Progressivism was the first mainstream American political movement—with the possible exception of the pro-slavery reactionaries on the eve of the Civil War—to openly oppose the principles of the Declaration. Progressives strove to undo the Declaration’s commitment to equality and natural rights, both of which they denied were self-evident. To Wilson, the inalienable rights of the individual were “a lot of nonsense.” Wilson redefined “liberty” not as a natural right antecedent to the government, but as “the right of those who are governed to adjust government to their own needs and interests.” In other words, liberty no longer preceded the government as a gift from God, but was to be enjoyed at the grace of the government. The government, as Wilson reconceived of it, would be “beneficent and indispensable.” Progressives such as John Dewey attacked the Framers for believing that “their ideas [were] immutable truths good at all times and places,” when instead they were “historically conditioned, and relevant only to their own time.” Now, Dewey and the progressives argued, those ideas were to be repealed.

 

Justice Thomas: Progressives vs. the Declaration

Woodrow Wilson’s ideas are opposed to the basic American creed. They can’t coexist forever.

April 15, 2026 6:00 pm ET

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House, Feb. 5, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of remarks Justice Clarence Thomas delivered Wednesday at the University of Texas, Austin, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: