Wednesday Wisdom
Declaration of Independence
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend celebrating America’s 250th birthday. During this time of commemoration and reflection, we felt some of Theodore Roosevelt’s words from his address before the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on November 5, 1902 on the sesquicentennial celebration of the initiation of George Washington in Philadelphia were particularly fitting for today’s Wednesday Wisdom.
“It is a good thing to read the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July; it is a good thing to talk of what Washington and his fellows did for us; but what counts is how we live up to the lessons that we read or that we speak of.”
Roosevelt valued celebrations and remembrances like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. As many of you know, his Independence Day speech in Dickinson, North Dakota on July 4, 1886 was one of his first major public speeches.
But just as he indicated in today’s Wednesday Wisdom, Roosevelt emphasized the importance of action and duty in living out the ideals of the Founders in his Dickinson speech as well: “The Declaration of Independence derived its peculiar importance not on account of what America was, but because of what she was to become . . .”
Roosevelt believed that it wasn’t enough to talk about great men like George Washington. Americans needed to act and pursue the common good of the democratic republic in the current world. For Roosevelt, the ideals of the Founders only meant something to the extent that they were lived out.
As Roosevelt mentioned in his Dickinson speech, “We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”
As the United States begins its next 250 years, we think Theodore Roosevelt would encourage us to “carry it on,” as he said near the end of his speech in Philadelphia. For Roosevelt, that meant paying homage to Washington’s career and life through one’s actions and not just “lip-loyalty.”
In Roosevelt’s mind, the United States wasn’t great because of the Declaration of Independence, the Founders, or even Washington; it was great because citizens throughout its history did their part—and continue to do their part—to maintain the democratic republic.
Read Roosevelt’s entire speech reflecting on Washington, the Founding, and its legacy here.
I am often angered and frustrated by many things taking place in my country, but I was raised to aspire to higher ideals and to work to make things better.