https://archive.is/aD589
"“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Within weeks of their publication in July 1776, those words spread around the
world. In August, a London newspaper reprinted the
Declaration of
Independence in full. Edinburgh followed. Soon after that, it appeared in
Madrid, Leiden, Vienna, and Copenhagen.
Before long, others drew on the text in more substantial ways. Thomas Jefferson
himself helped draft the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,
issued by French revolutionaries in 1789. The
Haitian Declaration of
Independence, of 1804, drew on both the American and French precedents,
calling for the construction of an “empire of liberty in the country which has
given us birth.” In subsequent decades, declarations of independence were
issued by Greece, Liberia (the author had been born in Virginia), and a host of
new Latin American nations. In 1918, Thomáš Masaryk, the first president of
Czechoslovakia, signed a
Declaration of Common Aims of the Independent
Mid-European Nations at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, using the
Founders’ inkwell.
On that occasion, a replica of the Liberty Bell was rung, not because any
American president or official had asked for it to ring but because Masaryk had
been inspired by the story of the American founding. He evoked the
Declaration not because of any pressure applied by U.S. foreign policy, but
because of Jefferson’s words and what they signify. Since 1776, Americans have
promoted democracy just by existing. Human rights and the rule of law are in
our founding documents. The dream of separation from a colonial empire is built
into them too. Our aspirations have always inspired others, even when we did
not live up to them ourselves."
Originally at
<
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/11/america-democracy-autocracy/684335/>
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
