By Sofia Segarra
Fiscal Leadership Lab,
Brown University
Published as part of Letters to America, a national youth-driven civic initiative launched by Made By Us through Youth250, in which young people put forward their own declaration for America’s 250th anniversary. These letters are published unedited and in full to showcase the students’ authentic voices and unique perspectives. While their views are entirely their own, we believe their voices, and those of all our student leaders, are a vital part of the conversation around America’s future.
Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention, James McHenry, a man of Irish descent, recorded in his personal journal, on the events of the last day of convention, that Elizabeth Willing Powel, a prominent socialite, from 244 South Third Street in Philadelphia, asked Dr. Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the convention, “Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy?” to which he replied, “A republic if you can keep it.” It is of great historical importance to note that during the course of that Constitutional Convention, no women were present. It is also of great historical importance to note that, after 250 years as a republic, there are 25 women serving as Senators and 129 in the House of Representatives. Women constitute approximately 50.5% of the total United States population, representing roughly 171.77 million people, yet hold approximately 28% of congressional seats. Additionally, four of the nine Supreme Court Justices are women; of these, one is a Puerto Rican woman, and one is an African American woman. The republic has come a long way from zero representation of women in decision-making and full participation in the republic, but it’s still short of full equality for all its women.
A great nation, or republic, must uphold its commitment to fairness, equality, and justice while remaining steadfast in its moral integrity. It must also work towards becoming a humane society, recognizing, as Mohandas K. Gandhi observed, that “the greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”
At the base of the Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, on Liberty Island, is written The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, born July 22, 1849, a child of a wealthy sugar refining family of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent whose roots extended to the very early days of New York City. I include her sonnet in its entirety to convey the symbolism of the gift from France, as the “Mother of Exiles,” whose purpose was to welcome all the downtrodden and the most vulnerable to her shores. Emma aided Jewish refugees fleeing violent pogroms in Eastern Europe. These immigrants inspired her to portray the statue as a beacon of worldwide welcome, lifting her lamp "beside the golden door."
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand.
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name.
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command.
The air-bridged harbor that the twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Imagine the same men and women who, by their labor, hardships, and sacrifices, arrived in the United States of America today in search of safety and the prospect of a fresh start, only to be met with the harsh reality of a dystopian republic in the twenty-first century. America's complicated and turbulent history of wage exploitation, slavery, and economic and cultural imperial expansion serves as a reminder of an imperfect union.
America (the United States of) has been a 250-year-old, fragile yet resilient experiment in governance. On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, escaping the tyranny of British colonial masters, the people of this republic would be wise to heed the warnings of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and either fight to maintain the highest ideals of a republic of the people, for the people, and by the people, or lose it all to the dictums of the powerful, new billionaire corporate overlords, or international kleptocrats who would advocate for a tyranny of the few, by the few, and for the few.
Sources:
“A republic if you can keep it”: Elizabeth Willing Powel, Benjamin Franklin, and the James McHenry Journal | Unfolding History (https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel -benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/)
https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/emma-lazarus.htm