Posted July 02, 2026
On July 4, our nation’s capital will be the site of the largest fireworks display in history, an Independence Day Parade, and the Freedom250 celebration. An America250 benefit show will take place in Los Angeles as well. There will also be an IndyCar race in Washington, DC, a flotilla of tall ships in New York City, and a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg, among other events.
But unlike the birth of a person, the birthday of our country is a more complex story, one that illustrates our past and informs our future.
On July 3, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.” He added that July 2 “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
The reason for his enthusiasm was simple: Congress actually declared independence from Great Britain on July 2. The vote followed more than a year of debates and Richard Henry Lee’s resolution, introduced in early June, that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
Two days later, Congress approved the wording of the Declaration of Independence after making numerous revisions to Thomas Jefferson’s draft, making July 4 the day our independence was formalized.
The text was then sent to the Philadelphia printer John Dunlap, who made approximately two hundred copies that same night. Now known as the Dunlap Broadsides, they were distributed quickly to the thirteen colonies, to Gen. Washington and other military leaders, and to international representatives. They were read aloud in public places as well and reprinted in colonial newspapers.
However, these copies contained only the names of John Hancock, the president of Congress, and Charles Thomson, the Congress’s secretary. The handwritten version of the Declaration housed at the National Archives was created several weeks later, written on high-quality parchment by Timothy Matlack, a Philadelphia scribe and assistant to Mr. Thomson.
Congress then reconvened on August 2, 1776, at which time most of the delegates who had voted for independence were present and signed the document. Several delegates signed later, some possibly as late as 1781.
All who did so knew the risk they were taking. By signing the Declaration, they were committing a formal act of treason against the British monarchy. The war was already underway at the time; British forces had just landed a massive army on Staten Island, preparing to invade New York.
In his July 3 letter to Abigail, John Adams described what lay ahead: “I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.” But he added,
Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
The birth of our nation was a process that evolved over months and years. Similarly, we continue to strive to fulfill the creedal statement upon which we were founded, the declaration that “all men are created equal.” Forty-one of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration were slaveholders, and only property-owning men had the right to vote. Our nation has made great progress toward embracing the equality of all people, as illustrated by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act into law on this day in 1964. However, we still have much progress to make.
The reason is simple: No human declaration, no matter how noble and courageous, has the power to change the human heart. We can believe that “all men are created equal,” but we cannot fully live out this equality in our finite and fallen ability. Americans sin against other Americans just as Australians and Italians and Canadians sin against their fellow citizens.
Consequently, we need the “religion and morality” that our first president described as “indispensable supports” to our “political prosperity.” But the religion that produces the consensual morality upon which democracy depends must change our hearts, not just inform our laws (cf. Romans 7:14–25).
Br. Geoffrey Tristam of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston is right:
Jesus’ mission is not primarily to inform people about God, so that they can understand more about God. Jesus’ mission is rather to bring people to faith, to help them enter the kingdom of God, to be saved. Our hearts are not changed by simply understanding, but by the mystery of faith (his italics).
According to St. Gregory of Nyssa (AD c. 335–394), those who truly experience God possess “everything that is good: incorruptible life without end, blessedness that cannot fail, a kingdom without end, happiness without limit, true light, the true voice of the Spirit, glory never before reached, perpetual rejoicing, and all else that is good.” But only then.
So, as America celebrates our past, let us also embrace the message that empowers our future. Let us seek the personal transformation of the Spirit into the character of Jesus. Let us pray for our fellow Americans to meet our risen Lord. And let us share the hope our hearts need most with the nation we love.
Then, as John Adams said of America’s independence, “Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction,” to the glory of God.
“Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.” —John Adams
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