Independence Day - Still Dancing - Evergreen Wealth Management

What an honor it is to write this year’s Independence Day article, which is America’s 250^th Anniversary. These articles are a joy to write, and I am grateful for all the feedback you respond with that you enjoy these articles from Evergreen.

Past Independence Day Articles:

This past May, I had the joy of celebrating the wedding of a friend I have known since high school. It was a beautiful wedding, and like most, it had all the things that make them memorable: good food, great people, and a moment during the reception that I have always loved… The marriage dance.

If you have never seen it, the DJ invites every married couple onto the dance floor. Then he begins calling out years: one year, two years, three years, etc. With each milestone, the couples who haven’t reached it yet sit down, until only one couple remains standing. There is something deeply moving about the way the floor slowly empties, and the couple still dancing carries a quiet dignity that no trophy could match.

My wife Devon and I made it thirteen years before we were asked to sit down. Half the floor was already gone by then. While thirteen years is not a remarkable number, I was only thirty-two years old. We were the youngest couple still standing when we left the dance floor. Most people our age had barely started their marriage.

That is because Devon and I did not start the way most love stories are told. I was a senior in high school when our first son came into the world. We were young, it was not the plan, and the road ahead was unclear. I got engaged before my high school graduation, and on July 7th — before most of my friends had even hosted their graduation parties — we were married. It was not a fairy tale beginning. It was a decision. A faith commitment. A choice to build something rather than walk away from it. God saved me through this process.

I want Devon and I to be the last ones dancing someday. (See pictures at the end)

America’s story began in a similar way — not as a fairy tale, but as a decision.

In 1776, fifty-six men signed their names to a document that declared war on the most powerful empire on earth. There was no guarantee of victory. No safety net. The moment that pen touched parchment, each of them became a traitor to the Crown — punishable by death. They were not signing into peace. They were signing into the fight of their lives, with everything on the line and no certainty of how it would end.

It was not a fairy tale beginning. Yet, 250 years later, America is still on the floor.

Why 250 Years Is Extraordinary

That number deserves a moment of reflection because this is not normal.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are two distinct but inseparable documents. The Declaration, signed on July 4th, 1776, was the moral and philosophical foundation of why America exists, establishing the new nation’s rights in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. The Constitution, ratified in 1788 and in operation since 1789, was the governing framework of how America would be organized and protected. The Constitution does not give rights to citizens; it restrains government from interfering with the rights that already belong to them.⁽¹⁶⁾ The Declaration declared those rights. The Constitution defended them.

The United States Constitution is the world’s longest-surviving written charter of sovereign government.⁽¹⁾ According to research by professors of the University of Chicago’s Comparative Constitutions Project, the average life expectancy of all national constitutions since 1789 is only seventeen years.⁽²⁾

The dance floor of nations empties fast. Consider how many times our peers have had to start over. France has cycled through fifteen separate constitutions since our founding, encompassing five republics, two empires, multiple monarchies, and even a Nazi collaborationist dictatorship.⁽³⁾ Germany has operated under three different constitutional frameworks since 1776.⁽⁴⁾ Italy has had two.⁽⁵⁾ Japan has had two.⁽⁶⁾ China, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, has cycled through imperial monarchy, warlordism, nationalist dictatorship, and communist rule since 1776, and since establishing the People’s Republic in 1949 alone has enacted four separate constitutions.⁽⁷⁾India wasn’t an independent country until 1947. El Salvador has written thirty-six constitutions since 1824.⁽³⁾

America has only had one.

Even George Washington, standing in Philadelphia in 1787, reportedly doubted whether the republic would survive twenty years. However, 250 years later, we are still governed by the same foundational document put together in a single summer.

The United States of America is the last one dancing.

A Nation That Almost Wasn’t United

Before we marvel at 250 years of endurance, we should be honest about how close it almost never happened.

John Adams estimated that at the time of the Revolution, roughly one-third of colonists were Patriots who supported independence, one-third were Loyalists who wished to remain under the Crown, and one-third were neutral.⁽⁸⁾Some had deep economic ties to Britain. Others simply feared that independence would bring chaos and mob rule.⁽⁹⁾ The fight for independence was not a united colonial uprising against a foreign oppressor. In many ways, it was a civil war among neighbors.

Even within the Continental Congress itself, the path to independence was anything but certain. New York abstained from the final vote entirely. Delegates from Pennsylvania and South Carolina had to be pressured into agreement. There were men in that room who believed the whole enterprise was a catastrophic mistake. As late as the summer of 1776, reconciliation with Britain still had serious advocates among the very men debating the Declaration’s language.⁽¹⁰⁾

When Thomas Jefferson sat down to write the Declaration of Independence, he did not write the document we know today. The Committee of Five — Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston — drafted an original version that was submitted to the Continental Congress for a unanimous vote. Why unanimous? The founders knew that anything short of full colonial agreement would fracture the cause and give King George the opening he needed to divide and conquer the rebellion.⁽¹¹⁾

Eleven colonies voted yes. Two voted no.

South Carolina and Georgia voted no for one reason. Jefferson had included a powerful grievance against the King of Great Britain that argued forcefully against slavery. It was the longest grievance in the entire document, and Jefferson was so emphatic about it that he put two words in all caps for emphasis. Not the title. Not the name of the new nation. Two words buried in a single grievance — “Christian” and “MEN” — to drive home his point that a king who called himself Christian was selling human beings, and that those human beings were men, not property.⁽¹²⁾

I covered this story in full in my article, Slavery and the Original Declaration of Independence, and I encourage you to read it. The grievance was removed, a compromise was struck, and on July 4th, 1776, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

This is the part that deserves to sit with us for a moment. The founding of this nation was not a clean, unanimous moment of unity. There was deep division within the colonies, a genuine moral fracture at the drafting table, and a hard compromise required before a single name went on that document. The marriage between these colonies was not a fairy tale beginning. It was messy, contested, and imperfect.

All of them signed, understanding the cost.

What It Cost Them to Sign

Many of the founders were not poor men with nothing to lose. Twenty-three were lawyers. Twelve were merchants. Twelve were plantation owners — men of means, well educated, with everything at stake.⁽¹³⁾ When they signed their names to the Declaration, they pledged — in their own words — “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” That was not a figure of speech.

Seventeen signers lost their homes or property.⁽¹⁴⁾ Four were captured and imprisoned by the British — George Walton, Thomas Heyward, Arthur Middleton, and Richard Stockton — each treated with deliberate brutality.⁽¹⁴⁾ Francis Lewis’s wife was taken captive; months of imprisonment broke her health and led to her death.⁽¹⁴⁾ John Witherspoon’s eldest son was killed at the Battle of Germantown.⁽¹⁴⁾ John Hart fled his home while his wife lay dying, spent months hiding in forests and caves, and returned to find his farm destroyed. He died before the war ended, never having seen the freedom he signed for.⁽¹⁵⁾

Not one of defected. Not one went back on his word.

What the Founders Said It Would Take

The men who built this republic were not naive about what they had created. They were students of history, and they knew what would be required to keep this one alive.

The founders understood that both documents required something the parchment itself could not provide: a virtuous people to uphold them.

John Adams wrote in 1798, in a letter to the Massachusetts Militia:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”⁽¹⁷⁾

Adams was not saying the Constitution was a fragile document. He was saying the Constitution was only ever designed to govern a people with enough internal moral character and religious values to govern themselves. Remove that, and no legal framework on earth can hold a free nation together. The chains of law cannot replace the conscience of the citizen. The Declaration had declared that all men were endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights — but Adams knew that a people who abandoned their Creator would soon find those rights slipping through their fingers.

Thomas Jefferson warned that the day would come when government would be drawn entirely to one central seat of power. When it does, the checks the founders had so carefully designed would be rendered useless. He called it “elective despotism.” Tyranny of a people who vote themselves into bondage gradually, without ever seeing it coming. He did not say it might happen. He said guard against it before it arrives, because once it does, it is nearly impossible to reverse.⁽¹⁸⁾

Benjamin Franklin, standing at the close of the Constitutional Convention agreed with the Constitution as written, and then added that he believed it could only end in despotism as every other form of government before it had, “when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other”.⁽¹⁹⁾

James Madison, the architect of the Constitution itself, wrote that the system he designed required sufficient virtue among the people for self-government. Without it, nothing less than the chains of despotism could restrain men from destroying one another. ⁽²⁰⁾

The Founding Fathers did not say the republic would fail because of a bad law, a corrupt politician, or a foreign enemy. They say it will fail if the people fail. The structure of the government was never the load-bearing wall. The character of the citizens was.

George Washington said in his Farewell Address that political factions placing party above the common good were among the greatest dangers the republic would ever face. Not a foreign army, not a financial collapse, but partisanship.⁽²¹⁾

Having said all this, it would be a mistake to read the founders as only doomsayers. Jefferson also wrote that he had great confidence that the republic would proceed successfully for ages to come. Washington’s Farewell Address was a warning and also a love letter to the nation he had given his life to build. The warnings were not predictions of inevitability. They were instructions for prevention.

Still Dancing — A Call to the Floor

At 250 years, America has outlasted empires. It has survived a revolution against the most powerful military in the world, a civil war, two world wars, political factions, and every generation that doubted whether it could hold together.

The beginning was imperfect. The cost was staggering. With all that, the founders stayed the course. They built something that has outlasted nearly every republic in human history.

Devon and I did not start our marriage with a fairy tale. We started with responsibility, a hard choice, and a decision to build something worth keeping. Thirteen years later, we were still on that dance floor, stronger than when we started. My goal has not changed. I want Devon and I to be the last ones dancing. Seventy years, eighty years. Whatever God allows.

The dance is not over, but it has never been self-sustaining. The founders told us exactly what it would take to stay on the floor. People who abandon moral and religious foundations, as Adams warned, will find the Constitution wholly inadequate to govern them. A government allowed to consolidate all power to a single center, as Jefferson warned, will drift toward the elective despotism he feared. A republic whose citizens place party above the common good, as Washington warned, will fracture from within. And a people who lack the virtue for self-government, as Madison warned, will eventually require chains instead of laws. These were not abstract fears. They were the specific warnings of men who had seen what it cost to build this nation, and understood what carelessness would cost to lose it.

The Declaration of Independence did not promise that America would endure. It declared that it deserved to. The rest has always been up to us.

Keep dancing, America. The floor is still ours.

Wedding Photo

Citations

Evergreen Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

“Constitution of the United States.” United States Senate, senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm.
Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton. The Endurance of National Constitutions. Cambridge University Press, 2009. See also Ginsburg, Tom, and Zachary Elkins. “The Lifespan of Written Constitutions.” University of Chicago Law School, law.uchicago.edu/news/lifespan-written-constitutions.
“Historical Context: The Survival of the US Constitution.” Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-survival-us-constitution. France’s fifteen constitutions sourced from: “Les Constitutions de la France.” French Constitutional Council, conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/la-constitution/les-constitutions-de-la-france/les-constitutions-de-la-france.5080.html.
Dauke, Eva. “Anniversary of the German Basic Law — German Constitutions in the Course of Time.” Law Library of Congress, In Custodia Legis, May 23, 2024, blogs.loc.gov/law/2024/05/anniversary-of-the-german-basic-law-german-constitutions-in-the-course-of-time. The three frameworks: Constitution of the German Empire (1871), Weimar Constitution (1919), and the Basic Law (Grundgesetz, 1949). See also “Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.” Georgetown Law Library, guides.ll.georgetown.edu/germanlegalresearch/constitution.
Italy’s constitutional history: the Statuto Albertino (1848) governed the Kingdom of Italy; the current Republican Constitution was adopted January 1, 1948 following the fall of the fascist regime and the post-war referendum on the monarchy. See “Italy.” ConstitutionNet, constitutionnet.org/country/italy.
Japan’s constitutional history: the Meiji Constitution (1889) governed Imperial Japan; the current Constitution of Japan took effect May 3, 1947 under Allied occupation following World War II. See “Japan’s Constitution of 1947.” Constitute Project, constituteproject.org.
“Since 1949, the People’s Republic of China has enacted 4 constitutions in 1954, 1975, 1978, and 1982.” Harvard Law School Library, Chinese Constitutional History, guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=310179&p=2071166. See also “Constitutional History of China.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_history_of_China.
Adams, John, as cited in “Loyalists in the American Revolution.” National Park Service, nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/loyalists-in-american-revolution.htm. See also “Loyalist.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, britannica.com/topic/loyalist.
“Season of Independence Big Idea 5: Opposition to Independence.” Museum of the American Revolution, amrevmuseum.org/season-of-independence-big-idea-5-opposition-to-independence.
“Colonists Divided: A Revolution and a Civil War.” Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/lesson-plan/colonists-divided-revolution-and-civil-war.
Nutter, Andrew. “Independence Day — Slavery and the Original Declaration of Independence.” Evergreen Wealth Management, October 14, 2022, investevergreen.com/independence-day-slavery-the-original-declaration-of-independence.
Ibid. See also “Thomas Jefferson, June 1776, Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence.” Library of Congress, loc.gov/resource/mtjx.mtjbib000156.
Brunsman, Denver. “Pledging Their Fortunes: The Professions of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.” Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/pledging-their-fortunes-professions-signers-declaration-independence. See also “Signers of the Declaration of Independence.” National Archives, archives.gov/files/founding-docs/declaration_signers_gallery_facts.pdf.
“FAQ: Difficulties and Sacrifices of the Declaration Signers.” Wallbuilders, wallbuilders.com/resource/faq-difficulties-and-sacrifices-of-the-declaration-signers.
“John Hart — Quiet Farmer. Selfless Patriot.” Wallbuilders, wallbuilders.com/resource/the-cost-of-signing-the-declaration-of-independence.
Nutter, Andrew. “Constitution Day — We Are Not a Democracy.” Evergreen Wealth Management, investevergreen.com/constitution-day-we-are-not-a-democracy.
John Adams, Letter to the Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798. The Works of John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1854. Vol. IX, p. 229.
Thomas Jefferson. Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1794. Query XIII, pp. 194–196.
Benjamin Franklin, remarks at the close of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787. Recorded in Madison, James. Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987. p. 653.
Madison, James. Federalist No. 55. New York: J. & A. McLean, 1788.
Washington, George. Farewell Address, September 19, 1796. The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1940. Vol. XXXV, pp. 214–238.

Independence Day – Still Dancing