The American Political Dream

Introduction

The revolutionary documents, essays, and speeches that make up the literature of the American political dream have, over the centuries, defined not only American laws, but the nation's very identity. Americans are united by a dream of freedom and self-sufficiency, which is, in essence, a political dream; because Americans come from every religion, ethnicity, and race, it is political ideals that bind them. The American political dream is a constant work in progress, a fact made evident after reviewing the literature that spans the centuries beginning with the country's birth. From Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech to the 1775 Virginia Convention to Barbara Jordan's 1976 Democratic Convention Keynote Address, the ever-changing American political dream is consistently written by persuasive leaders intent on building, inspiring, and growing a nation of like-minded yet very independent individuals.

The Dream of a New Government

Before the American Revolution began, American colonists were devising ways of escaping British rule. After winning the American Revolution, the founding fathers set about creating a government that would serve the new nation's present as well as its future. The speeches and documents that led to the construction of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are more than the building blocks of the country's system of laws—they illustrate its character as a nation.

In 1775, a series of political meetings called the Virginia Conventions were instrumental in guiding the American colonies toward independence from British rule. Patrick Henry, one of the most radical and influential American Revolution advocates, delivered a speech during the second of five Virginia Conventions that persuaded his fellow conventioneers to arm the state's militia, which essentially set the Revolution in motion. Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" is memorable for its eloquence, force, and guiding philosophy. This powerful speech, delivered on March 20, 1775, ended with these words:

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Twelve years later, the American Revolution had been fought and won. In 1787, the hard work of creating a system of government for the new nation was under way. Instead of one rousing speech, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a series of eighty-five persuasive essays between 1787 and 1788. These Federalist Papers, as they came to be known, both outlined future interpretations of the U.S. Constitution and urged its ratification. Today, the Federalist Papers are viewed as a guide to understanding the motivation and philosophy behind a system of government that was, at the time, merely a proposition. In the general introduction of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton writes,

After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world.

One of the more interesting essays included in the Federalist Papers, "Federalist No. 84," finds Hamilton opposing the inclusion of a Bill of Rights that enumerates various protections of the rights of the American people. Hamilton's opposition was based on his belief that those rights not enumerated would not be honored. On September 25, 1789, though, twelve amendments to the Constitution were brought before the First Federal Congress. Only ten of these were ratified, which became the first ten amendments to the Constitution. They were called the Bill of Rights because they outlined the liberties and essential rights of Americans that were omitted in the original draft of one the nation's most important legal documents. The First Amendment to the Constitution, in its entirety, reads,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The rights promised in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, along with those "unalienable rights" outlined in the Declaration of Independence, form the basis of the political American dream. Included among the remaining nine are the rights to bear arms and to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, as well as the guarantee of due process of law and the right to a speedy trial before an impartial jury. The rights promised in these amendments are referred to in countless political documents and continue to define the American character as well as its moral center.

The Dream of Self-Reliance

In 1849, Henry David Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience," an essay that explores the role of man's conscience in a legislative society and continues to inform both American and international political thought to this day. He writes,

Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.

Thoreau's philosophy of individualism and self-reliance as described in "Civil Disobedience" has become a cornerstone of both the American identity and nonviolent resistance movements worldwide.

The Dream of Equality for All Americans

In Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by the leaders of the original thirteen colonies of the United States of America. Among the foremost tenets of the Declaration is the belief that all men are created equal:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness—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 to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 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.

Despite the clarity with which the ideal of equality is spelled out in the Declaration, it continues to be one of the country's most rankling issues. African Americans, for instance, have fought for their "inalienable" right to equality since the eighteenth century. Women began asserting their desire for equal rights in the early nineteenth century. Today, these two groups and countless others—including gay and lesbian Americans and American immigrants—are still fighting for what the Declaration claimed was an inherent human right back in 1776. Because of this, political American dream literature is filled with powerful demands for freedom and equality for all Americans. One of the first came from Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the form of her 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments. Using the Declaration of Independence as her guide, Stanton asserted that "all men and women had been created equal" and followed this assertion with a list of eighteen "injuries and usurpations" suffered by women at the hands of men—just as the Declaration of Independence had listed eighteen injuries suffered by the colonies at the hand of the King of England. The first three of those usurpations of women by men are these:

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.

Little came from the Seneca Falls Declaration, primarily because the issue of women's suffrage was overshadowed in the storm around slavery and its abolition. Women had to wait until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 for the right to vote. Stanton's document, though, served as the goal of the women's suffrage movement and remains a powerful reminder of their struggle.

