On the 250th anniversary of its signing, remembering that the Declaration of Independence was the original NO KINGS document. Three iconic songs from our past bring that point home.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
THE RADICAL IDEA THAT SET THE STAGE FOR A STRUGGLE LASTING 250 YEARS
Until the extreme heat that has settled over the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend caused its cancellation, we would have been doing what we do each July 4th: attending the Takoma Park Independence Day Parade. So I’ll probably take a stroll through past posts and pictures—like the one above of Congressman Jamie Raskin at the 2022 parade—that ended up in the New York Times.
The Founders who signed the Declaration understood “men” to mean “white men.” I get that. Black and indigenous men and women of all races were not included at the time. Nonetheless, in an era of monarchies it was pretty radical to suggest that everyone from the king down to the lowliest farmer was created equal. That self-evident truth set the stage for a struggle that has now endured for 250 years. A struggle, as Abraham Lincoln so memorably phrased it at Gettysburg 87 years later, to see “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
America survived the attempt by Southern oligarchs during the Civil War to restructure the nation so that some people would be seen as better than others. Rights were expanded over time to include Black men, other men of color, and women. Two steps forward were often followed by one (or more) steps back.
This July 4th we are still fighting battles with people who believe they are superior to their fellow citizens and should be allowed to live with a different set of laws. Or above the law. But basic decency tells me that we must push back against those who want to rule as tyrants or kings.
To me, July 4th is about battling oppression and tyranny while honoring the truth that all people are created equal.
MAKING STATEMENTS IN A WAY OUR OFFICIAL ANTHEM NEVER CAN
To my mind three songs exemplify the higher ideals that animate the Declaration of Independence. The first was written at the beginning of the Civil War. The second is a classic written by an American folk singer who fought tyranny through music. The third is a stirring anthem that came out of a time of deep oppression. All touch my heart in different ways.
Jake Lundberg writes in the cover story for the current issue of The Atlantic that Julia Ward Howe’s poem The Battle Hymn of the Republic—first published in the magazine in 1862—is both an explication of the promise of America and an exhortation to persevere on behalf of the country. The magazine’s editor picks up the story:
“The ‘Battle Hymn,’ Lundberg argues, is our unofficial national anthem, one more relevant through the ages than the actual anthem, the difficult-to-sing by-product of a minor war. ‘By the time of the Great Depression,; he writes, ‘the Battle Hymn had achieved a truly national character. The song’s stature is such that it can be used to make a statement in a way that the official anthem never can.’”
As opposed to the Star Spangled Banner, which opens with a question, when we sing the Battle Hymn “we don’t ask a question. We testify.”
“’Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,’ we proclaim, before working through four more stanzas of earnest witness—seeing, hearing, and feeling God’s wrath on the way to service in a great national cause.
The difference between the two songs is more than a matter of syntax. Though notoriously difficult for vocalists, The Star-Spangled Banner . . . is not a challenging text. The ‘Battle Hymn’ “is easier to sing, but harder to reckon with.” Especially when the final verse is unaltered from Howe’s original version.
“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.”
It is one of three songs that far outpace The Star Spangled Banner in honoring the promise of America.
I happen to believe that the Woody Guthrie 1940 classic This Land is Your Land should be the national anthem. It makes a powerful point but avoids the Christian imagery—moving as I find it—in the Battle Hymn. No less an authority than Bruce Springsteen has said, This Land is “one of the most beautiful songs ever written about America.”
Guthrie was hitchhiking his way to New York City when he became upset over hearing the Kate Smith version of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America over and over again during the trip. Guthrie sat down and wrote a song in anger, but his revisions over time turned it into one of the most shared and beloved songs in our nation’s history. I’ve posted various versions before, including the unvarnished recording from Woody and terrific live versions from Sharon Jones and Bruce Springsteen.
Today, for a number of reasons, I want to feature folk icon Pete Seeger and Springsteen singing this at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out over the beautiful Reflecting Pool, with tens of thousands at the Obama Inauguration in 2008.
The third song I want to celebrate on this 250th anniversary is known as the “Black National Anthem”—none other than the soul-stirring Lift Every Voice and Sing.
With words by James Weldon Johnson and music by his brother John, Lift Every Voice and Sing was written at the turn of the 20th century, a time when Jim Crow laws were beginning to take hold across the South and Blacks were looking for an identity. In a way that was both gloriously uplifting and starkly realistic, it spoke to the history of the dark journey of African Americans. “It allows us to acknowledge all of the brutalities and inhumanities and dispossession that came with enslavement, that came with Jim Crow, that comes still today with disenfranchisement, police brutality, dispossession of education and resources,” Shana Redmond—author of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora—says. “It continues to announce that we see this brighter future, that we believe that something will change.”
The version I learned was from the hymnal that you hear in churches and concerts and seen here from late November 2016—an especially auspicious time—at Abyssinian Baptist Church.
On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, yes let’s celebrate. But let’s also resolve to keep working, as so many have done before us, to claim the true promise of America, a country where all are created equal and have a voice in our government, not just the wealthy, the white, the privileged.
More to come . . .
DJB
Photo of University of Virginia copy of the Declaration of Independence by Dan Addison, University Communications
MORE TO COME... 