A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

The Meaning of the 4th

The Heritage Foundation's Dr. Matthew Spalding has written a powerful article on the reason for the Independence Season each 4th of July. Take a read and let me know what you think of the piece.

An excerpt:

The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called “the declaratory charter of our rights.”

As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to Great Britain. But its greater meaning—then as well as now—is as a statement of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of government, and its proclamation of a new ground of political rule in the sovereignty of the people. “If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence,” wrote the great historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, “it would have been worthwhile.”