'The Declaration is the why. The Constitution is the how'

250 years after the Second Continental Congress declared independence for the thirteen American colonies and adopted the formal Declaration of Independence, American democracy continues to evolve, requiring vigilance on the part of all Americans. The U.S. Constitution provides a legal framework for the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. 

"We believe that our founding documents aren't just legal texts," said Rudman Center Executive Director Anna Brown in introductory remarks during a recent panel discussion on connections between the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. "They're a shared story of how we come together as a community and continue to strive towards the ideals that were laid out in that Declaration."

Prof. Julian Jefferson, Prof. Margaret O'Grady, Prof. Eliga Gould and Laura Knoy, Rudman Center Engagement Director

Panelists included Margaret O'Grady, Assistant Professor of Law at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law; Eliga Gould, Professor of History at UNH and an expert on the American Revolution; and Julian Jefferson, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.  

The Constitution Day discussion was co-hosted by the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service and New Hampshire Humanities and moderated by Rudman Center Community Engagement Director Laura Knoy. Watch the event here. (Quotes in this piece have been edited slightly for clarity and brevity).

"The Declaration is the why, and the Constitution is the how," O'Grady said.   

"I see the Declaration and the Constitution being related in two ways. And I should say both of these documents were contested at the time, and, in many ways, they remain so," said Gould.  "The Constitution's first goal is to create a stronger central government that will be respected abroad, that will be a good international citizen, and will secure that independence declared in 1776. The second goal is to secure a government that will do those things without violating the rights that the British King, and Parliament had violated."

Those violations, called "grievances" in the Declaration, amount to 27. "The Constitution is designed to create a government that will not replicate those grievances," Gould said. 

Jefferson read excerpts of several grievances:  "He (King George III) has made judges dependent on his will alone. He has sent swarms of officers to harass our people. He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has obstructed the administration of Justice."

"I think how they really most clearly connect to the Constitution is the Constitution's very intentional effort to erect a system that was representational, that diffused power, and that concentrated most of the power in the Congress, because several people are much less likely to replicate what we were trying to throw off versus one authoritarian," Jefferson said.

"You read the grievances and there's an awful lot that speaks to our current moment," Gould said. 

O'Grady said she struggles with considering such ideals as "all men are created equal" as aspirational. "Was it really aspirational or was it just that the definition of men was actually quite narrow? I worry sometimes about us putting too much on these documents and thinking about them too loftily. This happens, of course, all the time in constitutional interpretation with originalism and textualism, a kind of obsession with what the founders meant."

Despite current fraught political times, Jefferson said he remains optimistic. "There are reasons to be concerned about our democracy," he said. "But here's why I still celebrate without hesitation our founding documents. Because within them they did recognize we are striving to be a more perfect union. So they recognize the imperfection. How we know we've come a long way -- I was three-fifths of a person, and now I'm sitting here with an advanced degree as a law school professor, having a conversation with a diverse community." 

Jefferson puts much faith also in state court judges and state supreme courts as guardians of our rights. "States have this space to give you more rights and to enforce them more vigorously," he said. "So the federal Constitution is sort of a floor, but the states can go to the ceiling."    (Visit here for the Rudman discussion on state constitutions, including the 250-year-old New Hampshire Constitution, the country's oldest.)