Happy Birthday to the United States of America. On this day 250 years ago, the leaders of the Continental Congress of the 13 American colonies voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, breaking with the King of England to form their own country. Unlike any other founding document, the D of I affirmed that rights are inherent to Man, "endowed" by his creator, and not granted by political structures or sovereigns; that when these structures prove detrimental to the exercise of natural rights, it is the duty of those governed to abolish them. From there, the fledgling nation created the Articles of Confederation to bind the 13 sovereign states in perpetual union and firm friendship. READ the Declaration's most enduring message... (1776)
