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Ink Spo ts
Matt Paxton
Tomorrow we celebrate the 248th anniversary of the signing of our country’s birth certificate – the Declaration of Independence.
The occasion is an appropriate time to ref lect on what the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) had in mind for the form and substance of the national government of the United States and also on the stirring statements contained in the Declaration – statements that we as a country have been trying to live up to for almost a quarter of a millennium.
Ever since the signing of the Declaration, there have been disagreements over the form and power of the federal government. The Articles of Confederation were seen early on as insufficient to address the issues facing the new United States of America. The Constitution grew out of the frustrations of trying to administer an association of states under a weak central government.
The Constitution and the government it laid out, with three equal branches and checks and balances, has generally worked for almost 250 years. Sure, there are some indefensible things in the original Constitution. In not abolishing slavery, it did not adhere to the wording of the Declaration stating that all men are created equal with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It didn’t address the lack of suffrage for half of the voting age population until 130 years after the initial ratification. It required the addition of 10 amendments – the Bill of Rights – to win approval by the required majority of the states. It contained many undemocratic features, such as the state legislatures’ appointment of senators – eliminated by the 17th amendment and the Electoral College system – still in force.
Through the combined wisdom of the American people, the Constitution, and by extension our federal government and our society, has been amended and updated to confront many of these initial deficiencies. These additional amendments have also reflected the changes in our society as we have become more diverse and cognizant of the attaining the promise of Jefferson’s ringing phrases in the Declaration.
I have heard the comment that the Declaration and the Constitution are aspirational documents, and I believe that to be true. While they both contain specific provisions setting forth the Founders’ ideas on how our country should be governed, they described a nation that they hoped might come to be over time. Indeed, with many of the signers of both documents being slaveholders, they themselves must have realized that they were an anachronism that had to be swept away. We can at least hope that they did.
The strength of our democracy lies in the fact that as our nation’s story has been told, the Constitution has evolved toward fulfilling the promise of the Declaration, through the amendment process and also through the actions of the courts in interpreting the Constitution.
So, when we celebrate tomorrow, let’s not only remember what was done in Philadelphia 248 years ago, but also celebrate the thousands of Americans – men and women, people of all races and faiths, immigrants and Native Americans – who have fought, labored, written, spoken out, organized and voted to push our country toward the realization of those words in the Declaration of Independence.
