As the nation prepares for its 250th anniversary of independence, Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wants Americans to understand just how much of an accomplishment that was.
His new children’s book, “Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence,” tries to do just that.
He said notions that political rights came not from a king or country but from God and citizens enjoyed them equally were “crazy, radical ideas.”
“That’s what unites us,” he said at a book launch at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Tuesday.
The 48-page book, published by HarperCollins, is aimed at children from preschool to elementary school and tells the story of the people behind the Declaration of Independence.
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“We are about to celebrate our 250th birthday, and I know you are going to enjoy — you young ones — parades, fireworks, picnics. We all should, but maybe we need to take a moment to reflect on the declaration that started it all — the ideas in the declaration that unite us, and the people with their incredible courage and sacrifice,” Justice Gorsuch said.
He pointed to an account, retold in his book, of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson sparring over who would write the declaration — with each urging the other to do it.
While debating the issue, Jefferson, a Virginian, finally asked Adams, from Massachusetts, why he was so insistent that the Southerner write it. Adams replied that having a Virginian do it was important to get broader support among the 13 Colonies, plus he admitted Jefferson was more popular in the country — and a better writer.
“There are superheroes in our past,” Justice Gorsuch said.
