Celebrating Our Declaration of Independence

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

Celebrating Our Declaration of Independence

Today (4 July 2025) we celebrate the 249^th birthday of the United States of America.

On July 4ths my thoughts inevitably flash back to the Sundays when we would ride our bikes over the cobblestone streets in the historic district of what has been described as the “cradle of liberty”: Philadelphia.

How about the meaning of the crack in the Liberty Bell? Or of the activities that were housed in Independence Hall? Or in the pews in Christ Church whose attendees included George Washington and Ben Franklin.

The factors that led to Philadelphia being known as the “cradle of liberty” could be said to have begun in 1651 when the Dutch sailed up what is now called the Delaware River. Led by Peter Stuyvesant they formed a community in nearby Delaware known as Fort Casimir that is today called “Old New Castle.” The lack of a deep-water port contributed to that development being centered upstream where William Penn was designing the city that became Philadelphia.

My grandfather arrived from Germany, with his parents, in Philadelphia and settled just across the Delaware River in New Jersey.

I grew up with summers full of “double 90s”: 90 degrees F, 90% humidity.

Those were the types of days the Continental Congress were experiencing when, for secrecy reasons, they shut the windows of Independence Hall.

These patriots, dressed in coats (mostly made of wool!), pushed back their wigs and nominated the Virginian Thomas Jefferson to write a document capsulizing their controversies with the King of England.

Why did the 33-year-old Mr. Jefferson produce the title “Declaration of Independence? A “declaration” is a formal announcement of the beginning of a state or condition, followed by “Independence” indicating it was both a “state” and a “condition.”

How would Mr. Jefferson introduce his topic?

“When…it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Political Bands” (interesting label he created for bonds with England) followed by “the separate and equal Station” (created the equality of the countries) and then citied the authority for his title Declaration of Independence by writing “to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them” (an authority bigger even than the King of England) before citing a reason to proclaim this of “decent respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they declare the causes which impel them” setting the stage for their complaints.

Jefferson continued “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, (meaning these rights cannot be taken, or given away) that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” (including life and liberty are obvious but adding “pursuit of happiness” was a stroke of genius).

A Young Country Created by Young Men

A debate was held by the Continental Congress, which, except for Ben Franklin – who was 70 years old – were not exactly what we would think of as “elder statesmen.” Alexander Hamilton was 21, James Madison 25, John Hancock, who would sign large enough that “King George could read it,” was all of 39.

Even though some signed it on July 2, July 4 was selected as the date to celebrate as that was when most of them signed it.

The Revolutionary War featured 43-year-old General George Washington, 20-year-old French general Marquis de Lafayette, 28-year-old Captain John Paul Jones, who became known as the “father” of our navy, 22-year-old Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and so many famous names of American patriots under the age of, say, 30. Sort of humbling for me: how about you?

The Enduring U.S. Constitution

After the Declaration of Independence declared the United States as independent, in 1777 the Articles of Confederation established a format for the structure of the new government. However, having just fought a war to eliminate the rules being set by persons not within their states, each of the thirteen states wanted to retain the ability to set their own rules.

This was a fatal flaw.

The Congress turned to James Madison, who under the Virginia Plan had created the three branches of government – a Legislative branch, an Executive branch, and a Judicial branch – to write what would become the U.S. Constitution, an aggregate of fundamental principles that would constitute the legal bases of a policy to determine how an entity is to be governed.

The beginning of the Constitution expresses its objective as “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

There you have it: in 145 clearly delineated sentences set within 76 formal paragraphs, the longest-lasting written constitution in world history was introduced to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, and formally put into effect March 4, 1789, a short 14 years after the Declaration of Independence was officially declared.

And, in James Madison’s words, a warning to his and future generations that we Americans would be wise to continue to heed: “In framing a government to be administered by men over men,” Madison cautions, “the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place obligate it to control itself.”

Happy 249^th birthday United States; may you survive to celebrate another 249.