Guys, I'm not going to take up too much of your time today.

I hope you're out there having fun, jumping in the pool, eating the burgers and the dogs,

lighting some fireworks tonight, and just enjoying our incredible, incredible Independence Day.

Because yes, today is July 4th, America's Independence Day.

We are 249 years young.

July 4th is a moment to reflect on the most radical idea

ever put on paper, which is, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these

are life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness. On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence.

But it wasn't until two days later, on July 4th, when Thomas Jefferson's draft of the

Declaration was officially adopted. That's the day that we now mark as the birthday of the United States.

These old guys with funny wigs weren't just putting ink on parchment.

They were risking everything, their lives, their families, their land, and their futures,

all to break from the British crown and assert that freedom must come before fear.

The war that followed the American Revolution lasted eight brutal years, and it wasn't until

1781 at the Battle of Yorktown that the British finally surrendered.

And only in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, Britain officially recognized the United States as a free

and independent nation. That's exactly what we're celebrating today, not just a piece of paper

or a historical event, but a truly world-changing declaration, a belief that is echoed from

abolitionists to suffragettes, from civil rights leaders to modern

dissidents, that freedom is the natural state of man and that governments derive their power

...