At least once a week when Independence Day or the semi-quincentennial (250th) anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence comes up at my workplace, I say “no one needs to hear my philosophical rant about the Declaration of Independence and natural law theory.”
Well, this is that rant.
Here in the 21st century, we treat the line, “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,” as a guarantee of “freedom” for the people of the United States. What “freedom” means is a huge question, one that has never been consistent or historically settled (here’s a historian’s point of view). But I think it’s generally thought that, if nothing else, freedom at least means US citizens have Constitutionally guaranteed rights. But if we’re looking at the Declaration of Independence, even this is an ahistorical application of the principles behind it.
It’s important to understand that the Declaration of Independence wasn’t a random statement of ideology that the “framers” wanted to build a country around. It was a response to their existing situation. In the “Americas,” certain colonizers, like the framers, were delighted to have more…
