Editorial | America 250
… “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…”
On July 2, 1776, after failing to resolve “a long train of abuses and usurpations” imposed by the British Crown, the “thirteen united States of America” declared independence from what was then the most powerful country in the world.
The Second Continental Congress officially adopted this Declaration of Independence on that July 4th, establishing the united States of America as a free, independent nation.
The declaration ultimately was signed by all 56 state delegates, men who faced certain death for treason if their mission to forge a new county failed.
Fail they, and their fellow rebels, did not.
Wrought from the blood of belief and revolution, a county — our country — rose, rose from the efforts of the delegates who pledged everything: “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor;” rose from those who fought from the “shot heard round the world” at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 to the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783.
On Saturday, we, as Americans, will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Independence Day, its semiquincentennial.
As we enjoy the food and the fireworks, let us also remember what was pledged by those with courage and something far more dangerous — a brash and bold concept that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Let us remember this bedrock upon which our country, our Constitution, was built.
May you and yours have a safe and happy holiday.
Breeze editorial