July 4
is celebrated each year as the birth date of the United States of
America. It was on this date in 1776 that the original thirteen
colonies declared their independence from the rule of Great Britain
with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. By a remarkable
coincidence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the only two
signatories of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as U.S.
president, both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, which was the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signatory of the
Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, another Founding Father
who was elected as president, also died on July 4, 1831, becoming the
third president to die on the anniversary of the nation's
independence. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was born on July
4, 1872, making him the only U.S. president to have been born on
Independence Day.
Perhaps
something even more momentous occurred on July 4, 1744, however, years
before our nation's founding. On this day a meeting was set between
colonists and the Iroquois nation to forge an alliance against the
French. It was here that a charismatic chief by the name of
Canassatego spoke to those assembled, and may have been the first
person to actually propose the creation of the United States of
America: “Our wise forefathers established unity and amity between
the Five Nations. This has made us formidable. This has given us
great weight and authority with our neighboring nations. We are a
powerful Confederacy and, by your observing the same methods our wise
forefathers have taken, you will acquire much strength and power;
therefore, whatever befalls you, don't fall out with one another.”
The
similarity between Native American governance and the formative
structure of the United States, no doubt, originated from the
profound influence that Native Americans had on the settlers in the
colonies. According to Benjamin Franklin, who was also present at
the meeting with Canassatego, the wise chief held up one arrow and
readily snapped it in two. But when he lashed together twelve
arrows, one for each of the colonies at the time, not a man in the
room could break them. The Great Seal of the United States, as
printed on the back of every one dollar bill, was subsequently
designed in 1782 showing an eagle clutching thirteen arrows.
It was
not long after this meeting that Benjamin Franklin began to campaign
for a federal union. In 1751, he wrote “It would be a very strange
thing if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming
a scheme for such a union and be able to execute it in such a manner
as that it has subsisted ages, and yet a like union should be
impractical for ten or a dozen English colonies.”
Franklin
had a deep respect for the political wisdom of the Iroquois nation,
despite his reference to “ignorant savages”. His Albany Plan of
Union of 1754, which included a principle position of
President-General as leader, was shelved but ultimately became adopted
as a model for the U.S. Articles of Confederation which became, in
1781, the first governing document of the fledgling union.
It
seems fitting that delegates from the Iroquois Nation were present at
the Continental Convention convened in Philadelphia as the United
States was being framed. The grassroots of our democracy are rooted
deeply in the sacred ground of native America. In
contrast to European “guilt-oriented” governance with its
prohibitive “thou shalt nots”, the Iroquois Nation that early colonists were exposed to was a contrasting “shame-oriented” culture with a strong belief in
freedom of expression, providing it caused no harm, using a
strong identification with community as the primary tool of
governance to motivate individuals to avoid transgressions that could
bring shame to the community as well as themselves. We celebrate our founding each July 4th, but do we remember where we came from? A return to the original standard of governance modeled by the Iroquois would serve us well today.
