President Reagan said, “America’s promise” keeps successive generations willing to fight for this country. President Obama said, “America’s promise” preserved our nation’s independence in a world dominated by tyrants and dictators.

But what is “America’s promise,” and to whom is it promised?

I just returned from a week of seminars and courses at Temple University in Philadelphia on this very question. Even though the keynoters and instructors ranged from liberal academics to devoted conservative Christian pastors, from Fox News commentators to Black Lives Matter organizers, there was amazing agreement on what that promise is.

America’s promise was the promise that led us to declare independence 250 years ago. It is the promise Abraham Lincoln cited in his dedicatory remarks at Gettysburg. It is a promise that every soldier, every new citizen and all sworn federal employees make at the outset of their endeavor.

It is a promise not binding to a particular product, or piece of land, or even to a starred and striped flag. It is a promise to be kept in times of abundance and prosperity, and even more in times of trial and desperation.

America’s promise is simple: We promise to sustain a government without a King, a government run only by ourselves, able to execute the task for which all governments exist, to preserve our lives and secure to ourselves and our children the blessings of liberty.

Now, what threatens our lives and makes insecure our liberty... those are topics on which every American has an opinion. America’s promise exists whether there are two opposing opinions on life and liberty, or 350 million opposing opinions.

Prior to the existence of America, prior to 56 people signing a document pledging to this “promise” of a new path forward, gangs, bands of partisans and angry crowds already had commanded power for centuries. Those who say the essence of America is “majority rules” forget how long majorities have ruled ruthlessly. How many tyrants have come to power with the edict “join the majority... or die!”

No. America’s promise is not about “majority rules.” The decision in Philadelphia was not “should we defer to the majority?” Massachusetts had already defiantly decided “NO!” The question in the assembly room at Independence Hall was, “With no King to unify us, can we have a government that allows differences?”

The “signers” included many part-time lawyers (law wasn’t a fully “paying” profession). Thomas Jefferson was a “lawyer,” although his home and sustenance were his plantation, and “land surveying” was his trade skill.

Robert Morris and Charles Carroll were merchants with commercial ties to both England and France. War threatened the supply chains on which their livelihoods depended.

Twelve signers were farmers... ranging from vegetables in New England to cotton and tobacco plantations in the South. War would jeopardize their overseas markets.

Four signers were physicians. One was a publisher (Franklin), another was a preacher (John Witherspoon). Francis Hopkinson listed his profession as musician and poet.

After long and labored debate, the premise that “we can do this without a King” was attested by all 56 signers. They believed it was “God’s will” and made this promise “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”

But ultimately, the promise, for which the signers offered up their very lives, fortunes and sacred honor, was made “mutually... to each other.”

And so, it remains true today. We can do this without a King... but only if we promise respect to each other, honor each other’s differences, striving to make such a rare and “enlightened” system of governance work for ourselves, and for generations to come.