The Declaration of Independence Misquoted
By L. A. S.
Is it any wonder that the Declaration of Independence is being discounted and belittled in this country when there is so much ignorance concerning its principles and even its phraseology on the part of prominent Americans, who assume to be leaders and teachers of the people? For example, consider the following exhibition made by the Rev. F. W. Gunsalus on the occasion of a recent baccalaureate address in Chicago. Under the heading “God not a Socialist,” the following press dispatch appeared in the Washington Post:— CHICAGO, June 13.—Dr. Frank Gunsalus delivered the baccalaureate address at the Auditorium to the graduating class of Armour Institute to-day. “There was never a more interesting falsehood than ‘All men are created free and equal,’” said he. “The Declaration of Independence was the work of an hour of intense excitement, and on every national anniversary this phrase is misquoted, because, when it is taken from its context, it is false. Freedom is something to be won. Men are not born free. Every power into whose control a man comes is a conquered freedom. There are no equals in this universe of God’s. God is no Socialist.” As Dr. Gunsalus would have known if he had recently read the Declaration of Independence, or remembered it from past readings, there is no such expression in it as, “All men are created free and equal.” It is true indeed that “this phrase is misquoted,” and it is for the reason apparently that men do not now care enough about the Declaration to read it and find out what it says. “All men are born free and equal” is a common expression used when men think they are quoting from this Magna Charta of American independence. But what the Declaration says is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal,” etc. Nobody claims or ever claimed so far as we know, that all men are born free. It was true, however, when the Declaration was written, and is equally true now, that all men are created equal. They are not equal so far as the things of this world—its laws, privileges, wealth, stations, etc.—are concerned, but they are equal before their Creator, equal as he sees them, equal as regards his purposes for them. The same gospel provisions apply to all; Jesus Christ died for one no more than for another. And because all men are equal in this sense, it follows that they have been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and “that to preserve these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This is as true as the gospel, for it is gospel truth. It states a necessity growing out of the right of every man to think for himself, without which conscience would amount to nothing, faith would be impossible of exercise, and God would be unjust in requiring each individual to answer for himself at the final judgment. The Declaration of Independence is all right; the difficulty is with those who in their ignorance misunderstand, misquote, and misrepresent it.
L. A. S.