I am in process of reading the biographies of our founding fathers, and have found those stories fascinating. Those were such tumultuous times, the outcome variable day to day, and always in doubt. Our revolutionary army was poorly clothed, poorly fed, often without weapons or ammunition, untrained, often undisciplined. Those soldiers consisted of combined militias from the states, and paid volunteers, many of whom deserted immediately as soon as they saw the conditions they were supposed to tolerate. None of the states supported them with money or supplies. In addition, Washington was himself inexperienced as a General, and made several tactical mistakes early in the battles of Independence that almost ended the conflict. The British were winning, bigtime, 1780-1781. They invaded from the south, taking Savannah, then took Portsmouth and Norfolk in the Chesapeake Bay. After a second try, they took Charleston. By January, 1781, they had struck and burned Richmond in a surprise attack. Governor Jefferson and the rest of the Virginia colony government fled back to Charlottesville. The British took that town too, by May of 1981, taking assemblymen captives before they could even leave their desks. Jefferson fled to Monticello, but the British came after him; he barely escaped capture there by five minutes. The revolutionary war did not look good for the colonies. The Americans were losing everything. We would have lost that revolt had not the French shown up, with 28 ships, 4 frigates, and 3500 troops, for the siege of Yorktown.
There were only two things that kept the revolutionary soldiers in that army and fighting that war. One was their immense respect for their commander, George Washington. The other was their firm belief that they had God given rights, for which they had to fight, as they found in the words of Thomas Paine, read to those soldiers when they suffered through the brutal winter at Valley Forge: These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot, will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
The other words that moved their souls, and stirred them to continue the fight, in spite of these terrible deprivations, were in that document for the ages, the Declaration of Independence: 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 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…
Who would not be stirred by these words? They are poetry in prose, and raise within us the intense feeling that this is right, that all humans have a god given right to achieve their fulfillment. These words have that same magical effect on me, too, even though I am aware that many of the concepts on which they are based, are primitive. Let’s look at them again, and expand on that discussion that already occurred in Morals, Ethics and Religions.
Thomas Jefferson was a creature of his time. His conceptualization of the Rights of Man did not include women, children, or blacks. The American Revolution was a revolution of the wealthy landed gentry of the American colonies, who were angry that they were not getting the same privileges as those who were identified as British. This revolution was begun by and agitated by white males who wished to be Lords and wished their wives to be Ladies. Jefferson, although he stated publicly that he thought slavery was an abomination, never freed his slaves. The only slaves to whom he belatedly granted freedom were the four surviving children of the woman with whom he had those children, Sally Hemings. It was a deal he struck with Sally. And he did not grant these, his own children, their freedom until after his death. He did not give freedom to that suffering woman who gave birth to those children of his; his daughter, Patsy, from his wife, Patty, had to do that, after his death. All his other slaves were sold, in an attempt to pay off part of his debt. At the time of his death, his debt was up to 2 million, in today’s currency terms. Jefferson was a prolific spender, without the income to support that fancy life style. He was able to live that high flying life style only because he had slaves that did the work for him. He was unwilling to give up that regal status by freeing his slaves. Jefferson was a user and abuser, at the time in our history when that was considered normal behavior. As with many of us, Jefferson had severe faults, and well as great talents.
Thomas Jefferson was adamantly opposed to organized religions, and believed that they were a source of deep prejudice, repression and violence in human societies, particularly when those religions became tied to governments, which gave those religions the power to abuse the population. The inquisitions, burning at the stake, tortures, usurpation of property by the church, have all been fostered by governments being tied to religions. Jefferson was right. No religion has any business being any part of any government. It was partly to his credit that we now have that most sacred conception: separation of church and state.
Yet Jefferson was a deist. He believed there was a divine creator, who gave humans the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although these concepts may be most comforting, and inspire us to perform great deeds, we now know that this is hogwash. The universe runs on chance and probability; it has no concern as to whether we live or die, much less as to whether we have a long quality life or not. There is no divine being that gives us a right to anything in this life. None of us humans has any more right to life than a squirrel, a scorpion, a snail, or a Salmonella bacterium.
And we are most certainly not created equal. In fact, the exact opposite is true, in spades. Each of us is an individual who is unalike and unequal to any other individual. The closest we get to human equality is in identical twins; and even then those twins have different times and orders of birth, different experiences in life, and different manifestation of their genes. They are also unique individuals. In fact, our bodies are programmed to recognize anything that is not exactly like us, and attack it as a foreign invader. Inequality and difference from any other living organism is how we are made.
So what are we left with? If we have no Divine Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness, and are not equal, what’s left? Actually, plenty is left. They are not rights, but we sure still have those Needs, in order to sustain our place in the greater organism of life. Every human has the need for sustenance, shelter, learning, freedom from harm, space to grow, loving and being loved. Good governments among humans will provide for or promote those needs. When governments do not provide equal opportunity for its citizens to meet those needs, that government should be overthrown, and replaced with government that will provide for the fulfillment of its citizens. We do not, as life organisms in an uncaring universe, have the Rights to anything; but we most certainly have equal needs. Each of us should have equal opportunity to meet those needs, and achieve our fulfillment in life.