On most Independence Days I make some reference to theDeclaration of Independenceand the courage of the Founders. As a nation born of the Enlightenment, we are truly blessed to have so many of civilization's most important and elegantly argued founding documents, a fact that we can all be proud of as Americans.
This year I turn instead to Thomas Paine and his 1776 pamphletCommon Sense. Many of the ideas in Paine's jeremiad are more gracefully and succinctly expressed in theDeclaration, but one particular observation of Paine's stands out for me, "a government of our own is our natural right: and when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power." Paine argued that "the time hath found us."
It is no wonder that the existence of the United States is so often attributed to divine providence. The window of opportunity was small, the challenge great, and the cause just. Paine recognized that "the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all Mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected."
The circumstances that Paine foresaw have arisen and continue to arise. Human affairs are precarious and the circumstances universal. Those who believe that they have the right to rule over others seem to be everywhere. Thus, it shall always be. Fortunately for the world, a small group of delegates from thirteen colonies resolved on July 2, 1776, that:
These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
The time did find us, and the cause of America remains the cause of all mankind
Happy Birthday, America!
* Thomas Paine, The Writings of Thomas Paine, Collected and Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894). https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1776-paine-common-sense-pamphlet. Accessed on 07.01.2025.
**Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, Lee Resolution (1776). Delivered to the Second Continental Congress proposing independence for the American colonies. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/lee-resolution. Accessed on 07.01.2025