America was formally born on July 4, 1776, with the Declaration of Independence, but the USA was not born until September 17, 1787 when the Constitution was adopted. America was born of revolution and a claim that god created human rights and government’s job was to preserve those rights, and any government that violated the peoples’ god-derived rights was not long for this world.

The USA was born out of a reactionary effort against the ideas that birthed America by the oligarchs of the day who preferred making money to defending human rights. That division has bedeviled the nation/country since as it oscillated along a spectrum between the two.

America v USA is a divide that has warped the nation’s psyche to the point that today, as has happened from time to time in the past, national schizophrenia is manifest.

America was not monolithic, nor in total agreement, when born. Estimates vary but only about 5% of the people supported the American Revolution and many were “Tories” who remained loyal to King George III and proud to be members of the “greatest purveyor of violence on the planet” at the time: the English Empire. The largest percentage of people were satisfied with just being left alone to try to get on with their lives.

But when the revolution was surprisingly, impossibly, incredibly won by the Rebels, the human world turned over. The idea that people had “inalienable rights” that even Kings must honor or be thrown into the dust bin of history was staggering. That even the government, the army, and all given government power, had to obey the law and respect the rights of the people who could withdraw their “consent” if government failed to do so, was a departure from most of human history that saw Kings, Emperors and other tyrants do as they wished and the people, called subjects, or peasants or serfs, merely suffer in silence.

Although it is claimed this idea resonated with humans around the world and led to a rise of democracy worldwide, back home in America it was not universally appreciated. In fact, as the ordinary Americans, farmers, shop owners and others exercised the rights won in the Revolution and specified in the Declaration of Independence, those with money found they could not make as much money as they wanted because those rights got in the way.

Farmers facing foreclosure would march en masse on courthouses to stop foreclosures and other resistance based on communities impeded the goals of those who pursued wealth and power. In order to reallocate the effects of the Revolution, the oligarchs of the day realized the law of revolution needed adjustment.

Although America had won the Revolution under the Articles of Confederation, arguably the second Constitution if the Declaration of Independence was the first, a more pro-business law was needed if money for the wealthy was to grow. And so, Congress authorized a meeting in Philadelphia to propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation to address some of the imbalance unruly Americans invoking their revolutionary rights were using to impair profiteering.

When convened in Philadelphia, the convention attracted mostly the wealthy as “representatives.” It was convened in secret.

Doing business in secret was an indicator that bad business was afoot, so many of the Revolutionaries were alarmed when they learned of it. Patrick Henry was asked to be a representative but refused, suspecting it would retreat from the rights won in the Revolution. Henry, rather than be a member, warned the people “I smell a rat,” when talking about what would happen in Philadelphia. 

In “Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution,” Woody Holton provides the startling history that the primary purpose of the Constitution was, simply put, to make America more attractive to investment and making money, not human rights. And the linchpin to that endeavor was taking power away from the states and ultimately away from the people. This is what birthed the Constitution, a reactionary backing away from the American Revolution. The Constitution, which birthed the USA, was a rebellion against the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence was ambassador to France in Paris and was not present at the Constitutional Convention. Tom Paine, another strong proponent of the “Rights of Man” and the revolutionary ideas, was also not present.

John Adams, admirer of the English unwritten Constitution, and author of a study of the best constitutions of history was a delegate to the Convention. The Constitution that emerged was largely the unwritten Constitution of England George III had asserted gave him the powers that caused the people to rebel.

Arguably the Constitution of 1787 gave victory back to the Tories and monarchists and was a reactionary derogation of the Declaration of Independence and the idea of universal human rights.

One of the gravest compromises, more odious than even England, was the recognition of human slavery in the Constitution, while in England slavery was on the way out and the English slave trade was ended in 1807.

