The Department of Political Science and Public Policy hosted an event on the Declaration of Independence and the rhetoric it has provided for the past 250 years.
Following the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer, Elon University hosted a Constitution Day event exploring what the document can reveal about American political life, and why understanding the country’s founding requires looking beyond the words on the page.
Sarah Gustafson, assistant professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, led the discussion, titled “The Declaration of Independence and the American Political Imagination.” Gustafson’s research is focused on 19th century political thought, particularly the work of French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose writings on American democracy became a central focus of her presentation.
Gustafson described the Declaration as an urtext of the American story. Although the Constitution and Bill of Rights carry greater legal authority, she said the Declaration continues to have “rhetorical and sentimental force.” Its language, she explained, has been repeatedly used by Americans to discuss the country’s ideals, including in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Rather than treating the Declaration as an isolated historical document, Gustafson used Tocqueville’s observations to explore the political culture that existed around it. Tocqueville traveled through the United States in the 1830s and later published “Democracy in America,” a detailed study of American democracy and political life.
One of the examples Gustafson highlighted was Tocqueville’s experience in Albany, New York, on July 4. He witnessed military demonstrations, Revolutionary War veterans being honored, and copies of the Declaration being printed in the street. The celebration concluded with a public reading of the document.
Tocqueville found the experience had “something deeply felt and truly great about it.” For Gustafson, the celebration showed how Americans are able to pass down history and traditions through local communities and organizations rather than relying on institutions
Gustafson compared those formal institutions to the first floor of a house, supported by a basement made up of families, clubs, religion, ethics and other informal institutions.
“They provide the dynamism, strength, and support, without which that first floor would not hold.” said Gustafson.
During the question and answer session, Gustafson encouraged students to apply those ideas locally rather than focusing exclusively on national politics.
“Go build something,” Gustafson said. “Go work with your hands. Go work with other people.”
For Gustafson, civic education is about more than memorizing founding documents. It is about developing a ‘political imagination’ that connects the words of those documents to the communities, relationships, and traditions that give them meaning.
The Constitution Day program came during a year of national attention on the Declaration’s 250th anniversary. The event was supported by a grant from the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History and organized with support from the Department of Political Science and Public Policy.