This is Part 3 of 3 in the TTP Podcast series on the Declaration of Independence. In it, we consider the significance of Jefferson’s closing oath that the Signers all wrote their name under: “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Listen to the podcast on Anchor and Apple Podcasts.
The transcript below is edited for clarity.
Main Topic: “…our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
Jefferson departs from the main argument here to address potential counterarguments: “Why didn’t you appeal to the British people?” Here he notes the public diplomacy engaged in by many, most notably Benjamin Franklin, to bring the concerns of the American people before British society. However, it would seem that despite a shared history, cultural differences had by now driven the two peoples apart:
We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
In a classically American statement, Jefferson is at pains to note that the War of Independence is with the British monarchy that the British people are unfortunate accomplices to. How often to make similar statements in times of war? In recent times, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have alike been at pains to stress that the War on Terror was not a religious war against Islam, or that War in Iraq was not on the Iraqi people. There seems to be a critical element of American diplomacy laid down here: The ability to separate governments from people in any given nation-state context.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And so, the Continental Congress acts: They declare America independent and a new country. Of course this doesn’t magically make it so. It would take months for other countries to hear of this declaration and more months, even years before many would risk the ire of the British Empire to recognize the new republic. However, this is the paragraph on which the future of America turns. Jefferson has made a philosophical, moral, legal and political case for independence and has appealed to a range of thought from classical antiquity up to his own day to justify this final paragraph. But at the end of it all, these are just fine words. Who will make them a reality? Who is willing to accept the responsibility of seeing the high ideals of the DOI brought to fruition? Jefferson’s coda makes the DOI a truly social contract:
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
For all its stirring words affirming the powerful potential of the individual, the DOI recognizes that building a nation requires a unified, collective effort of free and equal individuals. But how do we hold free and equal individuals together? An ancient practice of swearing an oath on something the individual’s value, in this case, it’s their lives, fortunes and sacred honor…. It’s a concrete application of the earlier self-evident truths. The mutuality of the pledge affirms the fundamental equality of the signers and their constituents, and the tripartite phrase of “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” parallels the unalienable rights of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. It’s more than soaring rhetoric at work here. It’s a concrete step of faith. Jefferson has framed an oath around the core truth claims of the DOI.
Conversation starters
Do oaths still matter to us? From oaths of office taken by elected officials and government employees, to wedding vows, and the medical professions Hippocratic oath, we still use oaths. But to what ends? What oaths and vows have you taken, and could you articulate what the consequences would be should you break that oath? The Founders both took their oaths seriously and knew the consequences if they violated their pledges. I wonder if that’s what enabled them to work through at times acrimonious political tensions and debates?
The spoken and written word (podcasts, reading, and film)
Chapman Law Review publishes and excellent annotated DOI that demonstrates how these principles and concepts have been used and abused since the DOI’s writing to influence American law and government.
From the previous DOI episodes:
NPR has a cool tradition of producing a recording every 4th of July of their journalists reading the Declaration.
If you like the idea of a more notable person reading the Declaration, you can check out John F. Kennedy’s reading of it.
Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration is a fabulous commentary on the Declaration. Beyond just being a superb book of readable political philosophy, it’s a master class in how to teach a great book/document.
For a dramatization of the politics and editorial process surrounding the Declaration, you can’t get a better depiction than Episode 2 of HBO’s excellent miniseries, John Adams.
The last word
Benjamin Franklin
“We must all hang together, or we will assuredly all hang separately.”