In So Righteous a Cause

By Senator Brent Hill

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September 17th, 2010

The U.S. Constitution was adopted by the Constitutional Convention 223 years ago this month. As Americans, we revere the men and women who defended the Cause of Liberty that led to that September day in Philadelphia. Few of us, however, remember the contribution of one great patriot: John Dickinson.

In 1768 the American colonists were not united in the prospect of separating from Great Britain and establishing a new nation. Yet supporters of the revolution knew that division of the colonies would destroy the dream of independence. King George had provided the colonists with plenty of provocation, imposing laws and taxes without representation and enforcing them with British troops patrolling the streets of America. But to establish a new nation, they needed not only an enemy worth fighting against, but a cause worth fighting for.

One day in 1768, a young patriot in Pennsylvania, John Dickinson, penned these words to a familiar tune:
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed,
For heaven approves of each generous deed.

The righteous cause described in Dickinson's lyrics was the Cause of Freedom. In Freedom we're born and in Freedom we'll live, proclaimed the chorus. In July of that year, the lyrics were published in the Boston Gazette and soon "The Liberty Song," as it became known, was being sung in taverns and churches across the colonies.

Armed with the Cause of Liberty, America declared its independence from its oppressors and entered into war against Great Britain. The Continental Army, consisting mostly of local militias, lacked the training, organization and weaponry of the British forces. Few observers at the time considered the colonial rebellion much of a threat to King George. What they underestimated was the power of the Cause for which the Americans were fighting that enabled them to defeat the largest military force on the planet.

Once the land was cleared of the enemy, it became time to lay the foundation upon which a new nation could be built. The framers knew that if the nation was to be great, the foundation had to be strong and firm—immovable and immortal. Those who were assigned the task met together in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. Over the course of 115 days they laid the footings and set the stones that would support the grandest of structures. And with the inspiration of Him who created all things, they designed the most significant political document ever conceived: the Constitution of the United States of America.

Within its cornerstone were placed the causes that would lead this country through war and peace, through times of peril and prosperity: 1) to form a more perfect union, 2) establish justice, 3) insure domestic tranquility, 4) provide for the common defense, 5) promote the general welfare, and 6) secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

It seems fitting that among the delegates to the Constitutional Convention was a man Thomas Jefferson later described as being "among the first of the advocates for the rights of his country when assailed by Great Britain" whose "name will be consecrated in history as one of the great worthies of the revolution:" John Dickinson.