Are We Self-Evidently Equal?

The Dons, the Bashaws, the Grandees, the Patricians, the Sachems, the Nabobs, call them by what Name you please, Sigh, and groan, and frett, and Sometimes Stamp, and foam, and curse—but all in vain. The Decree is gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal Liberty, than has prevail’d in other Parts of the Earth, must be established in America.

—John Adams to Patrick Henry, June 3, 1776

John Adams’s letter to Patrick Henry paints a vivid picture of the vexation of hereditary aristocrats and rulers over the American colonists’ push for independence and equality. His use of the phrase “a more equal Liberty” is particularly intriguing, as it ties together the Declaration’s assertion that “all men are created equal” and its insistence that they are inalienably entitled to liberty as well as to life and the pursuit of happiness.

In the phrasing of the Declaration, Liberty and Equality are separate. In this letter, for Adams, they seem to be conjoined. The American project is not just to spread Liberty but to extend it equally—or as equally as possible—all across America. 

Andrew Lang’s essay this month emphasizes that this vision of an equal liberty is not one that was complete at the time of the Declaration. It is not, indeed, complete even today. It is a process to which America is and ought to be dedicated, a plant that needs constant tending. And Lang reminds us that to do this task well, we must be grateful to have it as our responsibility. Sarah Skwire’s essay on a Revolutionary war era pamphlet unpacks one author’s complicated and wavering commitments to liberty and equality in the face of a growing commercial society. We hope you’ll read both, think deeply, and explore the rest of this month’s content as well.