Anyone who seriously contemplates the meaning and history of America on this Independence Day will also, of necessity, contemplate the life of Thomas Jefferson, who crafted the incandescent words of the Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago and set a new nation on its perilous and uncertain way.

As the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to consider treason against King George III of Great Britain, its members wisely turned to Jefferson to prepare a formal declaration of that audacious act.

To those who had only seen Jefferson in person and heard him speak, the choice would have seemed an unusual one. Careless in posture and clumsy in speech, Jefferson did not appear to be a man whose words could inspire a new country and catch the attention of a king. (Indeed, many years later, he made such a botch of his first State of the Union address as president that he never gave another, and it was many years before American presidents began again to deliver the State of the Union message directly to a joint session of Congress.)

But those who knew him — even those who didn’t particularly like him, and there were quite a few who didn’t — knew that there was no more gifted a thinker or writer in all the 13 colonies than Thomas Jefferson. He was, the Continental Congress agreed, the only man to write this bill of divorcement against the British Crown.

And so Thomas Jefferson worked alone at night in rooms he had taken in a little house on Market Street in Philadelphia, writing on an ingenious desk of his own design that contained compartments for paper, ink and writing instruments.

He had not been able to bring his books to Philadelphia, or even any notes from them, but that was no matter. Jefferson had studied the works of the classic thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to de Montesquieu and John Locke. He knew what this declaration must say, and he knew how he would say it.

It began with a formal, dignified opening — “When, in the course of human events, ...” — that quickly got down to business and asserted the most radical principle of governance in the history of mankind — that “all men are created equal,” and that such powers that governments have spring “from the consent of the governed.”

Then Jefferson set out the indictment against George III in simple sentences that had the force of hammer blows:

“He has refused ...”

“He has forbidden ...”

“He has dissolved ...”

“He has obstructed ...”

Having stated the case for independence and his concept of it, Jefferson then composed the final movement of this American symphony. It began with the declaration that “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be free and independent states,” and ended with the majestic coda that has sustained a nation and has become the hope of the world:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

This American symphony was first officially heard on July 4, 1776. Jefferson died 50 years later, to the day.

His music is still in us 200 years on. God grant that it never fade away.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial first appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle on July 4, 2004.