By Robert Pearson - July 1, 2026
Walter Isaacson in his brilliant book “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written” cites the most famous line 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.” Isaacson admits that this is an aspirational statement - neither then nor now are all men created equal, and the sentence also contains other contradictions. Yet that is the promise our forefathers made to themselves and to us. It is our responsibility to take it further along the road to achievement.
The drafting of the Declaration was a consensus seeking group exercise from the beginning. A draft group of five, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, with debate also in the Second Continental Congress, went through 80 to 90 editorial changes to reach the Declaration’s final language. The final version cut abut 25% of Jefferson’s first draft. Unfortunately, omitted was a condemnation of the British Crown for promoting and sustaining the transatlantic slave trade. Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia objected, and some northern delegates also had reservations.
Time and again between 1776 and 1781, American fortunes fell to near zero: the campaign of the fall of 1776, the loss of the American capital Philadelphia in 1777, Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78, heavy losses of American forces in the South in 1780, and near mutinies in early 1781 in a poorly supported and unpaid American army. Each time, we came back, each time we kept the light of independence alive.
The first problem with our new government after the Revolution was that the Articles of Confederation, ratified in March 1781, created a national government but also recognized each state’s sovereignty, freedom, and independence, guaranteeing weak national governance. On the positive side, the Articles established a clear process for expanding to the west. Western lands were surveyed, sold, human bondage was prohibited in much of the Northwest Territory, and the rules were clarified on how territories could become equal states.
The remaining issues however, were serious. Congress could not tax, leaving federal debts, including Revolutionary War debts, totally dependent on state donations. Congress could not regulate commerce, or raise an army. There was no Executive, and no national court system. Amendments to the Articles required unanimity, meaning in practice no changes were likely. States printed their own money and taxed each other’s movement of goods. By 1786, major leaders were agreed that there had to be a stronger constitution.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787, again in Philadelphia, took up the challenges. Five major issues for the new constitution had to be solved: (1) representation of the states in the national legislature, (2) the extent of the executive power of the President, (3) human bondage, (4) federal power vs. state power, and (5) the method of ratification.
Connecticut solved the first problem by proposing a lower house based on population and and an upper house of equal representation by every state. The power of the Executive was strengthened - to execute national laws and be commander-in-chief of American military forces. The enslavement issue was the most difficult and left a compromise that over time accentuated the national split over human bondage. Federal powers were enumerated and all other powers were reserved to the states. The national election of the President was to be conducted by a college of electors chosen by each state based on population. Ratification of the Constitution would be possible when 9 of the 13 states agreed, solving a key problem of the Articles.
As Americans had done in the Revolution, so did our leadership afterwards. They recognized the fragility of a democratic state. They knew that most of the world’s empires were highly suspicious of the idea of rule of those being governed over those who governed. Many were convinced that the United States would ultimately fail because of war or chaotic governance. Our forefathers knew there was always for democracies a single question - meet the challenges of popular government or disappear. At every juncture but one, the American people resolved to settle their differences through law and debate. The one compromise - a great tragedy - the Missouri Compromise - split our country in 1820 into two nations competing for national power, presaging an inevitable conflict.
With that one exception, through many national differences and crises, some marked by violence and hatred, we have worked to find solutions. Our democratic existence, even flawed, was more important than war or having a dictator force solutions that deprived citizens of the rights of our Declaration and our Constitution. We still face the consequences of slavery and the destruction of Native American culture.
That is who we were and who we still are. Today we are facing the gravest threat to a democracy of justice and law that we have seen since 1860.
The world we helped build after WWII made enormous gains, not only for the United States but for many other countries. We brought an end to the empires of the world in WWI and WWII and relied on the community of independent states to work with us to create wealth for our citizens and their citizens. We saved the world from imperialism in WWI, fascism in WWII and communism in the Cold War. In 1950, global GDP was about $9.5 trillion. In 2024, global GDP was $111 trillion. Our American role in coordination with other countries produced a 12 fold increase in global wealth in 75 years - unprecedented in human history.
Now we face a very different world abroad. The present administration seeks to dominate global economic development. This forces hedging and the creation of trading groups that avoid US demands. It is not a long-range solution to our or others’ issues. Much of our country’s efforts today in developing countries strongly resembles a recurrence of colonialism. We want those countries’ natural resources but care little about benefitting their societies. We are poorly regarded, widely distrusted and even hated by both leaders and common people around the world - a self injury that continues to weaken our influence.
These sentiments extend to the military realm especially. The US is acting like a hegemon, focused only on aggrandizing its own power and treating all but two states as vassals. The free country of Ukraine faces an illegal invasion by Russia, yet this administration consistently prefers the Russian aggressor. Ukraine nevertheless will keep fighting and has developed some momentum. An America true to its heritage would be at its side, not in its face. Trump has succumbed to Chinese diplomacy postering as an equal with the United States. The administration decapitated the Venezuelan dictatorship for its oil resources, not to help its democratic development. Trump demanded Greenland’s mineral resources, infuriating its erstwhile European partners. Trump is forcing Europe to act more independently, and so they will.
Now, the US, via an incredible collection of blunders, has lost a major war in the Middle East, greatly misjudging the likely response of Iran, and producing a global energy crisis. As a result, the US is being forced to grant Iran favors to solve the energy crisis in order to claim a victory. We face a “normal” Middle East ceasefire; a non-peace with regular breaches that leaves all combatants locked into place. The crisis remains, and no player admits failure.
The result is endless war. Trump promised no endless wars in 2024. Many of his followers now are furious at his about-face. China and Russia are delighted, and America will face higher hurdles in dealing with future military adventures. Meanwhile, the “war” is costing American taxpayers somewhere between $1.5 billion and $2 billion daily with no end in sight. One expert expects the total cost to run over $1 trillion. Many Americans will be thinking about how far that $1 trillion would go if it were dedicated to better health, better education, available food, better housing and more regional hospitals.
Is this to be our future? November is an opportunity for all Americans to begin to take back what has been taken. Trump’s backers in 2016 and 2024 were seduced by his arguments. The truth was that the Reagan administration’s emphasis on neo-liberalism enhanced the movement of capital overseas and along with other technology advances and deregulation accelerated the loss of American jobs. It is no wonder that people who suffered after 1970 looked for a champion to rescue them. Trump jumped in to satisfy that call but in office has betrayed his promise. According to one source, the national debt now is $39.5 trillion, and interest rates are rising with inflation, adding to the burden.
November is an opportunity for all Americans to begin to take back what has been taken. The future lies in recalling lessons of our own history and 250 years of aspiration to fulfill the promises of democracy. America changed the world - all those empires of the 18th century are ghosts now, all those people in our country and around the world are children of the enormous opportunities that democracy has brought to us and to them. Millions of Americans are punching back against the attempt to fix the November elections, to restore what we built for all Americans and to ensure that our children will have better lives than we had.
The determination of 1776 is still with us as are unmet promises yet to fulfill. Problem solving is what we do and have done. Americans remain a frontier people working to shape the future. Our heritage is the long train of challenges met and new progress achieved. The power of ordinary people is our engine, as it always must be.
This July 4, we must look ahead so that at our 500th anniversary we will still be honoring the greatest promise and the greatest achievement for fairness and justice that we and the world have always sought. The Declaration of Independence will always be the promise for today and tomorrow.