The conflict between the principles of America—pro human rights derived from god and predominantly over government—and the principles of the Constitution birthing the USA—is stark. The Constitution is largely the written version of the unwritten English Constitution that failed the American people as the King became a tyrant and was overthrown in the Revolution. By 1787 the divergence of voices in America was no more monolithic than ever, many were the competing views and voices raised in support and in opposition. Despite the belief today that the Constitution was received by the people with open arms, back then, it barely passed in state conventions called to consider it.

In fact the division between Revolutionary Americans and the Tories remained, and led to fights over passage between the “Federalists” and the “Antifederalists,” with the former favoring and the latter opposing a vote for the Constitution. Patrick Henry, one of the antifederalist leaders, declared that if the Constitution passed without a Bill of Rights making “inalienable human rights” part of the supreme law, he volunteered to lead a new revolution against it. Patrick Henry, proponents of the Constitution believed, could pull off such a rebellion. Moderate supporters of the Constitution, such as James Madison, realizing Patrick Henry could rally sufficient support to defeat it, promised a Bill of Rights would be the first order of business in the new Congress if the Constitution passed. The Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791, partially restoring, in law, the principles of the Revolutionary Declaration of Independence.

However, power corrupts. When John Adams succeeded George Washington, in the election of 1800, the schizophrenic divide remained and was more pronounced as Thomas Jefferson was elected as Vice President although Jefferson opposed many of Adam’s views. Jefferson was pro France while Adams leaned towards the English, and when the threat of war with France appeared, President Adams secured passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts in Congress, where his Federalist Party was in power.

Adams was heavily mocked during his time as vice president and president for his preference for titles, formality, and what many contemporaries viewed as pompous, quasi-monarchical matters. His obsession with dignity and class made him a frequent target of political enemies, who used it to paint him as out of touch with the anti-aristocratic, republican values of the newly formed United States. 

As vice president, Adams advocated for grand titles for the president, such as His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same, which were rejected by the Senate in favor of the simple President of the United States.

The most famous insult, coined by opponents to mock Adams with his pompous desire for high-sounding titles and his physical appearance, was His Rotundity. Even the revolutionary lawyer John Adams became enamored by the pomp and circumstance of power. It can happen to anyone.

When the Alien and Sedition acts emerged, Jefferson warned America of the hard lesson of history: when government sought power it usually started with suspicious peoples but soon expanded if not thwarted, to anyone. Vice President Jefferson warned that the “friendless alien [the migrant] has been selected as the safest subject of a first experiment [in the expanded power to deny due process and other legal protections], but the citizen will soon follow.” Once the precedent was set and the power enshrined by practice and use, and the “aliens” all dealt with, the power would not evaporate but find new targets to retain funding and operational continuance. Government agencies seek to continue and expand their life and power like any other human created entity. 

The same schizoid values division continues to this day. Human rights America was born July 4, 1776. Money and power USA was born September 17, 1787. A balance was sought in the Bill of Rights adopted December 15, 1791. But the division remains to be manipulated and used by factions favoring one value side or the other, dividing the people into camps to be exploited for political power gain and loss.

As human rights recedes, power and money advance. As the rule of law promoting human rights for all is reversed, even the citizens’ rights erode, and power with its grim and grotesque embrace of blood and guts advances. The elevation of dominance and violence, the marks of power, to central roles in a civilization, run the risk of conflagration and a fire consuming far beyond any plan or strategy. Civilization itself can be consumed.

America has one birthday. The USA another. Their values are antithetical and inherently at odds. A house divided against itself erected on a flawed, cracked foundation continues to battle with itself and “friendless aliens” at home and enemy aliens abroad. It flails without direction, deploying power and harm, in search of no goal or direction. Unless the advance of power “uber alles” is rejected by the people, the rights of the citizens will soon become targeted and the dream of universal human rights set back, if not swept into the dust bin of history.

Which birthday we choose to celebrate will define the next stage: America or USA. They are not the same. But perhaps we can build a bridge joining the two, using both to advance the future of the nation, and our fellow citizens of earth, in a rising tide lifting all boats.

Kary Love, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resisters and many others in court for decades.