American Scripture
A review of Pauline Maier's book, "American Scripture", which details the conditions leading up to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence has represented “American scripture” for over two centuries.
As the founding fathers slowly disappeared from the scene in the early nineteenth century, a new generation of Americans began to contemplate the magnitude of what these great men had accomplished. This realization gained momentum in the decade after the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 and put to rest many lingering issues between the United States and Great Britain. Americans began to view the Revolutionary War in a new light and the Declaration of Independence assumed qualities of scripture.
The Declaration of Independence is considered one of America’s most important state papers, so it is surprising to learn that the document was not particularly revered at the time of its creation. The Declaration had a practical purpose. America had already been at war for over a year. What was the ultimate goal of the war? Reconciliation or Revolution? After the shock of Lexington and Concord, there was a great debate throughout the colonies about whether to seek reconciliation with Great Britain or opt for divorce.
Many felt that they remained British subjects and were loyal to the King. Their goal was for the colonies to cast off the yoke of parliament and to achieve self-governance while remaining in a commonwealth with the King as head of state. The revolutionaries argued that the King himself was complicit in the objectionable acts of parliament and they demanded independence. As the first year of the war dragged on and casualties accumulated, sentiment shifted toward the revolutionaries. By the spring of 1776, there was a workable consensus and the Second Continental Congress saw the need for a document to declare independence.
In American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, Pauline Maier provides an excellent account of the conditions leading up to the drafting of the declaration, how the document was prepared by Thomas Jefferson and amended by his colleagues, and how Americans viewed the declaration at the time and in the decades that followed.
Much of what we think we know about the declaration is either incomplete or inaccurate. When Thomas Jefferson sat down to draft the declaration in June 1776, he used his formidable skills as a writer to express the sentiments of his countrymen who, in many cases, had already published declarations of independence at the state and local levels. Maier states that she bears no animus toward Jefferson, although my Jeffersonian guard went up when she disclosed that she had once nominated the great man as “the most overrated person in American history.” But my impression is that Maier was fair within the scope of her book which deals with only a small portion of Jefferson’s long life.
In the instructions Thomas Jefferson left for the inscription on his tombstone, he listed the Declaration of Independence as his most important accomplishment:
Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
& Father of the University of VirginiaSOURCE: JEFFERSON’S GRAVESTONE
It’s remarkable to see that being President of the United States is not even mentioned! Jefferson was a man of ideas, and he clearly felt that the Declaration of Independence represented not only a key moment in American history but a crucial turning point in the history of western civilization. By the time of Jefferson’s death in 1826, his fellow citizens had begun to revere the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson was widely considered the sole author. This impression has continued to the present day.
How did a thirty-three year old junior member of the Continental Congress find himself in a position to draft such an important document? Thomas Jefferson was highly respected by 1776, but he was not yet considered one of the top political leaders of Virginia. In fact, Jefferson did not even want to be in Philadelphia in the late spring of 1776. Virginia was in the process of drafting its Constitution and the real action was in Williamsburg. Jefferson took the initiative, as he had many times in the past, to submit written drafts for Virginia’s constitution, but he was far removed in an era of very slow communications.
Jefferson was a poor public speaker, a limitation that remained with him for his entire life. This hindered his ability to exert influence in debates, but the fact that he had taken the initiative to draft many important documents had earned him a reputation as an excellent writer. So it was no surprise when Jefferson was assigned to a committee of five men who were responsible for drafting the declaration. Along with Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston served on the “committee of five.” The work of drafting the document, following the committee deliberations, was not thought to be particularly glamorous. Jefferson’s reputation as a writer and his junior status left him with this task.
Maier devotes a lengthy chapter of the book to the “other” declarations of independence that were being published in the spring of 1776, and the appendix of the book contains a few interesting examples. This examination reveals that the sentiments expressed in Jefferson’s declaration were also included in many of the “other” declarations, many of which Jefferson had clearly read. As he wrote his draft, he used some of his own prior work that was submitted as a preamble for Virginia’s constitution and he incorporated the sentiments expressed by his countrymen in other states.
While Jefferson certainly shared the revolutionary sentiments expressed in other documents and can be credited with taking on a leadership role to popularize such sentiments, I believe that his key contribution to making the Declaration of Independence into “American Scripture” was his masterful use of the English language. Generations of Americans have memorized the second paragraph of the Declaration:
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.
While the committee and the Congress ended up editing large portions of the Declaration of Independence, only a single edit was made to the most famous passage of the document. As Maier notes, Jefferson was influenced by his own proposed preamble to the Virginia Constitution as well as George Mason’s draft Virginia Declaration of Rights. The bottom line, however, is that Jefferson’s mastery of language resulted in a document that has resonated for hundreds of years. Jefferson went on to enumerate the abuses of the King that justified the revolution, but the opening paragraphs are what we remember today.
The assertion that humans have inherent rights that are not granted by any government but emanate simply from our existence was an extremely powerful statement and remains so today. Natural rights are inalienable and no King has the right to curtail such rights. Americans would set up a government that protects such rights from tyrants by basing our system on the consent of the governed. The enumerated reasons for revolution were important in terms of making the case for revolution to the world and forming alliances, but beneath all of those enumerated grievances was the King’s violation of God given rights.
America’s original sin was clearly slavery and perhaps no founding father had as tortured a relationship with that institution than Thomas Jefferson. He included a lengthy section in his draft condemning the slave trade and blaming the King for the institution of slavery. The entire section on slavery was removed by Congress, clearly because it would have created a major controversy with states that had large slave populations. Jefferson deserves credit for trying to raise the issue in the Declaration of Independence even if his ardor for gradual emancipation cooled as he got older. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson had the idealism of youth and he clearly dreamt of an American society that, in his lifetime, would find a solution for an institution that was at odds with the lofty statements of human rights in the Declaration of Independence.
As the Declaration of Independence grew in stature as “scripture” in the early decades of the nineteenth century, John Adams grew irritated with Thomas Jefferson being credited as the sole author. Jefferson and Adams had reconciled in old age and exchanged a fascinating series of letters. Adams did not directly raise the issue with Jefferson but he did so with others. While it is understandable that Adams would feel slighted, this is a good example of how taking initiative can yield impressive long-term results. The Declaration of Independence was not the first time that Thomas Jefferson wielded his formidable pen to make history.
By taking on a task that others on the committee were content to delegate to a junior member, Jefferson secured his place in the history books. Pauline Maier’s book is an important contribution for those of us who want to “get into the weeds” of how the Declaration of Independence was created, but such readers will always be a small minority.
Thomas Jefferson’s stature in America has taken an unfair hit in recent years as “woke” and politically correct virtue signalers insist on retroactively applying twenty-first century standards to a man who died in 1826. But I suspect that when America celebrates its 250th birthday in 2026, Jefferson will be credited as the author of the Declaration of Independence without any caveats.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, half a century after their great collaboration. The Declaration of Independence certainly qualifies as “American Scripture.”
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