of testing, let us all remember that trust is central to freedom and self-government. We trust in one another, looking out for ourselves and for each other, and we trust in the law, so that all may pursue happiness as they see fit.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As the Founders declare in the Declaration of Independence, our then-new government lays “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.”

The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once spoke on the fundamentals of constitutional government noting the Declaration’s “words on paper” are what our Framers would have called “a parchment guarantee.” “Every banana republic has a bill of rights. Every president for life has a bill of rights,” he continued, “that word, constitution; it does not mean a bill of rights, it means structure.”

Justice Scalia then described the ingenious structure of American constitutional government, the foundation of our ordered liberty, but he spoke of something even more fundamental when he mused, “when you say a person has a sound constitution, you mean he has a sound structure.” When we speak of someone’s constitution, we are talking about what drives them — what experiences, knowledge, teachings, and ethics compel them to make the choices they have.

And so it is with our body politic.

Our Constitution is as Schoolhouse Rock describes it “a list of principles for keeping people free” and it begins with three, revolutionary words: We the People. In America, we are entrusted with our own freedom. And the words that follow give us our central purpose: “in order to form a more perfect union.” Integration and accommodation are the cornerstones of the American spirit.

America is at its core a series of contradictions, a story of perpetual struggle between resisting prejudices and finding reasons to trust in a better future. But every generation before has seen the wisdom of applying the principles of our founding to overcome the challenges before them. Why should ours choose differently?

As he embarked on the journey that would take him to his first inauguration, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln stopped at the storied Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for what he declared was a “wholly unprepared speech.”

That sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

He was not assassinated on the spot, but he was many years later, and the jacket he wore that fateful night in Ford’s Theater was inscribed with a fitting epigraph: One Country. One Destiny.

We cannot change the past. We must not ignore or erase it. We can only ask what principles should guide us, and why?

Freedom does not mean we’re all our own; it means we’re all in this together. We can be the United States in name only or we can unite as we have before. Our founding principles serve as the only proven guide to a more trusting, more integrated, and more accommodating society.

There are still a great many challenges to America’s greatness but there is no problem in this nation that cannot be overcome by good people of good faith and good will working together. That has always been our story, marching ever closer to that more perfect union. Through the Revolution and the Civil War, the Great Depression and two great wars, the civil rights movements and decades of continuing progress, we have only come closer to understanding and reinforcing our common humanity.

It is as if Francis Scott Key perfectly captured the Spirit of America in the poem we know as our national anthem: “through the perilous fight…our banner yet waves.”

Today is not the day to dwell on our differences or pore over our problems. Today is a day to celebrate our progress and renew our pledge of allegiance to that banner and to the republic for which it stands: that is, to ourselves and our posterity. One Nation. Indivisible. With Liberty, justice, and equal opportunity for all.

Happy Independence Day!