On July 4, the United States celebrates Independence Day, commemorating the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Declaration, which expresses ideals of liberty, is often called the “birth certificate of the United States.” If the Founders had been true to liberty, however, they would have been Non-Founders, avoiding the creation of a state.
False Premises In the Declaration of Independence
The beginning of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence reads as follows (emphasis added):
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—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ….
The first false premise is that “governments are instituted among men.” The reality is that governments are imposed. As I noted in “Invitation to Liberty,” government is a creature of conquest. Tom G. Palmer discusses this in “The Origins of State and Government” and Robert Higgs in “Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power.”
The second false premise is that governments derive powers “from the consent of the governed.” Government is created and maintained through violence and the threat of violence. People acquiesce; they do not consent.
The Unwisdom of Creating a State
The Founders recognized the dangers of government. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration, observed in 1778,
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
James Madison famously addressed the fact that men — including those in government — are not angels, in his defense of the proposed constitution. Robert Higgs, in “If Men Were Angels: The Basic Analytics of the State versus Self-government,” rejects Madison’s defense of states:
Although I admit that the outcome in a stateless society will be bad, because not only are people not angels, but many of them are irredeemably vicious in the extreme, I conjecture that the outcome in a society under a state will be worse, indeed much worse, because, first, the most vicious people in society will tend to gain control of the state and, second, by virtue of this control over the state’s powerful engines of death and destruction, they will wreak vastly more harm than they ever could have caused outside the state. (Citations omitted)
Dr. Higgs goes on to explain the reality of the state:
Lest anyone protest that the state’s true ‘function’ or ‘duty’ or ‘end’ is, as Locke, Madison, and countless others have argued, to protect individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property, the evidence of history clearly shows that, as a rule, real states do not behave accordingly. The idea that states actually function along such lines or that they strive to carry out such a duty or to achieve such an end resides in the realm of wishful thinking.
Consequences of the Folly
In 1908, when the U.S. government was still relatively small, and the country was still relatively free, Voltairine de Cleyre lamented the creation of the state. In “Anarchism and American Traditions,” she wrote,
We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be ‘a necessary evil,’ and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow.
Now, two hundred and thirty-seven years after the signing of the Declaration, the predictable consequences of the creation of the state are even more painfully evident. The Constitution, of course, has failed to constrain the federal government. The government has engaged in endless war and created a global empire. We have lost much of our freedom and live in a surveillance state.
Conclusion
On July 3rd, 1776, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail,
I am apt to believe that [July 2nd, the date the Continental Congress voted for independence] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
Adams was correct that generations would celebrate the Declaration of Independence. They also have glorified the Revolutionary War, a war that was unnecessary. Adams was wrong, though, that the Founders provided deliverance. They removed the yoke of British rule but created a new state, and we suffer for this folly.
Americans have come to tolerate some of the worst evils of the government and to embrace others. The day will come, however, when we peacefully seek true liberty, declaring independence from any state.
[Polished: July 4, 2016]
