Jody Baker-Wiley Monticello High School

Pauline Maier details the history of the Declaration of Independence in a way that the average college student can comprehend; but she does much more than describe its history. She asserts that the Declaration has evolved into scripture that this document has become the basis for a kind of secular religion where the words of our founding fathers are repeated and interpreted again and again in order to find new meanings for this growing and ever changing nation.

The Declaration was intended to serve its purpose in 1776, to be read aloud to the people and soldiers in order to gain converts to the cause of revolution. It was to be an official statement, directed at the king, which listed the grievances that the colonists had incurred. It stated that due to these "abuses and usurpations" the colonists had no choice but to "throw off' the colonial government. In simple terms, Britain violated their own laws, and did not treat the colonists as fellow Englishmen. Repeatedly Britain disregarded their own English Bill of Rights by quartering troops in colonial homes, committing illegal searches and generally violating the constitutional rights of the "American" people.

Maier does not argue the original intent of the document. She maintains that it is in the second paragraph of the Declaration that has become so prone to reinterpretation. The statement, "all men are created equal" has been used to support causes throughout history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton used it to promote suffrage for women. Martin Luther King Jr. used it to promote the cause of civil rights, and the women's movement used it to argue that sexism has been woven into the fabric of America since its very conception.

The irony is that the American Revolution celebrated the separation of church and state, yet today many of the men responsible for writing these original documents are revered as democratic icons with godlike wisdom. Their statues and monuments elevate them as being somehow wiser and more forward thinking than average Americans. Yet, at the same time, after reading Maier's book one cannot help but wonder if key documents like the Declaration actually do transcend their time -- that people can rightfully glean from them lasting ideas to be argued and discussed into the next millennium.

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