COOK: 'Liberty has been planted here'

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By Jane Hampton Cook

What would our nation's founders conclude about their great experiment if they could look 200-plus years into the future? Undoubtedly, they would celebrate with fireworks, symbolizing America's powerful embrace of freedom and its inspiration abroad.

The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 planted the seed for the tenets underlying the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The founders knew their test wasn't perfect. Their most seasoned experimenter, scientist Benjamin Franklin, made a frank confession, consenting "to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best." These nation-builders accomplished what none had before. They created a principled but pragmatic government designed to protect God-given rights through the power of representation. Their best laboratory controls were the executive, legislative and judicial branches and the change agent of amendments.

They didn't know what would become of their experiment. They didn't have a strategic plan to push one domino of democracy into the next, with everything neatly falling into place. However, because freedom is a universal desire, they knew it had exponential potential. After all, "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind," as founder Thomas Paine penned.

Their experiment became a haphazard planting, as if a farmer released the seeds of his most precious commodity into the whims of the four winds. Westward winds scattered the first seeds on American soil, blowing past the boundaries of the original 13 states. As these plantings matured, they realized liberty had a problem. Not all could grow. Thousands were suffocated.

The undeniable truth is this: When America first embraced the U.S. Constitution, it also gripped the shackles of slavery. The structure of the great experiment subsequently withstood its greatest test. The second American Revolution to change hearts and minds — the Civil War — transplanted liberty through Constitutional Amendments 13, 14 and 15. The Civil Rights Movement then yanked cultural weeds, allowing for fuller growth today.

The Founders' great experiment also sent shockwaves throughout the world. Eastern winds first carried liberty into Europe. The French Revolution in 1789 was no American Revolution, but most of Europe has since traded royalty for representation. Our Founders would cheer the sprigs of democracy flourishing today in Eastern Europe, such as in the Ukraine.

Our Founders would also notice the southeastern winds carrying freedom to Africa. These seeds are flowing through investment capital into Uganda, Tanzania and other nations. Such financing will nurture infrastructure that underpins democracy.

Our Founders wouldn't be surprised to know that tyranny isn't dead. It is disguised by leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, who professes democratic ideals without opposition from parliament and controls the judiciary to do his bidding, such as strangling financing for civil society organizations.

The first patriots wouldn't be surprised to learn the four winds have blown seeds of freedom back to America. They suspected the world would flock here. Soldier Timothy Dwight described it poetically in 1777, saying "To thee … shall fly from all nations the best of mankind." Dwight was right. More than 1 million became citizens in 2007. Americans justifiably debate secure borders and immigration's legalities, but they also know America's liberty and prosperity are international treasures.

Our Founders might ask us, as the protectors of their great experiment, a similar question this Independence Day. What will the great experiment look like 200 years from now? Democracy is our most valuable export. We are sewing freedom in the lives of Iraqis and Afghans today. Yes, these wars are hard. However, forward perspective is crucial to a balanced perspective. Just as it has taken over 200 years to see the full flourishing of our Founders' plantings here, so it may also take another 200 years to fully see results in the Middle East and other regions of the world. Democracy is a model of unity for other nations, and, more importantly, it is security for our own.

Because of the exponential potential of the Founders' original experiment, America continues to plant, water, nurture and fertilize a precious God-given gift-the hope for life, liberty and happiness-both here and abroad. Some seeds will fall on rocky ground, others will get buried in sand, but the good news is this: Many will fall on fertile soil, take root and flourish.

Patriot and Pastor Samuel Sherwood understood the challenge of planting freedom. His words are as relevant today as they were in 1776: "Liberty has been planted here; and the more it is attacked, the more it grows and flourishes."

Jane Hampton Cook, who served in the Bush White House (2001-03), is the author of "Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War."