Steffen er på Roskilde Festival og jeg er i gang med at flytte, så ingen af os har fået tid til at skrive et ordentligt indlæg i anledningen af USA’s uafhængighedsdag, den 4. juli. (Jeg ved godt hvad der står i datoen på dette indlæg, men det er stadig 4. juli her i New York.)

Jeg vil i stedet blot henvise læseren til to tekster der i hvert fald er hver at læse. Den første er selve Uafhængighedserklæringen. Thomas Jeffersons tekst er ufattelig smuk og velskrevet, men det er også slående hvor godt den passer ind i sammenhængen af en engelsk tradition for en begrænset regeringsmagt og individuelle rettigheder, og den bredere engelske historiske sammenhæng med Magna Carta, den Engelske Borgerkrig og Bill of Rights.

That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

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He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

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He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

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He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.

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Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

Det er altsammen ting en englænder burde kunne nikke genkendende til. Hvis du ikke kan, så begynd her.

Den anden bog er David McCulloughs udmærkede 1776. Man skal ikke glemme at revolutionen langt fra var overstået med erklæringen den 4. juli 1776. Det var også nødvendigt at udkæmpe en lang og blodig krig hvor den unge nation flere gange var tæt på at tabe til briterne. Washington overtog kommandoen over sine tropper på Cambridge Common den 3. juli 1775 og fra den dag gik begivenhederne hurtigt. McCullough fokuserer på året 1776 og de slag, blandt andet tilbagetrækningen over Delaware-floden og slagene ved Trenton og Princeton, der sikrede at den amerikanske hær kunne kæmpe endnu et år.