Thomas Jefferson’s proposition, in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal” is a literary technique. Its truth, the proposed “idea” upon which a new nation was to be based, is implicit mainly in irony. All men clearly are not equal. And, of course, Jefferson knew this.
This same irony plays out, for instance, when a fruit vendor proposes that all of the apples in his basket are “equal.” A buyer might protest that some apples appear to have bruises, some are partially insect-eaten, some red and sweet, some green and tart. Thus, he might ask the vendor, “By which qualities are your apples equal?”
The vendor might respond that he chose all of his apples to be made into cider. Thus, they are equal based on those qualities, and only those qualities, that make apples-as-apples. That is, they are equal as apples.
Similarly, the influence of the Magna Carta loomed heavy in the mind of the common man of the Revolution. Those qualities by which men are equal, that simply make man-as-man, are the criteria by which laws for men should be formulated. Of course, differences among men dictate how such laws are construed. But this construal is an accommodation, toward a more fundamental end.
If pressed, it is difficult for the apple vendor to specify what qualities make apples-as-apples, for the distinction is intuitive, determined by recognition of an apple as such.
Similarly, those qualities by which we define man – that determine what we will call the human other – lie in recognition. The nature of this recognition is referenced in the next phrase of the Declaration, that men are “endowed by their creator…” That is, recognition is evoked by awareness of a divine element. Herein was the influence of Thomas Paine, for whom civil law, to pertain to man, must be based on divine law.
A city that bases its laws upon differences as differences, so that men with “bruises” might be removed, has no such foundation. Its absolute forms of competition – the market, the colosseum, political power – will elevate the individual man, but denigrate man as such. The “idea” of America, on the other hand, that all men are created equal, that is, that they are defined by those qualities that make man-as-man, will manifest the same competition, but constituted in a form that makes better men.
Russell Noblett, Amarillo
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: The notion of ‘equality’ in the Declaration of Independence | Letter
Reporting by Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
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