To ask some, it might seem that our Constitutional Republic burst forth on July 4, 1776 in all its glory, and that the mighty George Washington single-handedly destroyed the mighty British army of Redcoats.  It is an overly-simplistic cliché, but it is just one cliché among many that are uttered on the anniversary of the country’s birth.  There are plentiful examples of American flags; red, white, and blue streamers; parades; fireworks; hot dogs; ballgames, “Mom”; and apple pie – all good symbols that can make for a great celebration but have as much to do with the birth of a country as a Christmas Tree has with the birth of Christ.  In many ways not unlike Memorial Day, it is said that those who “gave their lives for our freedom” must be remembered because “it is only because of them that we are here right now” – as if the country has ever gone to war so the American people can have BBQs (and that some of us can drink way too much).

The signing of the Declaration of Independence was neither a beginning nor end point.  That day, and the signing of that great document, was a turning point.  In reality the signers of the Declaration were not all in Philadelphia on that cherished day.  It is also critical to remember that the Declaration in no way established a nation – it in fact created thirteen individual and sovereign states.  It was the Constitution that would later establish the United States of America – even thereafter were there innumerable crises, several small rebellions, a threat from the northeastern states to secede from the Union during the War of 1812, and a bloody Civil War, before a nation was truly established beyond just a politically organized grouping of individual states.  And it is a struggle that continues each and every day as the rights of the American people are consistently undermined by people who have no respect for why the American Revolution was fought – people of both the foreign and domestic variety.

 The actual document can be broken down into five simple parts

-           Introduction:  Explaining to King George III that they are rescinding their political affiliation with England

-           Preamble:  Offering their political philosophy about how a people should be governed by laws and not the word of a tyrant

-           Indictment:  A list of grievances to back up the ideas given in the Preamble

-           Denunciation:  Summarizes the indictment and goes over the lengths the colonists went to resolve these grievances before declaring their independence

-           Conclusion:  Declares what the newly independent states plan to do with their newfound sovereignty

And with those five sections the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration effectively signed their own death warrants.  Had the outcome of the Revolution gone differently they would have all certainly been either hanged or shot.  The world would have been robbed of the brilliance and ingenuity of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and many others.  And hundreds of millions throughout the subsequent generations would have missed an opportunity to live in a country founded on the principle of the rule of law, and not the rule of man.  That is the reason why the 4^th of July is a rightfully revered day in America’s history.  The symbolism and pageantry are all fine – as is drinking eggnog at a Christmas party – but it is a day that goes far beyond mere trivial traditions.

The one thing that should always be remembered is the ideas that the men who signed the Declaration were willing to put their lives on the line for – liberty and the imperfectability of mankind.  The men who put their names down had watched as their very lives and those of their families were held at the whim of one man.  They were all imperfect – many owned slaves; others were adulterers (and if anyone is looking for a “how-to” on picking a mistress, read Ben Franklin’s Autobiography, he offers a veritable checklist which ultimately concludes that older women are best suited for the job because they are usually more grateful).

None of the men involved with the founding of the country were saints.  It was something they found self-evident about themselves and about those who had sought to rule over them.  Independence Day does not celebrate them for who they were though, but for what they had the courage to do and the ideas they fought for.

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