The Enduring Ideals of America’s Founding Document
If you close your eyes and allow your mind to wander back to your first day of law school, you can likely hear the voice of your constitutional law professor explaining that the Declaration of Independence is not a source of binding authority in the American legal system. While the pathway to a legal career demands competence in navigating the contours of the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence is not a subject tested in law schools or on the bar exam. As America celebrates its semiquincentennial, however, it would be a mistake for lawyers to dismiss the Declaration of Independence as a historical artifact. Indeed, America’s founding document is predicated on a philosophical assertion that serves as the key to understanding the basis for the American legal system.
When the Founders gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, they charged a small committee led by a talented young lawyer named Thomas Jefferson to begin preparing a draft of the document that would formally sever colonial ties with the British monarchy. Jefferson’s team, which included other prominent figures such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, crafted an argument for liberty and equality that was built upon a theory of natural law, asserting the right to establish “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them[.]” In many ways, the drafters of the Declaration of Independence embarked on the most ambitious project of the Enlightenment: to put into practice the ideas that were cultivated and refined by classical liberal thinkers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Baron de Montesquieu.
Viewing the Declaration of Independence with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to forget that at the time the document was drafted, the notion of sovereignty was associated solely with monarchies. As of July 4, 1776, the world had never known a country that staked its identity on a founding idea that existed separate and apart from a monarchy, a religion, or a particular piece of land. Famously, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The Hobbesian view of human nature was consistent with the premise that an absolute monarchy with far-reaching authority was necessary to maintain order. The Declaration of Independence was predicated on a far more optimistic view of the human condition. America’s founding document rested on the assertion that people are sociable, driven by a sense of duty, and fully capable of organizing themselves. In this way, the Declaration of Independence reached for the highest ideals of the Western intellectual tradition, asserting that people possess inherent dignity and the capacity to recognize objective truth.
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 among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
Although America’s founding was rooted in the conviction that people possess the capacity to govern themselves, the Founders were well aware that disputes would arise, mandating the need for a fair and impartial judicial system to maintain the rule of law. The project of self-government would not be possible without lawyers who answer the call to provide advice and representation to clients. Nearly half of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress were lawyers, and the generations of American lawyers who followed have played a vital role in maintaining America’s commitment to liberty and equality. The American legal system provides for the peaceful, public, and efficient resolution of disputes. By maintaining high ethical and professional standards, lawyers and judges help to build public trust in our state and federal court systems, as well as the numerous pathways for alternative dispute resolution.
Of course, history tells us that too often our country has failed to live up to its founding ideals. Even the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence left complicated legacies, often marked by sharp moral contradictions in both their public and private lives. With respect to the enduring strength of America’s founding ideals, however, consider that almost every prominent social movement in the history of our country has cited the Declaration of Independence as a source of moral authority. In his public speeches, President Lincoln frequently cited the unfulfilled promises of the Declaration of Independence as the moral justification for the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Other great causes such as the Suffrage Movement, the Labor Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement were rooted in the conviction that laws and conditions that deny the exercise of fundament rights are wholly unacceptable in a country founded upon the principles of liberty and equality. At the center of all these battles for progress were lawyers, committed to perfecting the ideals that sparked America’s founding.
As Americans celebrate the semiquincentennial this year, lawyers should pause to reflect on the language of the Declaration of Independence, paying particular attention to the preamble. In a nation founded on the principle that there are inalienable rights that precede government, and that government exists primarily to further those rights, the Declaration of Independence reminds lawyers of the incredible importance of their work. The lawyers involved in drafting the Declaration of Independence created a brilliant work of legal philosophy that has shaped our national identity for 250 years. As time passes and our nation continues to mature, lawyers will continue to be the foremost champions for liberty and equality.
Christopher M. Billow, Esq. serves as a judicial attorney for Judge Donna J. Carr at the Ninth District Court of Appeals in Ohio. He is a longtime member of the Charles F. Scanlon and Judge Samuel H. Bell American Inn of Court in Akron.