The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence: Secession, Division, Disloyalty
On Independence Day Americans tend to celebrate “America” in some way. What that means to people, of course, varies significantly depending on the person’s ideology and level of education. Many Americans are not sure what the Declaration of Independence is, or what century it was written in. Some can’t distinguish between the Declaration and the US Constitution. Many rarely think about it at all, if ever.
Regardless of what average modern Americans may know about it, the history of the Declaration and its legacy remains a matter of fierce contention. Why? Because historians and public intellectuals understand that our view of historical events shapes our ideology.
Supporters of the regime and status quo tend to define the Declaration as something that is safe, bland, and vague. We often hear about the Declaration in terms that reflect the ideology of average modern-day American intellectuals and pundits. They tell us the Declaration is about “equality” and “freedom.” They tell us that the only thing that justified the Declaration’s revolutionary agenda was the fact that the American colonists endured “taxation without representation”—and the Declaration was therefore ultimately about “democracy.” In other words, this interpretation neatly and conveniently supports the current agenda of most American mainstream political parties and ideological movements.
Fortunately, though, the real purpose and ideological underpinning of the Declaration of Independence is something far more radical and oriented against all state authority. The Declaration does not, as we are told, advocate for equality, democracy, or freedom within an established political order. The Declaration does not meekly ask the ruling regime for reform. Rather, the Declaration works from the assumption that the British state exercises no legitimate authority within the colonies. The Declaration assumes that secession and the abrogation of the British state within the colonies were both guaranteed by natural right and could not be forbidden by the British state. The Declaration of Independence was not calling for negotiations. It was simply describing the new reality in which the colonies were politically independent. Certainly, the Declaration explains why the colonies were seceding from the empire, but that was only—as we might say in modern parlance—”good public relations.”
The reality of the Declaration is that it was far more radical than its critics are generally willing to admit. The Declaration advocated for an act
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
