How Writers Helped Shape America: Lessons from the Declaration of Independence

From Edie: Tim Suddeth helps writers discover how writers helped shape America through the Declaration of Independence and what today's Christian writers can learn about the power of words.

How Writers Helped Shape America: Lessons from the Declaration of Independence

by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth

Today, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Or, as George Washington once called it, “the great experiment.”

I’ve always loved studying about the Revolutionary War period of American history, even while I was in school. One problem we have when we look back at another era is that we know how it turned out. And often, we accept it was the inevitable outcome. We know that 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a single nation of states stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

But in fact, when the Revolutionary War started, it wasn’t a revolution. It was thirteen individual British colonies wanting King George to treat them as equal British citizens. At the time, England was the greatest military, economic, and largest empire in the world. The colonists were not thinking about splitting away from them; they just wanted King George to accept them back as equals.

So, what happened? How did a squabble with the king over personal liberties grow into a movement uniting thirteen unique colonies into birthing a single democratic union?

When we look back, we see that much of the breakup with Britain was due to one source: writers and speakers with a mission.

Let’s look at three individuals who used the power of words to birth a nation.

1. Samuel Adams

After England’s victory in the French and Indian War in America, the British Parliament was deep in debt and looking for additional sources of revenue. Since the war had largely been fought in the colonies, Parliament decided the colonies should pay their ‘fair’ share and began imposing taxes on them. The colonists resented these new taxes, especially as they felt they didn’t have a say in the matter. The wedge that broke the two parties apart began to develop.

Samuel Adams, a Bostonian, joined the movement opposed to Parliament. He helped organize the committees of correspondence, a group of writers that wrote passionate and fiery letters to the public, often printed in the local newspapers throughout the thirteen colonies. Over the months leading to the war, over a hundred other committees were formed in Massachusetts.

Adams published his articles under the pseudonyms ‘Vindex’ and ‘Candidus’ because he was afraid of being arrested for treason. The public sentiment these writings ignited caused the British to send troops to Boston.

2. Benjamin Franklin

Not only was Doctor Franklin one of the Founding Fathers, but he was also a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and philosopher. A successful newspaper editor and printer (No. Really.), he published The Pennsylvania Gazette when he was twenty-three years of age. He’s well known for publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack. (That is self-publishing. Yes, self-publishing has a long history.)

It wasn’t only his writings that were important to the revolutionary cause. He was also a powerful and well-regarded speaker. One of the important sayings attributed to him happened while the delegates were debating over the Declaration of Independence. The vote was very much in doubt. Some of the delegates were returning to their colonies so they couldn’t be called on to vote, as a vote would be seen by the British as an act of treason, punishable by death.

Franklin is said to have stood before the assembly and proclaimed, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

3. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He was a lawyer and was elected to the legislature in colonial Virginia. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft and present their declaration to King George the Third. The Committee included Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams (Samuel’s second cousin.) The older John Adams persuaded the committee to have Jefferson write the first draft.

From the second floor of a three-story home he rented in Philadelphia, Jefferson, mainly in isolation, wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (Formerly The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America (sic)). Congress then spent two days critiquing the document and shortened it by a fourth. (Ah, editors. They never change.) Jefferson later wrote that Congress had “mangled” his draft version. (Can we feel his pain?)

Conclusion

Next month, we’ll complete the series on “A Writer’s Garden” with a look at the writer’s harvest. But today, on this 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document seen to signal the birth of the United States of America, I wanted to look at the power of words. Of ideas. Both written and spoken.

Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the others who brought about the birth of a new nation, were just men, with many of the dreams, flaws, and cares that all humanity has. Yet it was by men like these becoming united through new ideas that their and our world was changed.

But we shouldn’t be surprised to see that words, the words we all use, have so much power that they can form a nation. For it was words that created…well, creation. “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.’” (Genesis 1:3)

Now, I can hear you. “Tim, I’m not trying to birth a nation. And do you really think little ole me…”

Isn’t changing one life, or helping someone through their depression, or seeing a friend put their faith in the hope of Christ also miracles? When we give our words to God, we don’t know how he’ll use them.

Even though there is great power in words, for a Christian writer, we don’t depend on just the words. We also have the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory …” (John 1: 1, 14).

What a great, awesome, and humbling legacy he has called us to. Let’s live and work to be found faithful by the Audience of One.

Now it’s your turn. What have you learned from the birth of the USA that shows God’s hand at work?

Thanks for reading.

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How Writers Helped Shape America: Lessons from the Declaration of Independence from @TimSuddeth on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tim Suddeth is a stay-at-home dad and butler for his wonderful, adult son with autism. He has written numerous blogs posts, short stories, and three novels waiting for publication. He is a frequent attendee at writers conferences, including the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and a member of Word Weavers and ACFW. He lives near Greenville, SC where he shares a house with a bossy Shorky and three too-curious Persians. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter, as well as at www.timingreenville.com and www.openingamystery.com.