We celebrate July 4th every year and it is a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, not the celebration of the Revolution. Yet we fly the flag and march in the parades singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Throughout our short history, we have chosen to solve conflicts with war rather than more diplomatic and peaceful methods. Looking at an accurate rendition of our history might be something we should do as we celebrate the 250 years of this experiment in liberty.

 

Netflix has a series of documentaries about several of our country’s founding fathers, and I watched four of them including one about George Washington. Seems he was a bit of a jerk in his younger years and nearly lost his life while in charge of some military actions that exploded in his face during the French and Indian War. Washington finally pulled things together and became a brilliant military strategist. Military inscription was not demanded by draft but was volunteer. Men signed on for two years and woe the man who suddenly felt the desire to quit. Those men were whipped, forced to stay, and sometimes put to death by his command. War was Washington’s calling – his career, as it is for many today.

 

Washington became our first president, and you cannot compare his presidency with any other since because his engaged in setting up a viable working governmental system that did not yet exist. That these founding fathers, Washington principally among them, were able to form any sort of workable system without having the period at the end of the revolutionary war end up as a military coup, is something that deserves credit. Whether that system is still viable today is the question as we continue to march to the beat of the drummer with wars.

 

Slavery and human bondage were common from the first days of this country’s settlement and many of our founding fathers owned slaves. The Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed by men whose concept of “all men are created equal” was faulty, set a bad example for our newly founded nation, and was critical in defining who they considered to be citizens. Much of the history of how black people were treated during Revolutionary times has escaped from our history texts in school.  Slavery and the aftereffects of it have continually colored our national existence. This was, of course, the primary issue surrounding the times leading up to and including the Civil War.

 

The next documentary in the series was on Ulysses S. Grant and his role in the Civil War. Grant, whose middle name did not begin with an S, but an H, and therefore did not really deserve the nickname “United States Grant,” became the most successful military general of all time. He believed in the Union and the democracy it offered. However, with him, that offer of democracy came with the violence of war.

 

A short series on Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president showed that he ascended to that roll from a lackluster vice-presidency when William McKinley was assassinated. He was 42 years old at the time and is the youngest person to ever hold this post. He is known most for his conservation efforts, but his story has much more to it. He was successful in fighting corruption in government, breaking up corporate monopolies, establishing consumer protection laws.

 

Roosevelt said there is no good reason why we should fear the future, we just must face it. He promised no third term as president and said there is an enormous difference between “what the president should do and what he can do.” He deftly used the media to promote his ideas and was successful in making major changes that did affect the public positively.

 

Roosevelt thought he was the “embodiment of America and a steward of the people.” He said, “the constitution is not as important as the people. His promise was that government would always give the public a “Square Deal” and that it was not up to the public to make government work. An odd idea for a country based on a Congress with representatives.

 

But Roosevelt was also a great lover of war and pushed our country into the Spanish American War in Cuba, taking his part in it commanding a ragged group of volunteers known as the famous Rough Riders.

 

The series has continued with one on Sitting Bull, the great leader of the Lakota Sioux people living on the Great Plains. Sitting Bull was considered a mystic who had visions and believed he was anointed by God to save his people. Being a warrior was of utmost importance to young men of the tribe, and they would go through dangerous attempts to prove their bravery. At 14 years of age, he carried out an act of bravery, passed the test, and was awarded by elders in his tribe one beautiful white feather to wear in his hair. Being successful in physical conflicts usually earned young Indians eagle feathers to make into a headdress. Sitting Bull, in an act of humility, never accepted eagle feathers for his brave feats but wore that single white feather all his life.

 

War for the Lakota tribes was a part of life and was mostly against the Crow nation over hunting territorial rights. There was a certain honor with these battles in that tribes did not kill women and children or destroy villages of their opponents. They did however often kidnap youth of an opposing tribe and keep them to work.

 

Manifest Destiny is the term used by the United States to justify the taking of indigenous lands, asserting that “it is divinely ordained for the States to expand across the continent and take possessions of tribal lands.” This idea appears to conflict with the mystical vision of Sitting Bull as anointed by God to save his people.

 

These documentaries did not shirk from historical truths offering a story that is much different from the one lauded about by people in our current administration who want to “make America great again.”

 

It is obvious that violence and war have figured prominently in the development of our country and sadly continues to be the significant method called upon in dealing with current conflicts. These founding fathers, significant as they were in forming a government that does contain many unique and beneficial elements, did not pursue a peaceful transition to freedom, but always chose violence. That is the problem we are dealing with today. Will this experiment in liberty give us the democracy stated in the document we honor on July 4th? That is the question.

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Published on Ruth.Substack June 19, 2026

https://open.substack.com/pub/ruthannangus/p/an-experiment-in-liberty?r=1r6s28&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true