Writings on the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution

Links to some of my previous writings on these topics, which remain relevant today.

The Declaration of Independence. (National Archives.)

 

Over the years, I have written various posts and articles on the American Revolution and the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Some have obvious continuing relevance to such issues as identity politics, nationalism, immigration, the role of slavery in American history, and more.

This post is an expansion of last year's similar compendium.

I hope the links are useful, and stir reflection on the principles of the Declaration. Unless otherwise noted, all of these pieces were published as posts on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. I put them in chronological order:

"The Declaration of Independence and the Case for Non-Ethnic Secession," July 4, 2009.

"The Declaration of Independence and the Case for a Polity Based on Universal Principles," July 4, 2017.

"The Universalist Principles of the Declaration of Independence," July 4, 2019. Why it matters that the Declaration elevates universal liberal principles over racial, ethnic, and cultural particularism.

"The Case Against the Case Against the American Revolution," July 4, 2019. A rebuttal to longstanding claims - advanced by critics on both right and left - that the Revolution did more harm than good.

"Slavery, the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass' 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?'", July 4, 2020. Douglass's famous speech sheds light on some of America's greatest evils - but also on the great good done by the Revolution and Founding. I think Douglass's speech may be the greatest-ever Fourth of July oration.

"Juneteenth and the Universalist Principles of the American Revolution," June 19, 2021. Why there is no inconsistency in celebrating both July 4 and the abolition of slavery. Indeed, the two are mutually reinforcing.

"Immigration and the Principles of the Declaration of Independence," July 4, 2021. This piece explains why the ideals of the Declaration and the Founding require free migration rights.

"Juneteenth Celebrates a Great American Achievement," June 19, 2023. An extension of some of the key points made in my 2021 Juneteenth post, linked above.

"The Declaration of Independence Promotes Individual Liberty More than Collective Self-Determination," July 4, 2023. The "liberty" the Declaration advocates is more about individual freedom than the power of majorities to rule over the rest of society, or the power of ethnic groups to rule "their" territory.

"The Case Against Nationalism," National Affairs, Winter 2024 (with Alex Nowrasteh). This article is a more general critique of nationalism. But it includes a section explaining why nationalism is inimical to the ideals of the Declaration and the Founding.

"Trump vs. the Declaration of Independence," July 4, 2025. Several items on the Declaration of Independence list of grievances against George III also apply to Trump today, most notably on immigration, trade, and deportation without due process. Like King George, he is "unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

Comments

[Supremacy Claus]

I asked the Monticello tour guide how Jefferson could afford all this. She replied, "Lawyer."

The British military was going bust, defending the lands of the lawyer against the French and against the Indians. They raised taxes from 1% of GDP to 2%. The lawyer dunderheard went nutsoid. The American Revolution killed 30000 on each side, out of a population of 2.5 million, like 3 million deaths today (1%). To the 60000 deaths, add 600,000 horrific injuries and preventable disease from overcrowding in the military. Of course, the wartime medical advance enabled by Washington was small pox vaccination. That may have saved millions in the future.

The worst consequence of this lawyer stupidity? It caused the Civil War. That was another unmitigated national catastrophe caused by lawyer dunderhead, Lincoln. Gay Abe was the very worst President, in a category all his own. Had we remained a colony, slavery would have ended as it did in Canada, by The Slavery Abolition Law of 1834, enforced by a sheriff, not by industrial grade mass slaughter.

[Supremacy Claus]

Somin is verklempt about the election of Trump, and feels Trump is like our King George. Trump is the greatest President, better than Washingon, in his first 6 months in office. Somin's rebuttal of the above is just a list of ipse dixits without evidence.

https://reason.com/volokh/2019/07/04/the-case-against-the-case-against-the-american-revolution/

Somin is a denier of the experimental control nations of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Add, the American Revolution encouraged the French Revolution, with its million violent deaths. That served as a model for and encouraged later Communist revolutions with their 100 million violent deaths.

[Roger S]

Somin may realize that Trump is a great President, and hate him all the more because of it. Somin pushes for whatever will make America worse.

[David Nieporent]

As Schlafly admitted in another thread today, he believes that non-whites are what make America worse.

