by Matt Barr

Lives, fortunes, and sacred honor

Muffin asked this weekend what the Fourth of July was all about. "We used to be ruled by the King of England," I said. "On July 4th we said we were going to be our own country. It's our country's birthday."

"Was the King of England nice?" she asked.

"No, that King of England wasn't nice at all," I said. "Today England has a Queen, who I guess is very nice." She seemed to understand this, as would most people hearing it for the first time, probably.

Later she made a card.

It seems bent because it was thick going through the scanner and I had to help it through. The inside has fireworks:

And on the back is a picture of the world, "because it's about a country."

Which of course got me to thinking. Is July 4th our birthday? Muffin's birthday isn't the day we decided to have her. (Then she'd never have a birthday, but that's neither here nor there -- she wasn't an "accident," we correct Junior when he says so, she was a "surprise"). Is the date the British signed the Second Treaty of Paris, formally ending the war, our real birthday? Happy Third of September! (1783.) Or maybe it's the date the treaty was ratified by Congress, January 14th (1784). Four months? What was there to think about? Insert your own joke about Democratic Senators threatening filibuster here.

Countries of course don't just get plopped out into an unsuspecting world (and normally, they don't pee all over you, like Muffin did to me). With lawyers even then thankfully running the world, we had to draw up the papers. Why isn't our birthday the date the Constitution was ratified by New Hampshire, the ninth state to do so, which made it official? Happy 21st of June! (1788.) Or, the date the Constitution became thereby effective -- the Fourth of March?

Of course it's not like we weren't our own country till 1789, so how about the date the Articles of Confederation were ratified? March 1st (1781). Or the date they were adopted by the Second Continental Congress, November 15th (1777). Honestly, nobody takes the Articles seriously anymore (well, not nobody), and this would predate the Second Treaty of Paris. Wasn't the point that our birthday shouldn't be when we said it, but when we did it? So on we go.

You may be thinking at this point, "why am I reading this nonsense?" Or, to move the narrative along, you may be thinking, "say, aren't you defining your own argument when you call it 'our country's birthday'? It's Independence Day, officially." You're right! But we didn't become independent on July 4th. Officially.

Not so fast, Slappy! That parchment all those guys signed on July 4th, here's the penultimate sentence:

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 the 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.

Ok, but we're still dealing with the fact that we said it, but if we hadn't had to do it, we could have spared ourselves and the Crown a lot of war. Put it this way. If England had won the war, would history record that there was an independent nation called the United States of America (or a collection of geographically contiguous states independent of British rule) from July 4, 1776 to the signing of the Second Treaty of Paris, or whatever ended the war? I doubt it. We said it, but we had to do it.

Now, having come this far with this theme, of course July 4th is a completely appropriate date on which to celebrate our independence from Britain. Probably a more reasonable way to look at events than we had to say it then do it is we had to say it then prove it. We were all in -- here's the last sentence of the Declaration:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

This really tells us why the Declaration should be celebrated as having the effect of independence without a treaty or a Constitution or whathaveyou. Better men than we pledged everything they had -- a not inconsiderable amount of stuff, by the way -- to the cause of indepenedence. Their fortunes, their honor, and really, their lives were forfeit if it didn't work out. If we can look ahead 15 years and see an actual nation with a Constitution and a bicameral Congress and a President and all that, it's because those men committed themselves to the cause on July 4th.

What cause have you committed yourself to lately? Immigration reform? Painting the map red? Supporting the emasculation of an Islamic jihad network? Peanuts. Make something, something that squares with and exalts the dignity of man, that makes generations, hundreds of millions, free and prosperous; and say that if you destroy this, you destroy me. Then you're on the right track.

Fortunately, perhaps, the opportunity to do this doesn't come around very often. It did again in the 1860s, you might say; maybe even again in the 1940s. There's a reasonable argument to be made that the opportunity is here again today, though you have to admit, you need to take sort of a long view to think so. The most powerful army on the face of the earth isn't on its way here to beat us back into submission and string up our leaders. And frankly, our failure -- at this stage -- doesn't mean annihilation. The War on Terror is much more like the Cold War -- checking an aggressor long before their plans for hegemony would make them a truly formidable foe -- than the War for Independence.

It's not a shame, it's great that we don't really have the opportunity to commit ourselves to a cause like the Founders did. It's among their greatest triumphs. So let's celebrate that.

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