The Legacy of the Declaration of Independence

meant to include "Negroes" or "slaves" in its linguistic sweep, and Lincoln contending quite passionately that they, in fact, did. (Lincoln was ultimately elected President on this ideological platform and preached this doctrine all the way to his grave, yet this debate rages even today.)

The Declaration of Independence continued to be a source of inspiration (and debate over its meaning) well beyond the days of Lincoln and the American Civil War. As early as the 1840s, the female suffrage movement went so far as to plagiarize its tone and format in demanding the right to vote, and its words continued to fuel the efforts of women activists until their right to vote was nationalized in the early twentieth century.

In 1941, with the nation in economic hard times and on the eve of World War II, Congress made the Fourth of July a national holiday, confirming the annual "Independence Day" tradition of celebratory parades and fireworks.

In the 1960s, the fight for civil rights for black Americans reached its peak with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. calling attention to the inconsistencies of segregation and race-based persecution with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. People today tend to forget Dr. King's repeated and eloquent references to the nation's founding principles (including his identifying the Declaration as a "promissory note"), but this was an indispensable cornerstone in his advocacy for racial justice in the United States.

The Bicentennial of 1976 also brought renewed attention to the Declaration and its ideals, but the celebration was somewhat muted in an America reeling from Watergate and still suffering the effects of its costly and confusing war in Vietnam.

Ronald Reagan's optimistic patriotism in the 1980s restored some of the country's lost confidence, but the economic prosperity our nation experienced led to materialism. Indeed, patriotism became somewhat passe, except for a brief revival during the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict.

Despite the lack of public attention and focus, the power of the Declaration of Independence is nevertheless evident in the success of the country itself. As Abraham Lincoln once said: "[The prosperity of the United States] is not the result of accident. It has a philosophic cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart."

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