7/4/1776

Two hundred twenty-nine years ago, the first major, legal step to establish a sovereign and independent coalition of states was taken by some of the most brilliant and corageous men in history. The document they drafted, whose adoption we celebrate on Monday, was the precursor to, second only to the Magna Carta, the most important and ground breaking, legally binding document ever conceived by a body of men. I salute the actions of these men, and hope that everyone will take only the thinnest moment, on this upcoming anniversary, to consider the audacity of the action we celebrate, and honor the many men and women throughout our short history who have fought and died protecting the philosophy from which it was born.

"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."