Happy 265th* Birthday, Uncle Sam!

On the 4th of July, America celebrates its Day of Independence, as it was on that day in 1776, 265 years ago, that the Americans declared themselves independent of Great Britain. In order for that independence to become a reality, it was necessary to wage an eight year long war against the British Empire, during which Americans received decisive support from France, Spain and Holland.

It took 12 more years for them to reach political and economic stability sufficient enough to ensure the survival of the new republic. This was around 1796, at the end of George Washington’s second term as president. In the 20 years between 1776 and 1796, it was not just the War of Independence that formed the great American Revolution of the eighteenth century. It is a period that has been justly celebrated, one that demonstrates a highlight of the short but, overall, glorious history of the United States. The devotion that it illustrates has not diminished over time and may in fact have actually increased over the last 50 years. To what is this worship owed?

It is not owed to the glare of U.S. weapons used during the war against Britain. Washington was not Napoleon and the fight probably could have ended three months after its commencement when his tiny army was nearly besieged by British fleets on Long Island and Manhattan. Miraculously, the rebels fled to the wide open spaces found in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where they managed to hold out for another year.

In October 1777, a rebel victory against British troops invading from Canada changed the course of the war, prompting France to become a U.S. ally. During the next four years, the battle suffered a series of complicated regional conflicts, especially in the south. The war began its end in October 1781, when the main British army surrendered to American and French forces in Virginia. This was followed by two years of desultory fighting before England decided to put an end to their losses and recognize the independence of the United States.

This terminated the primary period of the revolutionary crisis. But before they could consolidate their independence, other secondary crises had to be resolved. The first took place between 1784 and 1786, when the social revolution, inter-regional disputes and economic turmoil devastated the new nation. With the goal of putting an end to such crisis, a new assembly met in Philadelphia in 1787 to finalize a system of American government, which had hitherto been based on interim agreements. The subsequent Constitution, the passionate political debates that followed and the actual Declaration of Independence, constitute the most important legacy of the Revolutionary Era.

The immortal words of the declaration proclaim the goals of any democratic government: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

What a splendid synthesis of fundamental democratic principles! If the Declaration of Independence found that democracy was the correct composition of a government, the Constitution and the debates that led up to it helped to establish the means by which this end could be achieved.

How did they accomplish this? The government was to be decentralized in three ways. First, it was separated by its basic functions — legislative, executive and judicial — while still allowing them to effectively interact.

Second, a modern variant of federalism was established by giving de facto sovereignty to regional governments, instead of concentrating all the power at the national level.

Third, regional governments were forced to comply with procedures described in detail in a written constitution.

Obviously, words are not enough to construct reality. Equally important was the fact that both the Declaration and the Constitution had the same format used by the regional governments of the new nation to implement these provisions. And here is where George Washington’s importance is clearly evident. Even before he was elected president in 1788 he dominated the postwar period. Neither before nor after that date had a military leader shown so much brilliance and responsibility as a governing civilian. Situating himself well above any other by the end of the war, he succeeded in preventing disputes among lower officials that may have endangered the stability of the fledgling republic. He also prevented the creation of a new aristocracy between the victors and firmly guided the country, insuring that it would survive the ideological storms unleashed by the French Revolution from 1789-1793. Furthermore, he prevented the United States from being dragged into the great European wars that began that same year, as well as simultaneously quietly and moderately suppressing an internal rebellion. In fact, moderation characterized his every action, reaching its peak in 1796 when he refused to prolong his hold on power, choosing to retire and allow the election of another president. Washington established the tradition of adhering to constitutional limits forever, something that his successors generally adhered to.

The U.S. had great luck with their first leaders, especially Washington, but also with other Founding Fathers, including Adams and Madison for the depth of their understanding of political thought; with Jefferson, for his eloquence; with Hamilton, for the fine intelligence with which he addressed economic problems; and with Franklin, for his wry wisdom. Seldom is it the case that six leaders of this caliber have been able to work together.

However, the unbounded reverence aroused by the revolutionary period has one negative consequence. Its prominence has overshadowed the fact that the modern United States is also the result of two other great revolutions: the nineteenth century revolution triggered by the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, and the twentieth century revolution that is associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II and Harry Truman. If it had not been for these three revolutions, the United States today would be radically different, almost unrecognizable.

With all of its virtues, the new republic created by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States also had significant flaws. One was the “original sin” of violating their own ideals of freedom and democracy by maintaining the enslavement of many black inhabitants. Another fault, which was partly a result of slavery, was the excessive political power of the Southern states, power that threatened to drag the entire republic into an ever-regressive orbit. These defects were eradicated during the Civil War, which, in the words of Lincoln, assumed that the United States would be “born again to freedom.”

The third flaw was the tendency of the new nation to apply a greater emphasis on freedom than on equality and fraternity, leaving the hapless to an often cruel fate. The great revolution initiated by Roosevelt in 1932, which lasted for three decades until the mid-sixties, largely modified that trend. That revolution also ended an isolationist foreign policy, a policy that lasted well into the twentieth century — one of the initial virtues of the Republic had become a serious defect.

America should celebrate these three great revolutions. But perhaps the most important of all three revolutions is that of the eighteenth century, without which neither the nineteenth or twentieth century revolutions would have been possible. So July 4th is truly an important day. It deserves not only celebration from Americans but by democrats around the world.

*Editor’s Note: This number, accurately translated, is incorrect. This year the U.S. celebrated the 235th year of its independence, not the 265th.