“One Nation…, Indivisible…”
“The United States of America” states concisely the legacy left by the founding fathers. Two hundred and forty-nine years ago, the populations of thirteen separate colonies united in one common goal–independence from Britain and freedom from tyranny.
That unity is disappearing in today’s atmosphere of toxic politics. The American people are being deliberately divided along political party lines to practically be at each other’s throats, spoon-fed corrosive opinions by the very people elected into office.
Democrats and Republicans use this reprehensible tactic to divide and conquer–and then subjugate all Americans. And like good little sheep, we allow them to do it!
Remember the forefathers’ struggles to unite and free the colonies, to keep the American people united? Two wars, people! Two wars: one that united all Americans against all others; and one that nearly tore this country in half!
The War for Independence
The fierce need to be free of British tyranny united the colonists like nothing else before or since. Using the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson and other authors of the Declaration of Independence, the colonists declared in one voice loud and clear, their unity and freedom from tyranny. They advised the whole world that the basic rights of all persons would never be relinquished and would be protected at any and all costs by their chosen government.
“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 them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure those 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.”
From the Declaration of Independence
Adopted July 4, 1776
The Civil War
Less than one hundred years after the birth of the nation, that unity was threatened from inside United States borders as tensions rose between the states over the intervening years. Between north and south, the cultural and political divide yawned like an immense chasm. The southern states agricultural economy relied heavily on the institution of slavery. The more industrialized northern states had no use for slavery, some seeking to abolish it completely.
But slavery was not the sole issue between the states. Several states were so determined to keep their culture, the way of life, they banned together and formed the Confederate States of America after the election of President Abraham Lincoln. The Confederate States declared their separation from the United States.
The cultural and political division tore the country apart and put Americans at each other’s throats–brother against brother, friend against friend over political differences. This eruption of violence lasted four years–from 1861 to 1865, culminating in the Confederate States surrender and the assassination of President Lincoln by the Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
President Lincoln’s two minute address at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield echoes through the passage of time for today, amid another polarizing political division of the American People.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain –
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
From The Gettysburg Address
President Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
In 1830, Daniel Webster expressed the same sentiment amid the rising tensions between North and South.
“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”
He describes federal government as “made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.”
One official campaigning for office in 1819 describes himself. “I am a man chosen for the people, by the people, and if elected I will do no other business than that of the people.”
John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Braughton in 1819
United We Stand…
The enduring strength of these United States of America lies in the unity of her people. Without that unity, the United States as known today would not exist. Today’s advanced technology and instant communication simply spreads the political cancer farther and faster. Our political leaders feed that cancer with every word to their people. In these days of instant argument, these are not the polite debates at the family dinner table where two or more people can agree to disagree and remain friends and family.
Today’s political ‘debates’ are vicious tirades of hatred and blame, near violence on various social media platforms. Adults degenerate to the name calling, blaming and threatening phase, acting more like squabbling children than adults–following the examples of their elected leadership. For instance, the recent government shutdown had people turning on each other, acting with intolerance towards those less fortunate who had to worry about food, with those on each side of the political spectrum blaming the other side. The chasm widens every day and The United States of America is the freight train speeding toward it.
It does not have to end this way, people. The American people have always managed to pull together when faced with a common threat. The threat is very real, as evidenced by the grumblings of elected government officials and the recent shutdown. The fact that the threat resides among us, inside our own borders does not diminish the danger.
The founding fathers envisioned the probability of government over stepping its bounds one day. In fact, humans being what they are, they anticipated the day would come when American citizens would once again deal with tyranny. The answer is in the founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and it is time everyone remembers what the founding fathers bequeathed to all Americans: Government of the people, for the people, by the people.
This is our legacy. And our government needs to be reminded who is in charge. Our elected officials forget who they actually work for and they can be ‘fired’ as easily as they were hired. Government works for us, we do not work for government. And if We the People don't like what our government is doing, if government infringes or denies the people any or all of the rights they possess, we retain the right to change it, to alter it, or to abolish it and create a new government. Those words of the Declaration of Independence need the strength, the full might of American citizens united behind it or it is meaningless.
