INDEPENDENCE—-DOES IT SPELL FREEDOM?

By Edwin Cooney

Of course, today’s a day for parades, picnics, baseball and tall “cold ones” to fit all tastes. After all, it’s the Fourth of July. It’s Independence Day and for most Americans independence and freedom are one in the same.

Why shouldn’t they be? After all, you and I were born and reared in freedom, so independence from Great Britain meant we were free from “British tyranny.” Everyone knows that since independence frees a people from tyranny or colonialism, independence means freedom -- does it not?

Of course, you and I are indeed free to come up with any conclusion we choose, but it’s important to note that Britain, with all her faults, was at that time the freest nation in the world. She would become even freer over the next two centuries even with her monarchy. Even more to the point, Britain, as a result of our rebellion, would become a much more effective empire builder to the point that it is said that “the sun never set on British soil.” A hundred years after the loss of her “American subjects,” British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli proclaimed his queen--Queen Victoria--“Empress of India.”

Eleven uncertain years would pass between 1776, when Thomas Jefferson would so eloquently declare our independence, and 1787, when Jefferson’s friend James Madison would guide the passage of the Constitution of the United States through a contentious four month long convention. It was the Constitution that would make America a republic constructed to guarantee and advance the freedom of the individual.

Even as the Continental Congress declared our independence from Britain and authorized the establishment of a Continental Army that would so valiantly fight for that independence, there was no requirement that the states furnish the necessary funding to purchase materials and pay for the services of its farmer soldiers. This caused considerable discontent between the Army and the Congress. (Ironically, Benedict Arnold could commit treason in violation of military law, but nothing compelled the states to financially support the War for Independence).

Even after the war, a number of Revolutionary War leaders toyed with the idea of establishing an American monarchy. In May 1782, General Lewis Nicola, in a personal letter to George Washington, strongly suggested that he should become America’s George the First. Washington angrily rejected the idea which brought about a profuse apology from General Nicola.

As late as 1786, either Continental Congress President Nathaniel Gorham or Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who had fought alongside Washington beginning in 1778, suggested to Alexander Hamilton that an invitation be extended to Prince Heinrich of Prussia to become America’s Henry the First. (Prince Heinrich was the younger brother of Frederick the Great whom Adolf Hitler would later proclaim to have been Germany’s greatest leader).

Shocking as the idea of an American monarchy may be to you and me, it must be remembered that a number of American generals, including George Washington, had fought under the names of British kings. Furthermore, late eighteenth century America utilized several institutions with which a truly free country would blush to be associated.
These included indentured servitude, state-sponsored churches, debtor’s prisons, and slavery. Not even the passage of the Constitution ended any of these anti-democratic social institutions.

Ironically, as Abraham Lincoln liked to point out, the Declaration of Independence, even more than the Constitution, was the guarantor of the people’s freedom. However, the document that gave us birth was a declaration not a law. It expressed our intentions more than it reflected who we were at the time of its publication. Its contention that “all men are created equal,” reflected spiritual values rather than the legal standing of the individual. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to refer to the Declaration of Independence as America’s “promissory note.”

The current fate of a number of African nations, once the colonial possessions of European powers, illustrates the starkest testimony that independence doesn’t automatically spell freedom. What independence does do is to provide the richest opportunity for freedom to flourish.

Yes, indeed! Today’s the Fourth of July -- Independence Day. It’s a perfect opportunity to parade, cheer, and to picnic... and to be glad that opportunity spells F.R.E.E.D.O.M.

What say you?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY