“A republic if you can keep it” are the famous words spoken by Benjamin Franklin toward the end of the Constitutional Convention and after being asked about what had been accomplished.
The Constitution is a piece of paper with a “bundle of compromises,” written down by our founders, that provides the institutional guarantee for our independence, our democratic experiment and the freedom to be the best that we can be within the law.
The Declaration of Independence adopted on 4th of July, 1776 also is a piece of paper that expresses the ideals of a free people embarking on an epic journey to greatness. Both institutional documents have been tested in their own way over time first by the British and then by our internal differences.
As we get ready to celebrate Independence Day 2023, it is important to consider the challenges to our freedom done mostly at our own hand. The American Revolution itself was a fight against British hegemony and not necessarily their ideas on democracy as they were already evolving into a citizen-based democratic political system.
The help of France in achieving independence also enlightened the path for that country to experiment with democracy themselves beginning a decade later. The French people came to understand the difficulty of creating and maintaining a democratic form of government as they went through four republics before Charles de Gaulle helped to establish the current one (the fifth) in 1958.
American independence as a united country was threatened by political differences so serious that they led 11 southern states to leave the union and make the 4 year civil war the bloodiest in our history.
Providence, however, appeared to work in favor of the Union in two key battles that took place around the 4th of July and that eventually determined the outcome of the war.
The first was the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863 that saw not only the “high water mark of the rebellion,” but also a turning point defeat of the Confederate Army.
The Union victory also “stopped Confederate momentum in the Eastern Theater and probably killed any chances of Europe intervening.”
The second was the battle and siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi that ended with the Confederate surrender of the city on July 4, 1863 to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Federal victory completed the takeover of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.
The two victories came at a time when President Lincoln was still frustrated with the command of the Army of the Potomac and the overall direction of the war. It is the Vicksburg moment that confirmed President Lincoln’s thought that he had finally found in General Grant, the military leader he had sought for so long.
One of the genius of the democratic political system is that it allows for people to petition the government by various means, including organizing, campaigning and street demonstrations. The American Civil War taught us that our political system is not designed to deal with mass armed rebellion without military intervention and bloodshed.
Yet the Constitution appears to allow for the possession of tools that can generate an armed insurrection. Our current political division is descending to a level, like the Civil War period, that can invite that kind of activity.
Our independence is about more than just having a separate country called the United States of America in a continent called North America. It is about our distinct heritage, the freedom to grow and reinvent ourselves generation by generation.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
