The American Revolution had already been raging for over a year since the battles of Lexington and Concord. Adopting and releasing the Declaration was as rebellious an act as the residents of Massachusetts firing on the Red Coats. For in that document it stated that "All men are created equal." That was a revolutionary statement in a time of kings with near unlimited power over their subjects. It went on to state that those men were "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This was radical stuff, that rights came from God, not the benevolence of a king. People had rights simply for being people.
Signing the Declaration of Independence was a literal act of "high treason" against the British Crown. By formally denouncing the authority of King George III and initiating war, the fifty-six delegates faced the ultimate penalty: execution by hanging, drawing, and quartering.
Yes, some of those fifty-six delegates owned slaves. But the U.S. was one of the first countries to outlaw slavery that had been ubiquitous since time immemorial. Yes, women couldn't vote at first but that was fixed too. The U.S. has survived despite its problems.
Now we are celebrating 250 years of the country those men formed. And America is still something special where rights come from not government, but God. We've survived wars, including a bloody Civil War and two brutal World Wars, malfeasance by some of our leaders, two pandemics, and multiple natural disasters. Yet the nation those men in Philadelphia started still persists, still is free, still is prosperous.
People from all over the planet come here to chase the American Dream of prosperity. Many of them achieve it, rising out of the crushing poverty of their home nations thanks to America's unique combination of freedom and economic opportunity.
America is still here. That is very much worth celebrating.
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