It may seem trivial, but we might ask ourselves what that promise of the Declaration really was—was it, say, equality; or was it, say, independence?  Let me give you a hint: it’s called the Declaration of Independence.  The second paragraph of the Declaration begins, “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 . . . .”  Note that it is self-evident men are created equal, but governments are actually instituted to secure the natural rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness—not equality.  “All men are created equal” is a phrase that was arrogated to greater relative importance by the Civil War—in particular, in Lincoln’s famed Gettysburg Address.  The context of that day certainly justified attention to the phrase and to the concept of equality, but mischief has occurred through an overemphasis on equality, which has turned into open-ended commitment by the federal government.  The phrase in the Declaration is morphed outside of all literal context or history, when the original Constitution and Bill of Rights contains no mention of equality whatever.  

In fact, the majority of the Declaration is a laundry list of empirical reasons why we ought to secede from Great Britain.  The Declaration in effect proves that King George III was a tyrant; ergo, based on natural law and natural rights philosophy, we could (and should) institute a new Government.  Of course, to do that, we had to break away from the Mother Country.  The Declaration also lays out generic rationale and criteria, such that, should Washington DC ever become as corrupt and tyrannical as the King of England once was, Americans possess the same right to secede and to institute new government.  The precedent set by the War Between the States was simply that secession would not be a peaceful, “Constitutional” process.  Rather, secession is revolution by definition—still justified theoretically by the circumstance of oppression in our very own Declaration of Independence!

The Constitution was written after Americans won their independence.  It gave vent to Revolutionary aspiration, as well as to prudence learned during and immediately following the Revolution.  It applied the lessons learned from government under the interim and problematic Articles of Confederation.  Most of the same Revolutionary heroes who fought Redcoats, helped to give us the Constitution—for the express purpose of establishing a better government.  They did so in full light and consideration of the Declaration’s shining vision.  In terms of function as organic law of the land, however, the Declaration pales next to our Constitution.  Remember, the Constitution fulfills the promise of independence.  Not only that, but the Constitution was ratified and the Declaration was not.  Today the Declaration still informs our vision of what constitutes good government, but its idealism is subject to the means of the Constitution itself—including the federalist construct, which leaves broad prerogative with the States.

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Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he serves as State Director of the Republican Freedom Coalition (RFC).  This article is from his forthcoming book, Horse Sense for the New Millennium to be released on September 27th. Pre-orders available through www.WesRiddle.com.  Email: Wes@WesRiddle.com.