Why is Fourth of July Important to America?

4th july is the two hundred forty-ninth anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. On July 4th, 1776, delegates from thirteen of Britain's North American colonies adopted a resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. . ." In time, these thirteen independent states would become one nation -- the United States of America.

The task of drafting America's Declaration of Independence fell to a thirty-three-year-old Virginia planter named Thomas Jefferson. In clear and concise language, Jefferson stated the causes of the American revolution and the principles for which the new government stood: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Having established that legitimate government rests solely on the consent of a free people, Jefferson asserted the right and the duty of all people to overthrow "absolute despotism" and establish governments that respect human rights.

Most of the Declaration of Independence is devoted to a detailed description of the civil rights that Americans hold dear -- and of the abridgement of those rights by British authorities. The Declaration noted that British authorities had rendered "the military independent and superior to the civil power" in America. Americans were subjected to taxation and laws by a government in which they had no representation.

Those who opposed colonial rule were subject to arbitrary arrest and denied trial by jury. An economic blockade was imposed to force the American people into submission. Jefferson wrote that Americans had exhausted every peaceful means of redress; that their petitions had been met only by more repression. Given a choice between revolution and submission to despotism, Americans chose to fight.

In his 2020 4th of July proclamation, President Donald Trump noted that, “the enduring commitment to the ideals of liberty and justice that have come to define our American spirit stem from our Nation’s founding.” The principles grounded in the Declaration of Independence, he noted, “continue to guide our Nation forward and maintain its standing as a beacon of liberty, prosperity, and opportunity for all.” [VOA/SP]