… 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 me, that is one of the most powerful and beautiful sentences ever penned in human language.  Today was a particularly good day because I got to spend 90 minutes talking about those 35 perfectly arranged words with a group of smart, engaged students at Tawa College who were just finishing their study of the American Revolution and preparing to start on the French Revolution.

Class photo.

I always enjoy talking about the American Revolution.  The topic feels tangible and real to me, not musty and dusty like history sometimes does.  I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, in the heart of the 13 original American colonies.  I was fortunate to be able to visit as a child many of the places from the history books – Philadelphia, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Delaware River, Lexington, Monticello.  I stood in Independence Hall where the Founding Fathers – farmers, shopkeepers, teachers, public servants  – debated human rights and took action that changed the world for the better.  I leaned over the chain and touched the Liberty Bell (don’t tell anyone) outside Independence Hall. I read the actual Declaration of Independence through the hermetically sealed, helium filled glass case (to keep me from touching it) at the National Archives.

Also, as we talked about in class today, my two American heroes are from the Revolutionary era – Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Franklin was a Renaissance man who could not be pigeon-holed.  He was an author, editor, business man, inventor, soldier, satirist, philosopher, statesman, politician, post master, and diplomat.  He developed the concepts of the modern fire station, ambulance service, and public lending library.  He served as America’s first ambassador, and was effective in securing the alliance with France that helped insure the success of our Revolution.   

As we talked about in class today, Franklin was also very much a real person. I have always enjoyed reading about his struggles with the Continental Congress to gain funding for his lavish entertaining in Paris to support his diplomatic efforts.

Franklin never served as President, but many commentators consider him the most influential of the Founding Fathers in “inventing the type of society America would become” (Walter Isaacson) because he “merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat” (Steele Commager).

Likewise, Jefferson was a brilliant man who made his mark in many different fields – as a farmer, architect, inventor, educator, philosopher, archaeologist, diplomat, and statesman.  Jefferson served as America’s first Secretary of State (under George Washington) and as President for two terms.  Jefferson was a fierce advocate of the rights of individual citizens and the individual States, and his struggle against Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists over the development of a strong central government still resonates through America today.  Jefferson is consistently rated by scholars as among the very greatest of American Presidents. 

When President John F. Kennedy hosted dinner for a group of four dozen Nobel Prize winners, he famously commented, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”  (White House Diaries.)

In short, Franklin and Jefferson were a couple of extraordinarily tall poppies. 

They also had their fingerprints on the sentence with which I started this post. When the Second Continental Congress decided it was finally time to break with England, it appointed a five-person committee – including Jefferson and Franklin – to draft a Declaration of Independence.  Primarily the work of Jefferson, the Declaration was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 and sent off to London.  John Hancock famously signed at the bottom in extra-large script so that the King could easily read Hancock’s name without putting on his glasses.

The class and I spent much of our time reading through the Declaration and discussing the meaning, power, and novelty (at least back then) of its various clauses.  We talked about the courage it took – and still takes in various places around the world – to risk being imprisoned and killed for simply speaking your mind and seeking freedom.  We spent a good bit of time discussing what it means to say that governments “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” or to say that it is the absolute right of the people “to alter or to abolish” governments that become “destructive” of the interests and rights of the people.

We also examined the structure, history, and current application of the U.S. Constitution – the oldest and shortest written constitution in use on Earth.  We discussed rule of law, separation of powers, and an independent judiciary.  The students had great questions about the ongoing contest in American politics between Jeffersonian and Federalist visions, about the current U.S. political landscape, and about the nature and functionality of a central Government with limited rather than absolute power.

Thanks to principal Murray Lucas and teacher Eric Clarke for inviting me to visit.  I had a marvelous morning.