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July 4 is celebrated in the United Sates as Independence Day--the day when the Continental Congress is said to have ratified the Declaration of Independence. In past years I have posted U.S. Independence Day reflections to this site (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) as a way to commemorate the event and celebrate the holiday.
For this year I again offer a reflection. This year the focus is on President Trump's quite profound July 4th message to the nation: Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the text of which appears in full below.
1. President Trump speaks to the utility of text as a means of enshrinement.
On July 4, 1776, the cause of American liberty was enshrined in ink when 56 patriots gathered in what is now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to sign the Declaration of Independence. They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they declared, “all men are created equal.” (Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
To enshrine a thing, at least from the 1500s, is to "enclose [something] in or as in a shrine; deposit for safe-keeping," The shrine itself is a reliquary--a space where something that radiates holiness or connection to something sacred, whether in a religious or social or political sense, may be encased. Perhaps also it is a place where it can be entombed, to be brought out on holy days of obligation or where some sort of celebration necessarily connecting the present to a "big bang" sacred past can be underscored--or at least performed. And perhaps, by 2025, the best thing one can say about the Declaration of Independence, is that, like other holy relics for faith communities--is that it is to be venerated. But like saints and holy martyrs, or like the hammer of Thor perhaps, its is a historical document rather than one that has any relevance to the constitution and operation of the thing it made possible. Americans do like their relics--and increasingly they appear to prefer their relics dead, or at least confined within the inescapable prisons of time.
2. But the Declaration of Independence is not merely a relic enshrined both on paper and in the objects that can be venerated in original form and, reproduced, hung up on the wall of the family parlor (assuming people have parlors anymore). The Declaration of Independence is now an Ikon in the form of a reliquary of text on paper. It is a "likeness, image, portrait; image in a mirror; a semblance, phantom image" of something that is itself holy and unapproachable.
As we honor 249 glorious years of American independence, we celebrate these rights upon which our nation was built—and we pay tribute to the titans of freedom who risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to secure our sovereignty. (Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
The Declaration of Independence, then, is a sort of Ikon for iconoclasts, understood in their historical sense as those who find the veneration of images of the holy a profanity. Our "titans of freedom" are those who may be reached through the intercession of Declaration by the ritual invocation of its sacred ceremonials of rights and risk. The sacred journey is the essence of the Declaration, and its rights a view of the face of the divine embedded in text and enshrined in the document the embers of which can still be recreated through an intense interaction with the Ikon itself.
In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson began drafting what would later become one of the core foundational documents of the United States. After 17 days of writing and several days of deliberations, revisions, and scrutiny over every line and every phrase, on July 4, 1776, Jefferson and his fellow signatories formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Though the consequences of their actions were far from certain, the Second Continental Congress pressed forward with fierce determination, clarity of purpose, and an unshakable faith in God’s divine providence. Our Founding Fathers boldly proclaimed “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.” (Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
Perhaps it is just as well that the Declaration is now reduced to a representation of itself as a historical journey competed and then realized anew in every generation. In the past, drawing on the Declaration as a living instrument of political norms, has sometimes come in times of and sometime have justified political and social instability for good or ill (eg here, here, and here).
3. It is in that ceremonial of memory that one might re-animate the spirit of the sacred parents through the invocation do their sacred text that itself reflected a holy journey toward a vision of rights the fulfillment of which set the nation on the course it currently finds itself.
To this day, these words give life to our Republic, stir the hearts of every citizen, and animate our way of life. The Declaration of Independence was not just a statement of political protest but a revolution in moral and political thought. For nearly two-and-a-half centuries, there has been no greater barrier to tyranny and oppression than these mighty words, rooted in “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” (Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
And what is it that this sacred ceremonial ought to animate?
To this day, these words give life to our Republic, stir the hearts of every citizen, and animate our way of life. The Declaration of Independence was not just a statement of political protest but a revolution in moral and political thought. For nearly two-and-a-half centuries, there has been no greater barrier to tyranny and oppression than these mighty words, rooted in “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”(Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
Perhaps the spirit of revolution, one that continues to be guided by the embrace of the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." (Ibid.). One can, in the manner of religious ecstatics, approach a closer connection to the core of the spirit of the Revolution through a process, in every generation, of continuous self.-revolution, in union with a like minded community, against those who fail to the divine message accessible through the Ikon in its textual reliquary..
4. And that brings us to the present--as a nation, whose sovereign authority is guided by the Iconic text but the application of which is entrusted to those selected, from time to time, for that task.
As we approach 250 years of independence, one year from today, my Administration continues to work tirelessly to revive our sovereignty, restore our strength, and reclaim the sacred ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence.(Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence))
And then, in language that recalls a similar project of the Chinese, one meant to understand that for its realization of potential in its new era of historical development, one ought to rely on those charged with that task, to move the nation more firmly toward the realization of the fruits of the new era of its historical development--though in the case of the United States, that requires a movement forward to return to the iconic instructions of the holy journey toward eternal truth embedded in and accessible through an ecstatic engagement with its reliquary spirit.
Today, we summon the courage of every legend of liberty who bravely signed his name to the Declaration of Independence 249 years ago—and we invoke the spirit of 1776 to propel our Nation into a new era of restoration, renewal, confidence, and strength. (Presidential Message on the 249th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
And that ought to provide a substantial amount of inspiration on this the anniversary of the declaration by our forebearers, of an intent to wrest independence from those who made the establishment of what would become the Republic possible (by good and bad acts, intent, and change).
That, anyway, may be one way in which one might approach this text and the rituals of commemoration appropriate to the day and the cause.
On July 4, 1776, the cause of American liberty was enshrined in ink when 56 patriots gathered in what is now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to sign the Declaration of Independence. They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they declared, “all men are created equal.”
As we honor 249 glorious years of American independence, we celebrate these rights upon which our nation was built—and we pay tribute to the titans of freedom who risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to secure our sovereignty.
In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson began drafting what would later become one of the core foundational documents of the United States. After 17 days of writing and several days of deliberations, revisions, and scrutiny over every line and every phrase, on July 4, 1776, Jefferson and his fellow signatories formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Though the consequences of their actions were far from certain, the Second Continental Congress pressed forward with fierce determination, clarity of purpose, and an unshakable faith in God’s divine providence. Our Founding Fathers boldly proclaimed “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.”
To this day, these words give life to our Republic, stir the hearts of every citizen, and animate our way of life. The Declaration of Independence was not just a statement of political protest but a revolution in moral and political thought. For nearly two-and-a-half centuries, there has been no greater barrier to tyranny and oppression than these mighty words, rooted in “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
As we approach 250 years of independence, one year from today, my Administration continues to work tirelessly to revive our sovereignty, restore our strength, and reclaim the sacred ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence. Today, we summon the courage of every legend of liberty who bravely signed his name to the Declaration of Independence 249 years ago—and we invoke the spirit of 1776 to propel our Nation into a new era of restoration, renewal, confidence, and strength.
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