James R. Stoner Is There a Political Philosophy in the Declaration of Independence? Is there a political philosophy in the Dec- but my point at the outset is that part of the laration of Independence? One step toward question of whether there is a political phi- answering this question—not the only step, losophy in the Declaration is whether what but from the philosopher's point of view the Declaration proclaims as self-evident the most fundamental—is to ask whether truths really are true. the "self-evident truths" of the Declaration But that is not the whole of the question. are really true after all. Another way of As others have pointed out, the Declara- putting it, which I once saw in a conference tion does not say, "These truths are self- title, is to ask whether the "self-evident evident...." It says, instead, that "we hold" truths" are fact or fiction. them to be so. If we understand "philoso- I have to admit that "fact or fiction" phy" as it is often understood, in the sense struck me at first as an odd way of question- of a doctrine, and if we understand "politi- ing the authenticity of truths, but on reflec- cal philosophy" as political science depart- tion I decided it was a particularly felicitous ments often do, as a synonym for political turn of phrase. Living in a pragmatic age, theory, then the question of whether there we tend to equate fact with truth, and fic- is a political philosophy in the Declaration tion with falsehood. There is something is the question of whether the Declaration characteristically American about such a binds us to a particular political creed. way of thinking. Still, it is important at the I say "binds" because the Declaration is outset to recognize that this frame of mind treated, even today, as authoritative law in is not universal. No less an authority than one sense: It is printed at the head of the Aristotle writes that fiction (poetry) is United States Code, where it is considered "more philosophic and more serious" than the first of our organic laws. More to the fact (history), because it speaks of univer- point, politically today the Declaration of sals rather than particulars; there is more Independence has no open enemies; it is the truth in understanding the soul of a man touchstone of our political arguments rather like Homer's Odysseus than in knowing, to than an object of advocacy any more. Even quote Aristotle, what "Alcibiades did or had done to him"'—or even, did not do or have done to him, as students of Plato's James R. Stoner is Professor of Political Science at Symposium will understand. I will return to Louisiana State University, and he serves as a member of the National Council for the Humanities. His most the question of fact and its relation to truth. recent book is Common Law Liberty (2003). THE INTERCOLLEGIATE REVIEW—Fall/Winter2005 Is There a Political Philosophy in the Declaration of Independence? by James R. Stoner those who dismiss the American founders included but that Congress cut out—it still as racist or sexist want to keep the Declara- ought to be legitimate to ask whether the tion. They accuse the founders of hypocrisy Declaration today commits Americans to a rather than mistaken principle. It is not particular program of development. only that no one wants to be on the wrong These then are my questions. I want to side of the Declaration, but that even the ask whether the self-evident truths are true, charges made against the Declaration's whether we believe they are, and how we authors seem to be anchored in the ought to act on them. First, however, I want Declaration's own principle of equality. to ask what they mean and to answer by V\^ether or not that principle and the other paying attention to the document as a purported truths that accompany it are whole. true, they would seem in fact to be the first principles of our regime. The Short Version and the Long And this leads to my third concern. If the "self-evident truths" of the Declaration are buppose the Declaration had been vwitten either true or fundamentally ours, how as it is usually read today. It would be only should they affect our political life? While about a page in length, edited down to the loyalty to the original Constitution is often first two paragraphs and then the last, where dismissed as hopelessly anachronistic or the actual declaration of independence is conservative, loyalty to the Declaration made. No one would deny that these para- might seem to have the opposite conse- graphs—especially the famous second one, quence: to mandate support of those move- with its elegantly simple account of the first ments that seek to extend the reach of equal- principles of natural rights and just gov- ity in America. Abraham Lincoln seems to ernment—contain the most memorable have thought so. He wrote that the asser- phrases in the document, indeed precisely tion of human equality in the Declaration the phrases that have fired the imagination provides "a standard maxim for free soci- of generations of Americans and of reform- ety, which should be familiar to all, and ers and revolutionaries around the globe. revered by all; constantly looked to, con- Nor is it only frequent repetition that gives stantly labored for, and even though never these phrases their ring of self-evidence, perfectly attained, constantly approxi- even several centuries after they were mated, and thereby constantly spreading penned. Jefferson crafted them with care, and deepening its influence, and augment- and he drew upon a rich tradition of politi- ing the happiness and value of life to all cal theory that had developed in the previ- people of all colors everywhere."^ At the ous century or so in England, most espe- very least, Lincoln's use of the Declaration's cially as conveyed in the Two Treatises of principle of equality in the controversy Government by John Locke. over slavery set a precedent for its use to Though echoes of Locke's phraseology reform the regime from within. can be heard in Jefferson's language, Still, however important Lincoln's Jefferson claimed that the Declaration did achievement or however appropriate the not reflect any single man's ideas but rather use of the Declaration in its support— "the harmonizing sentiments of the day, Jefferson himself understood the implica- whether expressed in conversation, in let- tions of his principles for the question of ters, printed essays, or in the elementary slavery, as evidenced by the clause con- books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, demning the slave trade that he would have Locke, Sidney, etc."' Insisting that political THE INTERCOLLEGIATE REVIEW—Fall/Winter2005 Is There a Political Philosophy in the Declaration of Independence? by James R. Stoner reflection must begin with equal natural and abuses of constitutional powers by the rights, that government is itself not natu- king. Here, twelve different complaints are rally given but rather is formed through the lodged, accusing the king of threatening the consent of those who acknowledge it, that public good by the use of his veto, dissolv- government has the limited purpose of se- ing colonial assemblies, obstructing jus- curing rights, and that abusive govern- tice, keeping standing armies among them ment can be cashiered, the theoretical para- in peacetime, and the like. The thirteenth graph of the Declaration sketches a politi- grievance introduces the second division, cal doctrine that today we recognize as the "Acts of pretended legislation" that the classically liberal—in contradistinction, I king has passed by "combin[ing] with oth- might add, despite Jefferson's claim, to ers to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to Aristotle's teaching that the polis exists by our Constitution, and unacknowledged nature and has the promotion of virtue as by our Laws." Referred to here are nine its highest end. Whether out of personal acts of Parliament, described not by name conviction or because liberty cannot be but by their effects—imposing taxes with- secure unless the people believe—remem- out consent, suspending trial by jury, abol- ber his famous remark a decade later, "can ishing colonial charters, and so forth. Fi- the liberties of a nation be thought secure nally, there are five statements introduced when we have removed their only firm ba- by an implicit reference to the King's Proc- sis, a conviction in the minds of the people lamation of Rebellion of August 23, 1775, that these liberties are of the gift of God?""— under which "He has abdicated Govern- Jefferson states more clearly than Locke ment here, by declaring us out of his Pro- that what I have called equal natural rights tection and waging War against us." Here, are an endowment of the Creator, presum- his acts of war are summarized and de- ably the same "Nature's God" mentioned nounced. in the Declaration's first sentence. But that From the point of view of the theoretical government itself has a human rather than paragraphs with their "self-evident truths," a divine origin is clear. Indeed, in a sense, these many statements in the middle of the that is the whole point—for the Declara- Declaration are the "facts" which prove tion is written to justify^ political change. that the king has in mind a despotism over Still, the famous paragraphs of the Dec- America and that the colonists had better laration are but a part of the whole.