A Cry for Freedom Heard Across the World

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”¹ These famous words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. have rung true since America’s founding. The birth of America was a fight to be independent from the rule of an unjust king, and the revolution unfolded before a watching world. America’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, championed the firm belief that the people of any nation have the right to independence, equality, and freedom.  

“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, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”² This sentence sparked a movement of democracy, equality, and individual rights. In the world context of aristocratic oligarchies, the statement that all men are created equal was revolutionary.³ The Declaration recognized that humans are made equal by their Creator and deserve the protection and promotion of their fundamental rights. The Declaration of Independence was a catalyst for global movements of freedom, such as in communist Poland, because of its roots in natural law and its clear case against tyranny.  

The Declaration of Independence was always intended for an international audience. Historian David Armitage cites international lawyers in explaining that the format of the Declaration is “an expression of will…intent, or…opinion when acting in the field of international relations.”⁴ Experts explain that the genre of the document is similar to a declaration of war or a “general manifesto,” which is presented before the entire world. The Declaration’s audience was the entirety of mankind, as they stated that they must “assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”⁵ The founding fathers always intended the Declaration to be received by the nations of the world and to have an international impact.  

America’s example inspired generations to come: the Jefferson Institute recognizes that since 1776, there have been approximately 120 declarations of independence made by different countries.⁶ As Thomas Jefferson stated, the Declaration is “an instrument … pregnant with our own [fate] and the fate of the world.”⁷ The era of democracy was ignited by the Declaration’s position that a good government derives its power from the consent of the governed.⁸ 

One historical example where the Declaration inspired and aided another people group to fight for freedom was in communist Poland. Devastated by World War II, Poland fell prey to a communist leader, Bolesław Bierut. Through police terror, the federalization of land, and the corruption of free elections, the communist party completed its monopoly of power by 1948.⁹ In resistance, Lech Wałęsa started the first independent union in communist Poland, called Solidarity, in the summer of 1980.¹⁰  

Throughout the communist regime, the Declaration of Independence was strategically banned and censored for containing “subversive” material.¹¹ During this time in Poland, even public discussion of another nation that was fighting an oppressive ruler for independence was forbidden.¹² Finally, in 1990, the communist party fell, and soon after, the country created a democratic government and was swept by a revolution of Western ideologies.¹³ Lech Wałęsa was appointed as the first democratically elected president of the newly free nation.¹⁴ He credited American ideals of liberty and freedom in Poland’s anti-communist movement. Celebrating victory, Wałęsa Stated in his 1996 speech at the Public Affairs Conference in Washington D.C., “Poland has spent most of the last two centuries relentlessly struggling to achieve among the nations of the earth that which your Declaration of Independence called ‘a separate and equal station to which laws of nature and Nature’s God entitle them.”¹⁵ The American Declaration of Independence inspired Poland and countless other nations to fight for their own independence.  

The Declaration of Independence has had such a large impact because its truths are moral principles rooted in natural law. Philosopher John Locke in The Second Treatise on Government writes, “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”¹⁶ These laws of nature are understood by all men, deep down. The hearts of brave individuals burn when reading that regardless of status, wealth, gender, or age, “all men are created equal, [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”¹⁷  

The Declaration of Independence was a catalyst for global movements of freedom, such as in communist Poland, because of its roots in natural law and its clear case against tyranny.  These lessons still apply to our modern age. American society is quicker than ever to embrace ideologies like relativism and communism. We must hold to the moral truths stated in the first document of our country: a cry for independence, freedom, and equality.  

SarahBeth Gossett, an undergrad at Regent University, authored this article as part of VOC’s Student Essay Contest.

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Ventures, Arnold. “Reflecting on the Enduring Importance of the Declaration of Independence.” Arnold Ventures, June 28, 2022. https://www.arnoldventures.org/stories/reflecting-on-the-enduring-importance-of-the-declaration-of-independence#:~:text=The%20Declaration%20of%20Independence%20was,ongoing%20struggle%20for%20individual%20rights.  

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