Back in the day, a Fourth of July celebration without a reading of the Declaration of Independence would be as unsatisfying as a barbecue without potato salad made with Grandma’s recipe, writes Tribune columnist Ron Grossman.
Visitors look at original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on July 4, 2001, at the National Archives in Washington.
of the meaning of “equality” when the political winds blow rightward. Yet that is the type of question for which a public reading of the founding document has provided an opportunity to see issues of the day in historical context.The Declaration of Independence was truly revolutionary. Before Thomas Jefferson and others wrote King George III’s walking papers, monarchs were sent packing by swords and muskets. The Declaration did so with words and logic. It reads like a grand jury indictment.
The Declaration of Independence set lofty goals for the nation it established: “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.” Those who signed the Declaration flunked King George. Yet if they were candid about a self-evaluation, they couldn’t give themselves an A. Despite his philosophic commitment to human equality, Jefferson owned enslaved people. So, too, did other Founding Fathers. On the run-up to the Civil War, Southern slaveholders lampooned the abolitionists’ hypocrisy.
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