Our government’s ability to hold information in confidence is a power – and a premise – that we owe to America’s founders, who recognized secrecy as a necessary attribute of sovereignty, vital to the survival of the United States as an independent nation.
The roots of our government’s modern national security information system – our daily business here at ISOO – can also be found, right there, in moment and mechanism of America’s founding.
Let’s start with the part of that story I’m sure you already know… On the afternoon of July 4, 1776, after weeks of contentious debate, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by the Continental Congress.
But it’s what happened next that I think might matter even more.
Independence Declared
Within hours, a version of Thomas Jefferson’s smudged, much revised, handwritten draft was briskly walked, under cover of darkness, a handful of blocks through the steamy summer streets of Philadelphia to the print shop of Thomas Dunlap, a 29-year-old Irish immigrant.
Overnight, in secret, the first 200 copies of the Declaration were quickly struck off. On the morning of July 5th, via letters featuring the doubtlessly audacious signature of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, the United States of America formally declared independence, with the sharing of these “Dunlap Broadsides” throughout the colonies.
America’s First Secret
When the members of the Continental Congress — lawyers, merchants, doctors, landowners, ministers; a scientist, a teacher, a musician, and a printer — convened in Philadelphia to vote on a resolution for the independence of the American colonies, they did so in secret.
The 56 Americans who ultimately signed the Declaration in 1776 understood the enormous risk they were taking – and they said as much, trusting to, “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” to safeguard their honor, their fortunes, and their lives.
If you want to make the argument that the Declaration of Independence should be spiritually considered America’s first Classified document, protected with utmost secrecy – need-to-know only – held close, under fear of death by those who drafted it, I won’t stop you.
And, if you were to suggest that on July 5, 1776, the Declaration also became America’s first declassified document, I will nod right along, noting, that the Continental Congress wrote this intent right into text of the Declaration, an obligation to, “solemnly publish and declare.”
To Publish and Declare
This phrase often meant public readings, known as publication by beat of the drum. And the drums did pound in New York City when one of Hancock’s letters reached General George Washington, suggesting that the Declaration be read to the colonial army, encamped at City Hall.
Nothing short of a revolutionary riot ensued, with the soldiers and citizens of New York tearing down, and into pieces, the 4,000-pound solid lead statue of King George III astride a horse that then stood in Manhattan’s Bowling Green Park, the oldest public park in the city.
The lead remnants of this statue, at least the bits that weren’t spirited away by the crowd as souvenirs, were loaded onto a barge bound for Norwalk, Connecticut, where these metal fragments were melted down to make exactly 42,088 musket balls for the colonial army.
The Enduring Power of Public Access
As we consider the continuing role of secrecy as a tool of government, we should not let it be lost in the periphery of history’s sometimes narrow gaze that the primal act of making America was not the secret signature of 56 folks on a piece of parchment, but rather how the people of our nascent nation were enabled and empowered by the swift and sure sharing of this information.
Today, ISOO serves as the steward of our nation’s secrets, helping to explain and enforce the rules: what requires protection, why, and for how long. In these duties, we often, and rightly, confront the tension between our government’s dual imperatives of secrecy and transparency.
The challenge is not, as it is sometimes described, finding a “balance” between secrecy and transparency. It’s building a government better at handling both with precision, discipline, and speed. Safeguarding and sharing are both critical functions for securing our democracy and each must be served well by the system that governs our most sensitive information.
ISOO’s Fiscal Year 2025 annual report, released today, is intended to support the President’s decision-making, as well as inform the American public, on these important issues, which remain as relevant to us today as they were to our founders 250 years ago.
Thank you to our exceptional ISOO staff, and to our colleagues at the departments and agencies across the federal government who contributed to the drafting of this report.
Michael D. Thomas
Director
ISOO Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report to the President of the United States