Hello and welcome back to the Civic Flame, a podcast where we take a deep dive into the US Constitution and civics education. IÕm your host, Dr. Amber Vayo, adjunct professor of law and policy. IÕm excited to announce that I have returned my book Birthzillas and Betrayal to the publisher and will be able to share more about that with you soon. For more on that, take a look at my other podcast: Birthzillas. My next book will go much more in line with this podcast and explore the state of civic relationships in the US. This week we areÑas you might expectÑthinking about the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Among the things we are doing to get ready for the 250th anniversary is planning a road trip to the Midwest. WeÕre going to hit St Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, and other stops along the way. So, if we have any listeners out there with recommendations, let us know!! But we also want to talk about the Declaration itself, so grab your party hats and letÕs go! (transition music) There are lots of places you can go to learn about the Declaration of Independence. Some of my favorites are The National Archives (either in person or online), the National Constitution Center, and the Bill of Rights Center. These are all great resources that offer an interesting history of the document conversations about it, and if you go to the National Archives, you even get to see it. Most recently, IÕve been reading the childrenÕs book The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George because yes, IÕm that much of a nerd (and double yes, you can pity my children. So, as King George III and Parliament were tightening their grip around the Colonies, the Colonists were starting to get angrier and angrier. Things like the Stamp Act in 1765 (which tried to mandate anything printed be done on paper stamped by the Crown, and was largely seen as a money grab for the Crown), Boston Massacre in 1770 (which, in true Boston fashion began as a street brawl), the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and other key events were creating a lot of trouble in the 13 Colonies. Eventually, people like Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and some of the more famous folks youÕve heard of if you watched Hamilton, started thinking that a Òmad kind GeorgeÓ an ocean away might not be the best person to govern them. While there is an argument to be made that your average, non-wealthy colonist was better off under British rule, it didnÕt seem that way to those swearing obedience to the Crown but being recognized as second-class citizens. Hence the Òno taxation without representationÓ motto. Plus, letÕs be real: when you take all of your societies malcontents, whether that is for religious, financial or other reason, stick them on boats and send them off to make a few colonies together, sooner or later that discontent spirit is going to break out. And boy did it. But you canÕt just start a revolution against the biggest military in the world. If you want to win a war, you need boots, bullets, band aids, and buddies. For us that meant money and allies. The Declaration of Independence was not just about declaring our independence. It was about convincing Colonists to become Americans, people to put their lives and money on the line, and getting people around the world (especially France) to be on our side. The first people you have to convince are always your own people because, while we call it a revolution today, then it was a civil war. Americans have been largely protected from war within our borders, so I think we forget what we are asking peopleÑall peopleÑto deal with in a war zone. It is not just about getting soldiers to boot up and fight, but of course that is part of it. In a civil war, you are asking everyone to be willing to suffer deprivations. Whether that is lack of heat in the winter, lack of food, physical, sexual, and psychological violence, all of it. And thatÕs a pretty hard sell to most people. So, the Declaration of Independence stands a key piece of persuasive writing because the first people it needs to persuade are its own. LetÕs look at the document itself and see what go the Colonists so ready to rumble: ÒIn Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.Ó See that, nice, basic, justifies what it is doing. This paragraph is meant to make you understand that weÕre not just going off half-cocked here. We have some good cause. Next, we want you to understand the what we think the purpose of government is. This is the philosophical foundationsÑor at least is supposed to be the philosophical foundationsÑof what would become the United States. ÒWe 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Ó Obviously, there was some hypocrisy here. Black people were still enslaved in a lot of areas, women did not have equal rights under the law, Indigenous folks were being stripped of their land and murdered, and anyone who didnÕt own property had fewer rights than people who did own property. But itÕs aspirational, and it is something to which we still aspire. So, what did the King do? WeÕll next our boy present their evidence. LetÕs look at what our forefathers thought were compelling reasons to rebel against a tyrannical leader, and maybe on this 250th anniversary play a little bingo game and think of all of the things in the last 250 years that we kind of let slide that would have launched a revolution in the 1700s. ÒHe has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.Ó Finally, we come in with the plan and the call to action. ÒIn every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.Ó Those who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence may have been a little wide-eyed optimistic. But many were also people who had already served in war, so they knew some of what they were asking their countrymen and women to endure. It is important to think about how big and earth shattering this felt at the time. Not only were we launching a civil war, but we were flat out saying that the purpose of government should be to secure the rights of the people. That we have a liberty interest against tyranny. (transition music) Well, that was a lot, but it is a big birthday! After 250 years, it is important to take stock of where we are as a nation, whether we have lived up to our highest ideals, and how we can continue to further those ideals for ourselves and our posterity. Americans have often been hesitant to admit that democracy and representative government are fragile things. For all of the ways the US is exceptional, we are also just as vulnerable as everyone else (and in some ways more so) to losing our democracy. Democracy requires constant vigilance because those who seek to subvert democracy only have to get lucky and get their foot in the door once. Those of us who want to protect democracy have to guard it all the time. Perhaps itÕs my age or where and when I was raise, but I have faith in the United States. I believe that, as difficult a situation as we are in now, we can come back better from these challenging times. I had hoped our 250th anniversary would be something I could just happily revel in and celebrate, but we are at a crisis point in ways we havenÕt been since the Civil War and even the revolution itself. Some people suggest we need a new Declaration of Independence and a new Constitution. But I believe we already have what we need to be successful, we just have to remember who we are. To all of you out there, on this 4th of July and every day, keep the civic flame burning bright, and take care out there. (outro) The Civic Flame is a Mother of Democracy production with writer Amber Vayo and sound manager Matt Munyon. Thanks for listening!