Sometimes the thing we think is the thing isn’t the thing, and the thing we think isn’t the thing is. On this anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, penned by a 33-year-old destined to be president, the mind wanders to Thomas Jefferson. In the gloom, his wisdom shines.
Thomas Jefferson was uniquely trusted by his fellow Founders. His gift was not oration, but an ability to convey in words what others felt, distill lasting truths, some “self-evident,” some not.
As “first among equals” – although Paine, Franklin, Adams, and Madison give him a run – Jefferson was a thinker for his time and ours. He intentionally spoke to us and still does.
What would he say about our state of play? What would he say about our understanding of where we lie along the arc of history? What do we ask us to recall on this 4th of July?
Anyone can pretend to know, and imagine the taste of Jefferson’s sentiments aged like his fine wines for 250 years, but that would be guesswork. How about, instead, his own words?
What would Jefferson say to us, in his quiet, sensible way? Of patriotism, what might he say?
Doubtless, he would encourage us. “My earnest prayers to all my friends are to cherish mutual goodwill, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things, to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions.” So put down your passions, and remember the big thing.
He might continue. “To preserve the peace of our fellow citizens, promote their prosperity and happiness, reunited opinion, cultivate a spirit of candor, moderation, charity, and forbearance toward one another, are objects calling for the efforts and sacrifices of every good man and patriot.”
Why? Because “Our religion enjoins it, our happiness demands it…” And to what end then? Gratitude and reaffirmation of our faith in America. We are more fortunate than we know.
“There is not a country on earth where there is greater tranquility, where the laws are milder …where everyone is more attentive to his own business or meddles less with that of others; where strangers are better received… with a more sacred respect; where the virtues of the heart are less exposed to be weakened.” We are strong, de Tocqueville affirmed, because we are good.
Are we still? Yes, if we understand ourselves. “A character of good faith is as much value to a nation as to an individual. A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society. The man who loves his country … can never refuse to come forward when he finds she is engaged in dangers which he has the means of warding off.”
Should we really celebrate despite the gloom? Perish doubt, look up, think harder, feel time’s wind on your face, and the power of history to inspire action. Cherish America’s history, and celebrate it.
“Our fellow citizens have a sacred attachment to July 4th, 1776… a genuine effusion of the soul of our country at that time. Small things … like the relics of saints, help to nourish our devotion to this holy bond of our Union, and keep it longer alive and warm in our affections.”
So, shake the gloom, and focus as he did. “… This country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty. Flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume those engines…” if we will only believe in America.
Seeing us oscillate, like his Monticello clock, between despair and hope, he would say: “I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness. God send our country a happy deliverance.”
What he might say now, and could not then, is that God has done that, reminding us that “no person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period can form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country, however.”
So, we must now brook ours, with faith. I think he says buck up, “cherish mutual goodwill… promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things … let the love of our country soar above all minor passions.” That is how you rise above the room, and get light from gloom.
“Minor passions” will consume you if we let them. Do not. Think bigger. Sometimes the thing we think is the thing isn’t the thing, and the thing we think isn’t the thing is. Jefferson saw straight to our time. We need to draw wisdom from his. When better than Independence Day?
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
