Honoring the Scope of the Declaration of Independence

Frameworks abound in government and in business.  Subpar frameworks lay forgotten.  Useful frameworks guide all levels of the organization.   

As we celebrate the semiquincentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence, it is worth remembering the scope of that revered document.  The Declaration stated the reasons it was needed.  Governments exist to secure unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Governments must derive their powers from the consent of the governed.  If a government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish those governments.  The Declaration indicted the King on twenty-seven abuses and usurpations.  And it declared independence from the crown and listed powers that the united States of America could then exercise.

However, the Declaration did not establish a framework for governance.  In fact, the first attempt at a framework for governance did not last a decade. 

Eleven years after the declaration, the framers instituted a second and lasting framework for governance in the seven articles of the United States Constitution.  This framework distributed power into different branches of government, governed relations between the states, established the amendment process and qualified the requirements for ratification.  The Constitution has been flexible enough to serve a growing and transforming country.  It has been firm enough to secure inalienable rights. 

It still stands today.

Declarations carry little weight unless they are backed up by action.  Independence was declared in Philadelphia in 1776.  It was earned in places like Saratoga, Valley Forge and Yorktown over the following years.  Independence was secured by the ratification of the Constitutional framework in 1787. 

The Declaration of Independence describes the American theory of government and the reasons for the separation from Great Britain.  The Constitution forged the framework of a nation.  Both fulfilled distinct purposes.  That clarity can guide us today, in endeavors large and small.