[Supremacy Claus]

Somin is a Democrat and verklempt. Trump has been very productive. Only Washington was ahead of him in greatness, being The Founder. Washington declined to be King, and retired to his farm after the second term. That made America. Trump is reviving this nation. Trump's pace is setting a standard of productivity for future Presidents. He was a weak leader, but learned a great deal from the first term. In 2017, he should have fired the DOJ, State, the FBI. In 2020, he should have arrested the Dem governors who closed the roads, tried these agents of the Chinese for treason, summarily executed them. Since the 14th Century, it has been the practice to quarantine infected people, not healthy people. That road closure was to bring down the economy, and to stop Trump's re-election. They murdered tens of thousands of people, forcing them them to stay with infected people in their facilities. He should have arrested the tech bro owners of the press, seized their assets in civil forfeiture for the false hysteria they spread. He got played by the lawyers. Those lawyers should have been expelled from the White House, head first.

[Supremacy Claus]

Hi, David. A lot of dark skinned people are risking their lives to reach the USA. They are sincerely endorsing this nation with their lives, run by its tenuous majority.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The American Revolution led to Shay's Rebellion a decade later, in the winter of 1786-7 which nearly led to the overthrow of the Massachusetts government had they managed to seize the Springfield Armory, and that would have spread to topple the US.

That's why they wrote the Constitution that summer -- and what Ilya doesn't understand is that it is the Constitution of 1787 and not the Declaration of Independence that is our bedrock.

But for the tactical mistakes Shays made, and not getting the Armory, we would have turned into a France.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Several items on Declaration of Independence list of grievances against George III also apply to Trump today, most notably on immigration, trade, and deportation without due process. Like King George, he is "unfit to be the ruler of a free people":

This is asinine.

Does Ilya know how the British Navy recruited?

[Tom Smith the Lesser]

Hard to understand why Somin is on this blog. He seems more fit for Antifa.com rather than Reason ....

He is one strange and angry fellow.

[Mike Hansberry]

What a surprise, another "it's not your country" post from Somin on Independence Day.

Joe sixpack: We the people of the United States are the owners of this country and have the right to control our borders and decide what level of immigration there will be.

Ilya Somin: You own your home and can say who may enter, but the people of the United States do not own this country.

Joe sixpack: Well, if not the people of the United States, who does own it? No One? Everyone on the planet, some sort of universal ownership? Perhaps just the elites?

Ilya Somin: We are not sure, but we know it is not the people of the United States, that would be fascism.

Joe Sixpack: The first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence say otherwise. But enough of what you disagree with regarding nationalism, tell us what you see as the ideal political system. Would it be globalism? Anarchy? What do you propose as a replacement for nation states?

[thesafesurfer]

Mr. Somin should stay in his lane, the law, because it is not history.

1st article-Mr. Somin argues for non-ethnic revolts. He ignores virtually all the characteristics of the American Revolution he claims as a supporting reference. The American Revolution was based on the Enlightenment idea of popular sovereignty which he doesn't bother to mention. He ignores the fact that the people revolting did claim ethnicity, American and not British ethnicity. The Declaration announces the United States of America. Does Ilya want to argue that the people living there were not "Americans." I would like Ilya to provide an example of a group united by an idea who want to revolt today that do not in any way, shape, or form identify as a people. The English, Germans, Dutch, Jews, Hugenots, Swedes, Scots, Welsh, Africans, and Scots-Irish who rebelled did so as Americans to create an American nation, a fact which contradicts the premise of his argument.

Ilya's second article he claims the Declaration was written to establish universal rights. The purpose of the documents was to declare the independence of the people of the United States of America in a nation state separate from the British monarchy, and the document explicitly states this. The Declaration uses rights as a rationalization to this clear and dedicated purpose. Only a blind ideologue intent on fabricating evidence could miss this point.

Ilya repeats this error in his third article claiming the Declaration advocated for a polity based on universal principles and not an ethnic nation. The Declaration established EXACTLY what Ilya denies, an ethnic nation state based on citizenship in the United States of America. The rights that Ilya claimed were explicit were not and the founders realized that. This is exactly why they codified ten amendments to the Constitution AFTER that document established a nation states based on citizenship. The Constitution did not grant individuals a place in the nation based on their beliefs but did so based on their ethnicity as Americans.

In article number four, Ilya once again entirely misses what the Revolution was about, POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. I suspect because this bedrock Enlightenment ideal of the America Revolution contradicts every thing he blindly follows in the "universal right to immigrate." He denies any people in an ethnic nation state the right to regulate immigration by creating a universal right to immigration out of thin air after uttering "hocus pocus."

Popular sovereignty is the rock that smashes Ilya's claims of all controlling universal rights. He rails again popular sovereignty having the power to deny his fictional right to immigration with every breath he takes.