Writing in response to the Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), Abraham Lincoln argued that the founding fathers had proclaimed the principles of the Declaration of Independence in order to establish a “standard maxim for free society.”[1]
The inalienable rights of the Declaration had not been immediately conferred on all Americans, but by declaring these rights the founders had given the new nation a noble task for its people to complete. In the years before the Civil War, Adventist pioneers, aware of the incomplete nature of the American founding, fought to vindicate the principles of the Declaration and fervently embraced the abolitionist cause. Their rhetorical weapon of choice against their proslavery adversaries, who combined pseudoscientific and biblical arguments to justify slavery, was the Declaration on Independence. Christian abolitionists, including our Adventist pioneers, relied heavily on the language which unambiguously proclaims that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the right to liberty.
One of the more important activities of nineteenth-century abolitionists was to petition the government to end slavery. One such petition, written and signed by a group of Adventists in April 1862, was addressed, “To the President of the United States and to Congress.” The petition read in part:
The undersigned Seventh Day Adventists and others. . . .
That our professions of Christianity and boasts of liberty, are but a mockery in the sight of nations of the earth and of the God of the universe so long as we delay practically to recognize the “inalienable right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”- We therefore urge you as the Executive and Representative personifications of our national government, – by all the considerations of self preservation, and of allegiance to Justice and to God; – to abolish by proclamation, and without delay, the great unnatural crime of slavery, the exhaustless inveterate source of our national ruin.[2]
Between 1865 and 1870, abolitionist petitions were indirectly answered by a series of constitutional amendments that guaranteed the inalienable rights of former slaves. “From this time forward [the Constitution] must be interpreted in harmony with the Declaration of Independence so that Human Rights shall always prevail.” argued Senator Charles Sumner during the Reconstruction debates “The promises of the fathers must be sacredly fulfilled. This is the commanding rule, superseding all others.”[3] The adoption of the Reconstruction Amendments finally brought the Constitution into much closer consonance with the Declaration. In the words of the Adventist educator Percy T. Magan:
In the Civil War the principles of the Declaration of Independence were triumphant. It was settled. . .that the nation was to endure as the fathers had designed, true to its conception in liberty, and still dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.[4]
However, America’s fidelity to her founding principles did not last. Following the US annexation of the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war, Seventh-day Adventists once again stepped forward to defend the principles of the Declaration against this “National Apostasy.” Opponents of imperialism, like the earlier opponents of slavery, turned to the Declaration. Adventist religious liberty advocate Alonzo T. Jones wrote:
It has come to pass that all who speak or write in opposition to the work of expansion and the march of imperialism that are being conducted on the part of the United States, are at once charged with treason.
Yet the basis of this opposition, the only document appealed to by those who oppose, is the Declaration of Independence. The principles of the Declaration of Independence, as they plainly read in that document, compose the only philosophy of government that is advocated by these opposers. And the Declaration of Independence expresses the fundamental principles of this nation. [5]
Defenders of imperialism, much like the earlier defenders of slavery, attacked the Declaration. P. T. Magan noted that:
The fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence. . . are no longer revered, but they are flung to the breezes as worthless relics, good for nothing but to “hamper the greatest nation in the world.” In the days of the Rebellion Senator Petit styled the Declaration of Independence as a “self-evident lie;” now a noted divine declares it to be a doctrine “palmed off by the devil upon a credulous world.” Again it must be said that the theories which have ruled in the conduct of governmental affairs during the past few months can only be construed as the desertion of sacred principles once held dear by the nation; and while there exists in the Philippines a state of war, there exists in the United States of America a state of NAONAL APOSTASY.[6]
Fortunately, the nation’s dangerous dalliance with imperialism did not last. Yet the imperial temptation was only one manifestation of “national apostasy” and as the twentieth century progressed, the nation continued a slow drift away from the principles of the Declaration.
In the past, Adventists used the Declaration as a formidable weapon in their fight for liberty and justice. This year, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary America’s founding, Adventists have a critical opportunity to rediscover the importance of the Declaration and look to its principles for guidance.
[1] Abraham Lincoln, “Speech on the Dred Scott Decision,” June 26, 1857, in The Political Thought of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy N. Current (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company,1967), 89.
[2] “Petition of E. J. Hare and 43 Others Citizens of Linn Co. Iowa Urging the President and Congress to Abolish by Proclamation Without Delay, the Great Crime of Slavery,” April 1862, SEN 37A-J4, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
[3] Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 684-685 (1866) (Sen. Sumner).
[4] Percy T. Magan, The Peril of the Republic, (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1899), 30.
[5] A. T. Jones, “National Apostasy,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 23, 1899, 328.
[6] Magan, The Peril of the Republic, 102.
Dr. Gary Wood is the Associate Professor for Political Science at Andrews University.