As our country celebrates not just any Independence Day, but the 250th anniversary of one of the boldest declarations in human history, the festivities give us an excellent opportunity to look back on two-and-a-half centuries of this American experiment and check ourselves against what the founders hoped they were setting in motion.

Draped in red, white and blue and surrounded by flags and fireworks, it is easy to forget how we got here and why we are free to celebrate as flamboyantly as we’d like.

Richard Henry Lee made the motion to declare independence in June 1776, but not everyone was ready. The Continental Congress did, however, agree to have Thomas Jefferson draft a declaration, which was later subject to the editing of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. The final version of that document got the approval of the Continental Congress on July 4.

Even if throughout our history there have been those who called themselves patriots who were STILL not quite ready to embrace the radical vision set forth in that Declaration, we have for 250 years moved forward from that moment with most of us clinging to it.

All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights that INCLUDE life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Governments derive their power from the consent of the governed.

And 250 years ago, the founders declared “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

For that reason, they deemed it not just their right but their duty to throw off such a government and “provide new guards for their future security.”

Those who celebrate today owe it to those who courageously pledged “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” to read the document they signed back then. After that, read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, too.

Here: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript, here: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution, and here: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights.

Enjoy what will perhaps be a three-day weekend to celebrate this landmark anniversary. Remember that you are free to do so because of them. And try to live up to what they hoped they were creating.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

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“Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties … They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.”

— Justice Louis Brandeis

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”

— George Washington