Across the horizons of time, America is still a young republic — not yet even 250 years old. That may seem old to us, in the context of modern nations, but in the sweep of history, the United States is barely out of its adolescence. Our English cousins still inhabit a monarchy that traces its roots back over a thousand years. The civilizations of Egypt and China stretch back millennia before that. The Hebrew patriarch Abraham walked out of Ur of the Chaldeans long before the idea of America was even possible.
And yet, for all that America is young, what we’ve achieved in 249 years is nothing short of astonishing.
249 Years of Freedom — Not Perfection, But Purpose
Next summer, we’ll mark a rare milestone: our Semiquincentennial — 250 years since July 4, 1776. That day, the world changed.
It’s easy to take for granted what our Founders accomplished in that hot summer in Philadelphia. But what they did was neither inevitable nor ordinary. They made a declaration to the world — not just of political independence, but of philosophical revolution.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” they wrote, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”
These weren’t just carefully chosen words; they were a foundation stone for a new kind of nation — one where human dignity, individual liberty, and self-government were placed above tradition, above bloodlines, above monarchy.
Of course, those principles have not always been fully realized. And no serious person would claim otherwise.
But the fact that America has not always lived up to her ideals does not make those ideals any less worthy — any more than a student failing to master a subject makes the subject meaningless. It simply means the work continues. As Coolidge said, “if there is any failure… it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe [the principles].”
What Makes America Different?
Many countries have founding myths, stories of heroes and battles and turning points. But what sets America apart is that our founding is not just historical — it's philosophical. It’s based not on geography or tribe, but on a set of shared principles.
Our nationality is not defined by race or language or religion. It is defined by a shared commitment to certain truths:
That human beings are born with inherent rights.
That government exists to protect those rights.
That power must come from the people.
And that liberty is not granted by rulers, but is the rightful inheritance of every individual.
These are not small claims. They are universal truths, and America is the nation that dared to build a country around them.
The Challenges We’ve Faced — And Overcome
In the 249 years since our birth, the United States has been tested more than once. We’ve fought a civil war over slavery. We’ve struggled through depressions and pandemics. We’ve faced internal division, injustice, and growing pains in nearly every generation.
Outside our borders, we’ve stood against tyrannies — imperial, fascist, communist, and terrorist — all of which tried to assert that human beings are mere tools of the state. In every case, it has been the principle of liberty that gave us strength.
And through it all, the American system — this experiment in ordered liberty — has endured.
Consider what else has changed in 249 years:
France has cycled through five republics and two empires.
Germany was not yet a unified nation when we were founded and has since lived through monarchy, fascism, division, and now democracy.
Empires that seemed permanent — the Ottomans, the British, the Soviets — have come and gone.
But America, governed under the same Constitution, shaped by the same founding ideals, has remained. Not unchanged, not unchallenged — but unshaken.
At the nation’s Sesquicentennial in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge offered words that ring even more true today than they did then. Reflecting on the Declaration of Independence, he warned us not to dismiss it as old-fashioned or outdated.
“If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.”
His point was simple: there are some truths that do not age. And there is no progress to be made by rejecting them. Any society that tries to move beyond those principles doesn’t go forward — it slides backward, into the darkness of tyranny and inequality.
Looking Toward 250: A Time for Reflection and Renewal
As we stand on the edge of 250 years of independence, Americans have reason to be proud. But more than that, we have reason to be thoughtful — and grateful.
We’ve inherited something rare: a country founded not on accident, but on intention. Not on conquest, but on conviction. We were given a republic — and as Benjamin Franklin warned, it’s ours if we can keep it.
That means recommitting ourselves to the principles that made this country great — not in slogans or partisanship, but in everyday citizenship. It means teaching our children not just what America has done, but why it matters. It means realizing that democracy doesn’t run on autopilot. It needs engaged, informed, and principled people to sustain it.
Happy 249th, America
Today, let’s celebrate America not with uncritical praise, but with clear-eyed patriotism — the kind that sees both our faults and our triumphs, and loves the country enough to preserve what is right, fix what is broken, and carry forward what is true.
Let us be grateful for those who came before us — the ones who fought, labored, argued, and believed in a better future. And let us be ready to shoulder the work that is still ours to do.
Next year, we celebrate 250. That’s a big one. But let this year, our 249th, be the one where we stop and think deeply about what we’ve inherited — and what we must pass on.
