In 1830, the famous orator and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Daniel Webster, argued that America could only be saved by “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Abraham Lincoln turned these words into the motto of the newly-created Republican Party that nominated him for President.

By winning the Civil War, Lincoln established that Liberty and Union truly are, now and forever, one and inseparable. (See my book Visions of America (published together with Visions of the Church), at pages 68-101.)

Some people (such as the Union General George McClellan) fought to save the Union without setting the slaves free.

Other people (such as the Confederate General Robert E. Lee) fought to save the liberty of white people by destroying the Union.

Lincoln won by showing that McClellan and Robert E. Lee were both wrong. We couldn’t save the Union without liberty for ALL people. And we couldn’t have liberty for ANY people without saving the Union.

There are many applications of this wisdom.

For example, there are ongoing, divisive debates arguing whether liberty depends on wise individuals OR whether liberty depends on wise systems of laws and customs.

The truth is that we need both wise individuals who work to secure their liberty and wise systems of laws and customs that work to secure the liberty of individuals.

The Declaration of Independence embraces this BOTH-AND SOLUTION  to secure the liberty of individuals—to secure the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Declaration of Independence rests on self-evident truths about individual liberty, wisely declaring that people 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 Declaration of Independence also rests on wisdom about systems of laws and customs, declaring “[t]hat to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among [Humans], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

It is worth stressing that the purpose both of individuals and of systems of laws and customs should be to secure Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

In particular, the purpose of individuals or of systems of laws and customs should not be to secure the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, or the Power of the Kingdoms of the World.

Any such individual or system of laws and customs has gone astray and fallen short of the glory of God. (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:10-18,23).

An illustration about football teams shows that wise individuals and wise systems, now and forever, are one and inseparable.

Imagine a football team whose individuals trained very hard. They lifted weights. They sprinted. They ran long distances. They practiced passing, running and kicking. They practiced intercepting passes, blocking and tackling.

But the individuals never practiced as a team—as a “system of laws and customs!”

Obviously, such a football team could never win a Super Bowl—and such a civilization could never secure individual freedoms.

In particular, such a civilization could never overcome the “teams”—the systems of laws and customs—that the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World use.

Now, imagine a different team that wanted to win the Super Bowl.  Their quarterback devised spectacular plays to pass, run and score. Their coaching staff conceived crushing defenses to stop other teams from passing, running and scoring.

But none of the individual players ever trained! They didn’t lift weights. They didn’t sprint. They didn’t run long distances. They didn’t practice passing, running or kicking. They didn’t practice intercepting passes, blocking or tackling.

Obviously, such a football team could never win a Super Bowl—and such a civilization could never secure individual freedoms.

In particular, such a civilization of lazy individuals could never overcome a civilization whose people worked hard to increase the Power of their Money, the Power of their Religion, and the Power of their Kingdom of the World.

Instead, both a team that wins Super Bowls and a civilization that secures the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness require wise individuals AND wise systems, now and forever, one and inseparable!

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To learn more about the importance of using BOTH-AND SOLUTIONS instead of EITHER-OR SOLUTIONS, please read my blogs “Intensive Care Units or Health Clubs?”, “Deceptive-Drawings-Designed-To-Deceive-and Divide”, “Pandemic Wisdom: Multiple Choice Exams and No-Win-Scenarios”, “Building Houses on Rock: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, “Curtailing Force: Replacing Nails with Glue”, and “Proclaiming the Whole Counsel of God”.

Daniel Webster uttered the famous line “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” in a Senate speech that ended with this stirring peroration: “When my eyes be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable motto as “What is all this worth?”  nor those other words of delusion and folly, “Liberty first and union afterwards”; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float first over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,—Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”