Drew Edmondson
A Celebration of Democracy
by Drew Edmondson
There are many reasons to value membership in Rotary – we count service above self, it is where to go for lunch each week, we care about each other, and others. However, perhaps the most important reason is the quality of our programs. Each week we have an opportunity to learn something about our city, our state, our world.
We recently had a great program from the Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Dustin Rowe. His message was the importance of judicial independence but within his remarks he reminded us that next year, July 4, 2026, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence.
What he was referring to was the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
We declared ourselves a free and independent nation, no longer colonies of the British Empire.
However, declaring it did not make it so – it triggered a war that lasted years and additional years in a struggle to determine what kind of government we would have. It would be of value to review that struggle to understand and appreciate the government our founders ultimately created.
The Boston Tea Party, protesting new taxes on tea, took place December 16, 1773. In response, the English Parliament adopted the Intolerable Acts of l774 to punish the Massachusetts Bay Colony and as a warning to others. Among other things, those Acts abolished the elected government and closed Boston Harbor.
Patrick Henry, in his speech to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, predicted that the “…next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!” He closed with the famous, “…give me liberty or give me death.”
Prophetically, the battles of Lexington and Concord followed the very next month.
Following our Declaration of Independence, the 2nd Continental Congress adopted Articles of Confederation, which provided for a “league of friendship” between the 13 colonies, now declared states. There was a Congress, unicameral, with one delegate from each state, no President and no national judiciary. The principal author of the Articles, John Dickinson of Delaware, named the Confederation the “United States of America”.
The Articles of Confederation governed from 1781 to 1789.
The war effectively ended on October 19, 1781, when General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. American and French troops numbering over 17,000 had surrounded the city and bombarded the defenders. The French blockade in the Chesapeake Bay prevented resupply and reinforcement.
Cornwallis signed the surrender but, claiming illness, he did not participate in the surrender ceremonies. He sent his second in command, General Charles O’Hara. O’Hara attempted to deliver his sword to the leader of the French forces, General Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau. Rochambeau declined it and gestured to General George Washington, who then directed the sword be delivered to his second, Major General Benjamin Lincoln. All of which generates a great trivia question: Who received the sword of surrender at Yorktown? Not Washington but Lincoln!
Meanwhile, it had become evident that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate to govern a nation. There was no entity able to treat with foreign nations, there was no avenue to resolve debts of the war, and no taxing authority. Any measure adopted by Congress required unanimous approval by the states.
To resolve these and other issues, a Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in the spring and summer of 1787. What started as a revision of the Articles developed into the creation of a stronger national government with a Congress having one House apportioned by population and a Senate having equal representation from the states. Three co-equal branches, Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
The new Constitution was submitted to the states with a commitment to follow up with a Bill of Rights, to satisfy Federalist concerns that the government would be too powerful. The Constitution was signed by the delegates on September 17, 1787 and submitted to the states for ratification.
Ratification was completed in 1789. The promised Bill of Rights was ratified December 15, 1791.
When the Constitution was drafted, Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government have you given us, and he famously replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” In the intervening centuries our government has survived a civil war, two world wars and a cold war, all testing that resolve.
It is a Democracy and it is a Republic. Its bedrock is the Constitution and the question will always remain, can we keep it?
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