The document reflects a sacrifice that its 56 signers chose to make.
Unexpectedly, I heard myself say, “I would sign that document. I hope you’ll join me.”
A few months ago, I was with my family in Washington, D.C., standing in a dark room in the National Archives, looking at the Declaration of Independence.
I told my kids about the sacrifice that each of those men, and their families, made when they signed that document.
My then 8-year-old daughter, Fiona, asked me,
“Dad, would you have signed that document?”
“Of course I would,” I thought. Every American would, because we know how this movie ends.
For those 56 signers, the question wasn’t easy. They were standing up against the most powerful army in the world — for an experiment in self-government.
Declaring independence was risky. They were risking their fortunes. They were risking their honor. They were risking their lives. And they were putting their families at risk as well.
As I looked down at the names on the Declaration, I realized these were more than just signatures from 250 years ago. The signers were husbands and fathers. They were business owners and farmers.
They were us.
Looking at the document, I realized the Declaration of Independence isn’t just a historical document. Every generation is asked the same question the signers were asked 250 years ago.
Would we sign the document?
The truth is, in the days before independence was declared, many of the signers would have answered, “No.”
Because they were people, just like you and me.
Was it worth sacrificing the wealth you had spent a lifetime building to help generations of people you’d never meet? The easy answer is “no.”
Was it worth sacrificing your life so your great-grandchildren might have better opportunities than you? The easy answer is “no.”
The easiest option has always been, and always will be, to ignore the problem. To leave. To be convinced the corruption and taxation will never end.
John Adams said it best in a letter to his wife, Abigail:
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
The miracle of 1776 wasn’t simply that America declared independence.
It was that ordinary people chose to put future generations ahead of themselves. They sacrificed their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor so that people they would never meet could live free.
Freedom has been preserved only because every generation has answered Fiona’s question the same way the original 56 signers did.
Americans signed it again with their blood at Gettysburg, on the beaches of Normandy and in the stairwells of the World Trade Center.
Today, on the 250th anniversary of our country, the question of the next generation is placed before us:
“Would we sign?”
Standing in the National Archives beside my daughter, Fiona, my then 4-year-old son, Rocky, and my wife, Anna, I found myself with tears in my eyes.
I quietly answered Fiona’s question.
“I would sign that document.”
Then I looked at my kids.
“I hope you’ll join me.”
God bless you.
God bless the United States of America.
Matt Paprocki
