This is the latest book by Walter Isaacson, who is best known for his wonderful biographies and other terrific books. This book is quite different from his usual fare. It is tiny. Small format at 5.25 x 7.25 inches, only 69 pages including several appendices, and only 41 pages for the story without the appendices. It is really a short story or a long magazine article in length. But it is hardbound with a dust jacket and beautifully laid out.
And it is a little gem. At $20, it should be. A quick reader will spend about 60 minutes to read it, a normal reader maybe 90 minutes. But you’re probably going to want to read it more than once.
So, what is the Greatest Sentence Ever Written? It is this:
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence is, according to Isaacson, the greatest sentence ever crafted by human hand.
Schoolchildren learn that the document was written by Thomas Jefferson. What we aren’t taught is that there was a drafting committee of five that labored over Jefferson’s original draft and made so many revisions that Jefferson was upset by the final product.
The various revisions were made on the paper by crossing out words and substituting others. The first part of the sentence, as drafted by Jefferson, read, “We hold these truths to be sacred…” Ben Franklin crossed out “sacred” and substituted “self-evident.” Franklin wasn’t very religious and the intention of the group was that the country would be different, that our rights would be based on reason rather than religious dogma.
But then later in the sentence there is the phrase, “…endowed by their Creator…” This wasn’t in Jefferson’s draft either, as Jefferson also was skeptical of religion. It was probably added by John Adams, who had more conventional religious beliefs.
What I’ve related is from the first, two-page chapter of this book. There are separate chapters on “We.” Who did we include? Not everyone. Why does it say “all men?” Does it really mean just men, not women? And what about black, brown and red men?
There are little chapters on every issue this extraordinary sentence raises, including the background. It’s fascinating. There are supporting documents in the appendices that explain where certain concepts originated.
And how do we know these things 250 years later? Because the drafts were kept and can be studied by scholars. Isaacson could see Jefferson’s words crossed out in Franklin’s peculiar way and could recognize Franklin’s handwritten substitute words. It was like being in the room with the drafting committee.
This book is timed for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the country, to be celebrated in 2026. This might make a nice gift for someone you know. See you in the New Year.
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