At its founding, the United States was dubbed a “great experiment.” Where most nations were formed out of hundreds or thousands of years of common history, language, culture, etc., the United States showed that it was possible for people from different backgrounds to come together and build a nation on the idea that we are “all created equal.”

At the time, the country was unique in the world, borne out of an effort to build a society based on “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” or self-evident, universal principles and values. This is what allowed to bring together people from different histories, cultures, races, religions around the world to become “out of many, one.”

Many had doubts about the feasibility of such a cause at the time. Yet today, nearly two and a half centuries years since the July 4th Declaration of Independence in 1776, America still stands as a symbol of our God-given rights and freedoms.

In trying times, the people of our country need to look back to those founding ideals together.  The ideals can be found in the stories, symbols, and songs of the nation. These point back to what we hold most dear and binds us together in common cause. With these lessons in mind, we take time to reflect on the national anthem of the United States of America.

 

The Star-Spangled Banner Lyrics

By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

***

On July 4th, we take time to reflect on the lessons of the “great experiment” we are all building together in America today.

Did you know George Washington was not the first American president?

In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation as the first constitution of the United States. The Articles would be fully in effect from 1781-1789 when it was replaced by the current Constitution of the United States.

According to the Articles of Confederation, the “President” is not what we are familiar with today. Rather than through election, the president was appointed by the Congress and served for only one year as the head of Congress. John Hanson of Maryland served in this grueling position of President.

The Articles of Confederation barely managed to sustain an army to win the Revolutionary war. Some might say that the will of the American people, those who put everything – their lives, land, and futures – on the line for the promise of liberty.

Yet, the Articles of Confederation referred to as a “firm league of friendship” between the first thirteen states, did not hold up after the threat of a common enemy dispersed, and the challenge of building a nation together loomed before thirteen very different states. Many soldiers of the Continental Army returned with banknotes worth little and faced foreclosure on the farms, homes, and businesses that they had left in order to fight. On top of war debt, the U.S. economy was also under deep duress, agitated in part by Great Britain’s control on the sale of American goods abroad and the import of cheap British goods that undervalued domestic products. All of this showed the limitations of the Articles of Confederation.

The Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to address the urgent issue of a revised constitution. Had the Founding Fathers merely edited the Articles of Confederation and continued to react to their allergy to government control carried over from the colonial experience, the American story might have been short-lived.

However, the men and women who poured their “blood and treasure” into forming the early republic, were inspired by the vision of a nation that would protect the God-given rights of every individual. This vision drove them past impossible odds to win against the most powerful empire of its time, and now, it would guide them to create a system that could build a nation that could slowly bring that vision to life.

James Madison, one of the key contributors in the Convention, commented that their important work “would decide forever the fate of republican government.” The conveners put their best minds together to envision a form of government that would preserve the ideals that so many Americans laid down their lives to secure.

The Convention issued a completely new Constitution, the document that still outlines the guidelines for the U.S. Government.

This turning point in early American history has given valuable lessons throughout history, and even today.

In Korea, over 100 years ago, the Korean Independence Movement leaders recognized the parallels between the American Independence movement and the Korean one. This was not only because of opposition to colonial rule. Rather, those Korean leaders saw the opportunity to form a completely new Korean nation based upon an ideal. They aspired to create a republic similar to the American one. In a significant innovation, they sought to build a republic based on the uniquely Korean founding philosophy of Hongik Ingan, to “bring benefit to all humanity.”

 

In Korea today, the path ahead of a united, free, and independent Korea is full of hypotheticals and unforeseeable variables. How can we assume to know all the factors that will play into the process of unification and the necessary structures for what would emerge? We can’t.

But, just as our forefathers 100 years ago, we can come together around a vision powerful enough to drive us through the challenges ahead. This is why it is so imperative to start with a vision. To bring together the people to reimagine, together, a new future together based upon ideals to transform existing realities. Surviving in the current reality is no longer an option. Ignoring the existential threat of North Korea, or human rights violations is no longer an option. Yet, we cannot be motivated merely by the wrongs, especially if we are envisioning a new nation.

This is why the “Korean Dream” is so important. And we can see its impact. Over the last ten years, it has become the animating force behind the Action for Korea United collation of over 1,000 civil society organizations across South Korea. This has now been expanded overseas with Korea leading the way, forging a new, Korean-led pathway to not only peace and prosperity on the peninsula but a model nation that would bring benefit to all.

Benjamin Franklin was once asked whether the United States was a democracy or a Republic. To this, he was purported to have said, “a Republic, if you can keep it…”

When the Founding Fathers established the United States of America, they designed it as a constitutional republic. They enshrined fundamental principles in the U.S. Constitution in a way that would protect certain inviolable rights for its citizens in perpetuity. In such a nation, even if a large majority of its citizens voted to restrict, for example, religious freedom, they would be unable to do so. This is in contrast to a pure democracy, in which the will of the people would override any and all things.

Why would such a feature be important for a self-governing society? And why would we need a check on the will of the people?

This makes sense when we understand the idea that there are certain inalienable rights and principles that go beyond the will of the people. What grounds this idea is found, quite simply, the fact of a Transcendent Creator. The Declaration of Independence drew on this simple truth as grounds to separate from one of the strongest empires of the time as explained in the Declaration’s preamble:

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.

Although this same idea is not articulated with the same terms in the U.S. Constitution, the role that the Declaration of Independence played as providing a clear rationale for the founding of the United States is undeniable. The ideals in both the Declaration and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Amendments all come from some understanding these natural rights come, not from government but a Transcendent Source. The founders knew that these fundamental principles and what they would mean for all humanity—overriding race, religion, and other affiliations—would take time to fully understand and incorporate. Thus establishing a process for the Amendments that would allow the people to discover their innate spiritual value and that of others over time as society developed.

It would seem that some in the United States have become uncomfortable with openly speaking about God, a Creator, religion and faith in the public sphere. This is a development that the Founding Fathers anticipated with trepidation. John Adams and George Washington emphasized that the lifeline of a self-governing people would be its virtue.

We need to be able to dialogue about these most important things. This nation was founded on the authority of the “Laws of Nature,” and most importantly, “Nature’s God,” who endows us with certain fundamental rights. It is with a deep and abiding faith in this idea that provides the basic platform for the people to come together, share, engage and renew these noble ideals – across racial, religious and ideological divides – into the next generation.

This is a time for deep introspection, reflection and, correspondingly, cultural renewal. Such things require us to reach across and work hand in hand in pursuit of the highest ideals and hopes of our nation.