Independence Day in America commemorates the political separation of what is now the United States from the empire of Great Britain. More than just a change in nationality, the transition altered the fundamental political identity of [white, male] Americans: they ceased to be the subjects of a monarch, subservient to the authority of a hereditary ruler theoretically ordained by God, and became the citizens of a republic, themselves the source of supreme political authority. It was an important historical moment, and it was captured perfectly in an inky smudge Thomas Jefferson made in writing the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration was composed by such famous luminaries as Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin, along with the less well known Robert "that-other-guy" Livingston and Rodger "him-too" Sherman. Though there's no reliable record of who contributed each item to the document (Adams and Jefferson offer contradicting accounts in their memoirs), we know that Jefferson did the actual writing and was probably responsible for most of the diction. One day in June of 1776, as his pen furiously scratched out phrases denouncing the various tyrannies of King George, Jefferson wrote,
"He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow subjects..."
And then, presumably, he stopped. And he stared for a moment at that last word, "subjects." And then, in a beautifully illustrative moment, he smudged it out and wrote "citizens" instead. Notably, Jefferson didn't simply cross out the word "subjects", as he had done with other errors in the document, he attempted to annihilate it. As closely as he could, he wrote out the letters of 'citizens' so that they overlapped and further obscured the letters of his earlier mistake. And he hoped that no one would know that he, Thomas Jefferson, on the eve of American Independence, could still think of himself as a subject. In all probability, no one did....until now.
Science is a marvelous thing. Through science we've cured horrible diseases, we've learned how all the foods we love are slowly killing us, we've discovered that pigeons can recognize themselves on TV, and now we can nosily delve into the mind of Thomas Jefferson. Researchers at the Library of Congress recently figured out how to read through the smudge and decipher the word "subjects" hidden under "citizens". The ink in the original word has a slightly different chemical signature than the word written over top of it. By studying the document under different wave-lengths of light, the researchers were able to read what Jefferson had hoped to forever blot out.
(Picture from the NY Daily News)
Interestingly, you won't find that phrase about the king inciting fellow subjects/citizens in the official Declaration. It was one of the many phrases the Continental Congress ordered removed from Jefferson's draft before they accepted it. They apparently decided that, being in the midst of inciting a "treasonable insurrection" themselves, it was best not to cast that particular first stone.
I think it's incredibly interesting to see that Jefferson was aware of the need to break the cycle that was conditioned into our founders. When you actually realize that this actually happened (and not just some movie or book that you're reading about) it's inspiring. That he took the moment and realized the weight of his mindset and took the steps to steer it in a better direction makes me happy.
ReplyDeleteThis time period is not so far removed and from our time as to be rendered irrelevant.
I had a much better comment, but it was eaten by the Internet.