Reflections on America 250: Summer Meditations
Monday Memo 6/29 AD2026
Welcome to the Monday Memo, where I explore the world’s enduring dynamics; grounded in first principles, philosophy, character, and statecraft, rather than passing fads.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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.
—Preamble of the American Declaration of Independence July 4, AD1776
Americans traditionally view the transition from late May to July as the shift from spring to summer. Unofficially Americans count the last Monday in May, Memorial Day as the beginning of summer, and it works as the beginning of a season of needed intentional reflection as we celebrate commemorate 250 years of declaring the colonies free of King George III.
After Memorial Day—which was established to honor the loyal Union soldiers who died in the Civil War— comes June 6th when we remember Operation Overlord’s 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy when we fought alongside the British Commonwealth including Canada, and thirteen days later Americans celebrate the end of slavery and the Civil War with Juneteenth recognizing the announcement of liberation in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.
However, we have only one Independence Day and the journey to July 4, 1776—when Americans decided to leave the British Empire and ultimately be sundered from the empire loyalists in Canada—needs retelling. June holds many important foundational dates for the USA with dual commemorations of the creation of the Continental Army in 1775 and the official adoption of the Flag of the United States in 1777, both on the 14th. And on June 16, 1775, the forty-three year old George Washington of Virginia accepted his appointment as commander of the Army.
However, the story of independence shifted into high gear on June 7, 1776 when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution to the Second Continental Congress calling for independence from King George III. It was this resolution that was passed on July 2, 1776; the Declaration of Independence drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson, also of Virginia, was the rhetorical justification for the resolution. And on July 4, Jefferson’s document as edited by the other delegates was passed by the Continental Congress and so Americans celebrate Independence on the Fourth and not the Second of July. John Hancock of Massachusetts as President of the Continental Congress, and Philadelphia resident Charles Thomson a Scots-Irishman—originally from the Glenshane Pass in County Derry—serving as Secretary of the Continental Congress, were the only men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
This year, as America faces persistent division, scandal, and international troubles, it is both harder and more important that Americans, and other democracies think seriously about the meaning of these events. The story still matters. The reasoning matters. An organic law is one that establishes the foundational framework of order for a government. It is the bedrock on which all other administrative rules, civil codes, organization and statutory laws are built. In the United States, the Declaration of Independence is the first organic law, the one that established the ends for which government exists. Americans should be proud that millions of people around the world are inspired by their declaration.
It matters that the Founders were motivated by British tradition and their knowledge of the ancient classics including the Bible. It matters that they took their knowledge and experiences and then debated and argued; and ultimately agreed to a common statement of sovereignty. The Declaration of Independence’s principles remain paramount because it was a compromise and edited document not in spite of it. It was the consensus, the thing they were willing to die for, together. Its authority is sacrosanct because the newly established states had to consent in unison.
Despite their hypocrisies on matters such as slavery, they declared human equality in the same document where they confessed to treason. If they lost, they would be executed, and in the meantime the best trained army in Europe would hunt them. It was a risk and a promise, one Americans can still hold themselves to, and one that has determined the fate of North America for a quarter of a millennium.
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