OCTOBER 2025 | 71 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL From the President (continued from page 4) From my perspective, the United States has avoided the weakness of “becoming a kingdom divided” through certain unifying social compacts. The United States Constitution is one of those unifying compacts. The proposed United States Constitution was considered by the American people only four years after the 13 colonies won their freedom from British rule. The Federalist Papers were penned and published only 11 years after the Declaration of Independence. The declaration, with its passionate and elegant language, is another unifying compact that has protected our republic from division: 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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it; and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Although not often a topic of discussion (in my education), the Declaration of Independence was a “new thing under the sun!” As John Quincy Adams (then secretary of state but later the sixth president of the United States) declared in his July 4, 1821, speech to the United States House of Representatives, the Declaration of Independence was “the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. ... It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the unalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was not a figment of the imagination; but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration, the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. ... They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day.” After reading the entire text of the Declaration of Independence to the House of Representatives, Mr. Adams went on to say: And here are we, fellow-citizens, assembled in the full enjoyment of its fruits, to bless the Author of our being for the bounties of His providence, in casting our lot in this favored land; to remember with effusions of gratitude the sages who put forth, and the heroes who bled for the establishment of this Declaration; and by the communion of soul in the reperusal and hearing of this instrument, to renew the genuine Holy Alliance of its principles, to recognize them as eternal truths, and to pledge ourselves and bind our posterity to a faithful and undeviating adherence to them. Another unifying compact that comes to mind is the Pledge of Allegiance, which we have recited since childhood – possibly so many times that the true import of the words and our “pledge” no longer impacts us. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” With each recitation, we are renewing our promise of allegiance to our republic as an indivisible nation that strives to provide liberty and justice for all the nation’s citizens. “Weighty” promises, both by us and by our nation! In “Federalist No. 51,” Publius (James Madison) argued for the importance of a balance of powers in the federal government. One portion of the essay in particular captures my attention: “In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. ... Justice is the end [purpose] of government. It is the end [purpose] of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.”1 I hope each of you, my sisters and brothers in our noble profession, will take pride in knowing that our role in protecting civil rights, liberty and justice for all is at the core of the founding principles of our republic. What you do matters and is important – not just to your clients but to our republic. Thank you for your service! ENDNOTE 1. Emphasis and clarification added.
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