As I was contemplating the work of Martin Luther King Jr., I was also reconsidering some lessons I have learned about the value of all human life from our Founding Fathers. (I wrote about this in my book, "Black Belt Patriotism.")
The value of human life has not always fluctuated from person to person like it does today. Most early Americans believed humans were the highest creation of God.
Back then, there were two codes that shaped most people's view of humanity: God created us, and we were created equal. Their views were based in the Bible, and expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
"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."
Those words were derived from the declaration in the Good Book: "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness … And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
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Scholar Thomas West, author of "Vindicating Our Founders," explained, "The Founders believed that all men are created equal and that they have certain inalienable rights. All are also obliged to obey the natural law, under which we have not only rights but duties. We are obliged 'to respect those rights in others which we value in ourselves' (Thomas Jefferson)."
The Founders believed their declaration of equality would eventually give legs to everyone's freedom.
As our second president, John Adams, outlined: "We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions … shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power … we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society."
Of course, many today say and teach that our founders were hypocrites. Some fight to demonstrate that they didn't mean what they said when they spoke about being "created equal," because of the sheer fact that many owned slaves, mistreated women, condoned the slaughtering of Indians, etc.
Others say our Founders wrote what they meant, and they were initiating change because of cultural and economic prejudices.
I don't have enough room to address every objection, nor do I feel a necessity to defend every action of our Founders or their humanity.
They didn't treat one another perfectly back then. In many ways, they failed to meet their own expectations. But, as George Washington wrote, "We must take human nature as we find it. Perfection falls not to the share of mortals."
John Jay, the first U.S. justice appointed to the Supreme Court by Washington himself, said: "It is a pity that such feelings should exist; but they are the offspring of human nature, which is not what it should be, nor what it once was."
Despite their inadequacies, our Founders believed there was something inherent in humanity that called it to a higher purpose. Doing wrong didn't take away from the fact that they could do better. The presence of prejudice didn't negate their desire for equality.
The Declaration of Independence was not a guarantee that everyone would always be treated as equals. Equal rights are one thing – equal treatment is another. It took decades before culture would conform to their ideals. Even today, we still seek to practice what they preached.
The Declaration of Independence, however, set the course upon which America sails. Though culture would have to catch up to their creeds, inherent within that founding document was the equality for slaves, women, poor, Indians and even the unborn. Our Founders also had a dream that one day all people would be treated as equals.
As John Adams wrote to Patrick Henry: "The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what names you please, sign and groan and fret, and sometimes stamp and foam and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America."
What matters here is the fact that the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and believed in its contents for the founding and future of America. That document announced to the whole world that America was established upon the biblical belief that "all men are created equal."
So valued was the entire human race that George Washington wrote to John Jay in 1786, "We have, probably, had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation."
Our Founders led the way, warts and all. They even confronted their own biases. For example, while slavery was considered a cultural norm, most Founders wrestled with it as a trespass against the Almighty and humanity.
Again, George Washington wrote: "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it."
(Washington also demonstrated the value of women, when he wrote to Annie Boudinot Stockton in 1788: "Nor would I rob the fairer sex of their share in the glory of a revolution so honorable to human nature, for, indeed, I think you ladies are in the number of the best patriots America can boast.")
John Adams wrote: "Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. … I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in … abhorrence."
Benjamin Franklin stated, "Slavery is … an atrocious debasement of human nature."
Alexander Hamilton added: "The laws of certain states … give an ownership in the service of Negroes as personal property. … But being men, by the laws of God and nature, they were capable of acquiring liberty – and when the captor in war … thought fit to give them liberty, the gift was not only valid, but irrevocable."
James Madison explained: "We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man."
And Thomas Jefferson spoke about the goal yet difficulty of abolishing slavery even as late as 1820: "But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."
Our Founders' struggle for equality made a difference. Their Great Experiment worked. In just one century, America would taste the fruit of respect for all religious beliefs, women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery.
More than merely a foundation for secession, the Declaration of Independence served also as a basis for human worth and equality, and it should be reflected in how we treat all other people, from presidents to paupers, from every race, creed and economic status, including – or maybe, especially – those with whom we disagree.
Unborn babies are even protected by the Declaration's tenets (a reality to think about as we approach Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on Jan. 22). It's no surprise that Jefferson explained preserving human value and life was government's primary role: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
Today, for most Americans, the Declaration of Independence is a historical document encased under bulletproof glass in Washington, D.C. It's something we tour to see, like all the relics of the past. It reminds us of a valiant time when men fought to gain our independence from Britain.
But it's so much more than that to those of us who understand its meaning and know its power. It's still the answer and creed to fight for equality and maintain civility by reminding us of one another's value as human beings and American citizens.
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