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By HOWARD TROXLER
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 3, 2000
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most passionate, radical, liberal documents ever.
Right off the bat, it says three amazing things.
First: All human beings are equal and have rights that cannot be taken away by any government.
Second: The government exists only because we say it does.
Third: If the government becomes "destructive" of our freedom, we have the right to change or even overthrow it.
Wow.
This was a stupendous bunch of stuff to declare, especially in a world that was full of kings and queens.
July 4, 1776, was not the first time anybody said this. Lots of smarty-pants French philosophers had been saying the same sort of thing for years.
But it was the first time anybody actually put the idea into practice.
Make no mistake: July Fourth is a hot-blooded holiday. It stands for revolution. It stands for the power and rights of the individual against the king.
This is not Government Day. It is not Code Enforcement Board Day. It is not Three Cheers for Property Taxes Day.
Those fireworks will not be up there in the sky just because they look pretty. They are up there because we fired the king and kicked his butt out.
The Declaration of Independence is nothing at all like the Constitution, even though the two documents now are neighbors under glass in Washington.
They were written 11 years apart, by different guys for different purposes. They are as different as, say, Sam Adams was from John Adams.
The Declaration is revolutionary. It specifically calls for overthrowing oppressive government -- in fact, it says that is our duty.
The Constitution is a document of establishment and control. It even contains a provision for putting down future rebellions.
The Declaration is spiritual. It says that human beings are "endowed by their Creator" with unalienable rights.
The Constitution is scrupulously neutral about religion. The government cannot establish religion or play favorites among religions.
The Declaration is passionate. As the document lists the abuses of the king, the reader's anger grows -- still grows today -- then breaks into triumph with the declaration that we are "free and independent states."
The Constitution is precise and balanced and practical. The preamble, beginning with "We the People," has a nice, stately cadence to it, and there is dignity and grace throughout, but it is not what you call passionate.
This is as it should be. We are created by passion but governed by order. Passion cannot govern. But order cannot break free.
It is just as well that, say, Sam Adams never got to run the joint and John Adams did. Sam and his buddies, the Sons of Liberty, used to sneak around, put on costumes and blow up stuff, which is fine for overthrowing a king, but not so good for getting the bills paid, the streets paved or the garbage picked up.
John, on the other hand, the Federalist and constitutionalist, does not get nearly enough credit in history. He was our first president to lose an election and go quietly, guaranteeing the survival of constitutional government.
Tomorrow belongs to the Declaration, not the Constitution. It is a day of defiance. It is a day for thumbing our nose at the king and oppressive government. If that seems rude or scary, well, a lot of folks back in 1776 were just as scared. They wanted to keep the king.
Even the guys who signed the Declaration were scared. In most cases, they would lose everything they owned. They were not just blowing hot air with their closing words:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.