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered one of American history's most stirring speeches. His "Gettysburg Address," a consecration of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, was a powerful and memorable message about human equality as defined by the Declaration of Independence. Standing on what had been the grounds of the Battle of Gettysburg less than five months earlier, Lincoln framed the Civil War as more than a struggle for the Union, but a struggle to bring true equality to every American citizen:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…. [W]e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Unfortunately, progress in the area of equality and freedom for all—especially for African Americans and other citizens of color—has been slow in coming. One hundred years after Lincoln's famous call for equality, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. King had led equal rights advocates through nonviolent protests and marches throughout the 1950s and early 1960s and was considered the most prominent leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. His "I Have a Dream" speech was the climax of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. His speech that day, about the dream of all people of every race, religion, and background to live free in a truly democratic nation, became the statement of civil rights in America. Referencing Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg Address," King begins his speech, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." After acknowledging the "great beacon light of hope" this was "to millions of Negro slaves," King declares that, one hundred years later, "the Negro is still not free." He continues:

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

Malcolm X, another African American civil rights leader of the 1950s and 1960s, took an entirely different approach to the struggle for equal rights. He espoused Black Nationalism, in his words "a political, economic, and social philosophy" based on the idea that black Americans could only achieve the American dream by investing in themselves and their black communities and divesting themselves from the rest of the country. He explained Black Nationalism in his 1964 "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech, which echoed Frederick Douglass's 1859 essay, "The Ballot and the Bullet," which echoed the radical thinking put forth by American colonists like Patrick Henry who called for a war against Great Britain. Malcolm X proclaimed,

No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver—no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

The American Dream in Troubled Times

The same year that Malcolm X delivered his "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech and inspired a movement of Black Nationalism, Lyndon Johnson outlined his plan to enact a wide swath of social reform measures. Johnson's "The Great Society" speech, delivered during a particularly tumultuous period of American history, was reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt's first inaugural address, in which he addressed the dire situation America found itself in at the height of the Great Depression. In 1976, Barbara Jordan, the first woman and first African American to do so, gave the keynote address at that year's Democratic National Convention. Roosevelt, Johnson, and Jordan were all elected government officials who possessed the power and support they needed to enforce the changes they proposed. Their interest in shaping American society inspired them to become public servants, and their speeches express their commitment to the American dream, even during the country's darkest days.

America had reached the depth of the Great Depression by the time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933. In the speech, Roosevelt's usual light-hearted, paternalistic approach was traded for a solemn tone, one that more honestly reflected the dire straits the country was in at the moment. He began,

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

By tempering the reality of the truth with the now-famous words, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," Roosevelt tapped into the foundation of the American dream and the strength and hope that define Americans as a people.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson first used the phrase "The Great Society" in a speech delivered at the University of Michigan in 1964. Years later, after ratification of the Civil Rights Act, the Medicare Act, and the Immigration Act, Johnson's administration is rightly remembered for the "Great Society" changes that were enacted during his presidency. The speech that started it all focused on preventing war, decreasing poverty, and improving education. The newly elected president described his vision of "The Great Society" to his Ann Arbor audience this way:

The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning … the Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.

Like Roosevelt, Johnson encourages his listeners to engage themselves in the ongoing experiment that was—and is—the American dream.

Like Roosevelt and Johnson before her, Barbara Jordan acknowledged the problems facing American society in her 1976 Democratic Convention Keynote Address. She also looked to Americans' "common destiny" as a motivating force to overcome those problems as a nation. She uses the fact that she, an African American woman, was chosen to deliver the keynote address of Democratic National Convention as proof of the strides made as a motivated nation. "I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not forever be deferred." She goes on:

Many seek only to satisfy their private work wants. To satisfy private interests. But this is the great danger America faces. That we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual. Each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?

Conclusion

With the ever-changing nature of the political American dream and the legislation that both guides and informs it, the body of literature devoted to the subject is sure to continue growing. Americans are united by their dream of freedom and equality, which means that the nation can expect a future that resembles our past in some ways. Because Americans have always been a nation of self-reliant, individualistic optimists, their political landscape, both past and future, will continue to be supported by the foundation of the American dream, which is, of course, inherently political.

SOURCES

Hamilton, Alexander, The Federalist Papers, 1787–1788, www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fedindex.htm (December 16, 2006).

Henry, Patrick, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," March 1775, www.history.org/Almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm (December 16, 2006).

Johnson, Lyndon B., "The Great Society," May 22, 1964, www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/640522.asp (December 16, 2006).

Jordan, Barbara, "1976 Democratic Convention Keynote Address: Who Then Will Speak for the Common Good?," July 12, 1976, www.elf.net/bjordan/keynote.html (December 16, 2006).

King, Martin Luther, Jr., "I Have a Dream," August 28, 1963, www.usconstitution.net/dream.html (December 16, 2006).

Lincoln, Abraham, "The Gettysburg Address," November 19, 1863, showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm (December 16, 2006).

Madison, James, The Bill of Rights, 1789, usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm (December 16, 2006).

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, "The Inaugural Speech of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," March 4, 1933, www.hpol.org/fdr/inaug (December 16, 2006).

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, 1848, usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/17.htm (December 16, 2006).

"Declaration of Independence," on NARA: The National Archives Experience, www.archives.gov/national-archivesexperience/charters/declaration_transcript.html (January 8, 2007).

Thoreau, Henry David, "Civil Disobedience," in Walden and Civil Disobedience, Harper & Row, 1965, pp. 251-52; originally published in 1849.

X, Malcolm, "The Ballot or the Bullet," April 3, 1964, www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/malcolm_x_ballot.html (December 27, 2006).