In praise of Jefferson’s pen
The Declaration of Independence remains the great guidepost of American liberty not only because its principles are true, but because Jefferson gave those principles such beautiful and enduring language. The late historian Pauline Maier famously called the document “American Scripture.” Jefferson himself said it was meant “to be an expression of the American mind.”
Ever the renaissance man, he wrote it in a few days in an upstairs room on Market Street in Philadelphia and was said to periodically play his violin during breaks in his writing.
The document has a rat-tat-tat cadence that expresses urgency and authority. For really the first time, the divine right of kings explicitly takes a backseat to the natural rights of mankind, stating “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Already known as a talented and prolific writer in Virginia and beyond, Jefferson was raising up permanent truths about self-government and the nature of mankind out of the colonial rebellion against the English Crown.
“It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions,” declared Calvin Coolidge.
Jefferson is often considered one of the most controversial American founders. Nearly everybody can find faults with him. His personal attachment to slavery throughout his life is almost always the chief complaint. How can he write this or say that and own slaves?
A Jefferson statue was even removed from New York’s City Hall in 2021. I’m certain that’s not the only recent example of Jefferson erasure measures. Christians take issue with his obvious deist beliefs. Some conservatives have long been suspicious of Jefferson, particularly his enthusiasm for France during the nation’s violent, unordered, and secular revolution. Alexander Hamilton put the criticism sharply, accusing Jefferson and his faction of having “a womanish attachment to France.”
But Jefferson is very human and American in his contradictions. I find myself drawn to Jefferson, especially as a writer. His beautiful articulation of the rights of man that transcend the state can’t be appreciated enough. Coolidge was right to say that we can’t advance beyond the principles of the document during his notable 150th address on the anniversary of the Declaration. To try to do so only becomes a fall backward against progress.
Heading into America250 and beyond, I believe the task for citizens and lawmakers alike is to live up to those principles and to the high purposes of our own founding. The guideposts are still there, calling us not to move beyond them, but to live up to them.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat