Jefferson: “We might have been a free and great people together”

Benjamin Franklin consoled Thomas Jefferson as the new Congress cut over a quarter of his words from the draft of the Declaration of Independence.

“We might have been a free and great people together” were cut at the end after  his list of offensives the King had committed against his colonies.

The Declaration documents and justifies the breakup of a race and nation, we were now separate not of one, while descended, separate and standing alone.

“Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. … 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. ”

At that time virtually all of the colonialists could trace a parent or grandparent or themselves directly from the British Isles.  To wrestle one’s identity from the mother race from which they drew from all manner of custom and tradition had to be a particularly poignant and to embark on a grand experiment in self rule without the benevolent figure of a King keeping a steady hand over all, was …. well, radical.

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”  Even then the citizens complained of more government than they needed!

A re-read of the Declaration is relevant today many of the listed offensives of the King read like sound bites from Capitol Hill between the warring parties.

“For imposing taxes on us without our consent:”  A timeless lament.

Despite the war of Independence and the nasty little conflict of 1812 where they burned our White House and Capitol the Brits and the former Colonists did come together in one of the great and enduring friendships any two countries have ever shared.  It might even survive President Obama boxing up Churchhill’s head and sending it back to the British Embassy.  How rude!