1926 Editorial: Hawaii May Become the Throne of Liberty

Hawaii May Become the Throne of Liberty

Source: Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu: Monday, July 4, 1926. Editorial page.

Naturally upon the hour of the Fourth of July celebrations the Declaration of Independence for these states appears in letters of living light. Naturally the men who wrote the immortal document takes a foremost place among the people. Otherwise something of supreme importance has gone from the spirit of America. 

For however he has been traduced and maligned and discredited by those who disbelieve in his clearly stated convictions of democracy Thomas Jefferson is the very soul off that theory of Government which propounds the equality of men. The greatest thinkers of the world are generally agreed that the three supreme figures in American history are Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Lincoln gave such supremacy to the two former. His most intimate associate has testified that the only two men for whom the Emancipator was ever heard to express real reverence were Washington and Jefferson.

We have Lincoln's own words to establish such a statement concerning Jefferson. In a letter responding to an invitation to speak at a Jefferson dinner in Boston in 1860 Lincoln wrote:

Soberly, it is no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It is beyond doubt, next to the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest statement of the primal truths of human society. The breakers of time wash over it. They recede and its statements shine forth undimmed, revealing the fundamental principles of free society in letters of living light. The universality of Jefferson's mind may have new illumination from the fact that Hawaii was only duly known to exist when he strode the stage of the New World, and yet his theory of government and standards of liberty fit as snugly to these "far-flung" islands that have practically come into existence since his time add they did to New America of his day. In fact the Declaration of Independence which Thomas Jefferson wrote and his wise contemporaries simplified the very essence of Truth applied to human life. 

It may be that this wonderful declaration of man's universal worth and independence will not be read during the present celebration in Honolulu. It may be that it is considered a back number, a statement of truths that are so apparent it is unnecessary to repeat them. Such time will never be until the Millennium. Human rights and privileges must be seen, recognized and fought for now and forever if government of the people, by the people and for the people is to endure.

In our great national prosperity we are prone to forget the foundations on which that general prosperity rests. We are prone to take the easiest way: to let the dead bury its dead. In that way lies National decay and disaster. We are a long way from realizing in our daly life, and in our government the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence. Men are not free and equal in fact. That consummation however devoutly wished for is far from consummation. But it is the goal. Don't forget that. Moreover, man was placed on this earth to fight for that goal, to demonstrate its reality. That is what the celebration of the Fourth of July, -Independence Day- means to each and all of us.

Behind all the noise and racket the faithful listener can hear the still small voice of Truth:

I am the Soul of human intelligence. I will establish my throne upon earth.

Amid the noise and shouting let us give a moment to this still small Voice. It will help us to advance along the road toward final liberty and universal freedom which is the final goal of humanity, to which humanity is destined to go. And may it not be that here in Hawaii is to be finally set up the throne of Independence for all the world?