Frenchmen read the Declaration of Independence, and framed a
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.” They adopted for
their watchword the three words, “_Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité_,”
which are inscribed on the public buildings of the present French
Republic. Liberty--that is, personal freedom; equality--that is, equal
rights before the law; fraternity--that is, brotherhood with other
people. The French, like the Americans, made it their bottom principle
that freedom was the normal condition of men, and that everybody
was entitled to a chance to do what in him lay, provided he did not
thereby obstruct the equal privileges of his brother man. With many
hesitations, and some errors, the rising nations of the nineteenth
century strove to make real those glorious ideas. The Latin peoples
of both North and South America all professed liberty. Republics
have been set up in Switzerland, in France, in Portugal, in China,
in Russia. Virtual democracies are established in the Scandinavian
countries, Holland, Italy, Great Britain, and the great British
commonwealths of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Even
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey use the forms of popular
government to conceal the real refusal of responsibility to the people
by their sovereigns.
[Illustration: ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE to the
assembled crowd outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 8, 1776]
_Constitutional Liberty_
After the Revolution came the real test of the whole principle. How
could one generation, nurtured in the cradle of liberty, pass that
blessing on to its descendants? The solution was found in a system
of state and national constitutions wherein, while standing by the
inalienable right of men to alter their government as they saw need,
checks and limitations were introduced for the protection of personal
rights. All the state constitutions, and eventually the new federal
constitution, included statements of those precious privileges. The
share in the government, so necessary for keeping alive an interest
in the welfare of the state, was extended more and more widely, till
in our time it seems likely to include all legally competent men and
women. As time has passed, new personal relations have developed;
slavery has been rooted out, the rights of labor have come to the front
and women have the vote. In time of war personal rights must yield
something to the necessities of the state, but they are the bedrock of
American Government.
[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF OLD GLORY
The Betsy Ross House, on Arch Street, Philadelphia, where the first
American flag was made]
_What Is Liberty Today?_
What is this liberty for which the statesman labors and the soldier
gives his life? How comes it that the United States of America is the
cradle of the principle, and that the success of this great republic
is the admiration of mankind? The sages and patriots of Revolutionary
times strove to explain and define it without much success. Edmund
Burke, the friend of the Colonies, found six “capital sources” from
which “a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up.” Most of these have
long ceased to operate, yet the spirit of liberty is still fierce. We
all understand that liberty means personal freedom, liberty to express
one’s thoughts in speech and press and religious observance; the right
to be tried by impartial public courts, including a jury; the right
to a government founded on the expression of the will of the people,
through votes; the right to change a government that has ceased to meet
the needs of the people; the right to education; an opportunity to test
one’s powers;--especially the right to take the voice of the many,
instead of a few, on the great questions of national life.
Liberty, however, is more than a kind of government, or a rule of
action; it is a political religion, a worship, an inspiration.
Statesmen strove to express it in terms of reverence and affection.
Thus the Continental Congress sounded its trumpet call:
“Honour, Justice, and Humanity forbid us to surrender that freedom
which we received from our ancestors, and which our posterity have a
right to receive from us.”
A great poet, Emerson, later sought to set forth this passionate
devotion to liberty: “What the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays,
and paints today, but shuns the ridicule of saying aloud, shall
presently be the resolutions of public bodies, then shall be carried
as a grievance and bill of rights through conflict and war, and then
shall be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, until it
gives place, in turn, to new prayers and pictures.” So all the ideals
of Liberty, like seed in the souls of mankind, take root and bear fruit
in good time.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL RESOLUTION AS OFFERED BY MR.
RICHARD HENRY LEE
_THE INITIATION OF INDEPENDENCE._]
_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_
THE STORY OF LIBERTY, as developed in 500 years of history.
Illustrated. _By C. C. Coffin_
INDEPENDENCE DAY. A collection of prose and verse. _Edited by R. H.
Schauffler_
⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to
the Editor of The Mentor.
_THE OPEN LETTER_
[Illustration: ONE OF THE LANTERNS THAT HUNG IN THE BELFRY OF OLD NORTH
CHURCH