• At the Senior Prom, when we knew we loved each other.
• When he gave me the engagement ring
• Not really until the birth of our first child, when we cried together and I first held the baby.
• When we finally got out of her parents’ house and had our own apartment, a year after our wedding
• When we both said, 'I do.'

Now there is something to be said for all these. All are in some way true. But the last one, the actual solemn vows of marriage, usually with readings from the Bible, prayers for Divine aid, and the witness of friends and family, is surely the truest. You might want to consider why. We would suggest that the reason is that the union is a covenant, or as the law has it, a contract, and that the commitment is made when the couple DECLARES that it is one. It is this day that they celebrate as their anniversary. They date the years of their marriage from this day. And their obligations are most especially the ones they make on this day. "Forsaking all others....in sickness and in health...til death do us part. So help us God."

How old is our Republic? What day do we celebrate as its anniversary? Abraham Lincoln pointed to the answers in the Gettysburg Address, given in 1863. "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation..." Fourscore and seven. that is, eighty-seven. 1863 minus 87 equals 1776. Not the date of the Constitution, 1787. Not the outbreak of hostilities with the British, 1775. No, neither of these, but the "Glorious Fourth," as Lincoln and many others have called it. July 4th, 1776. The date of the Declaration.

The comparison of a nation to a marriage is especially strong in the case of the United States. Unlike most other nations, such as France or England, our nation came into being as a deliberate act. Before the Declaration, there were thirteen colonies. Afterwards, we were one People. We made war as one, entered into treaties as one, and made our principles known to a watching world. The Declaration states that we are "one people" who "assume...the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them."

Our union begun by the Declaration has been a great blessing. Some marriages are so successful that they become an example to other couples. We live in a nation that is an example to other nations. As ancient Rome was universally admired for its peace and stability, the United States has become a symbol of liberty and justice to a hungry world. When Chinese demonstrators for freedom faced the tanks in Tiananmen Square, they erected a model of the Statue of Liberty to inspire them.

Marriages and political unions have their ups and downs. When times are tough, good friends and spiritual advisors remind couples of their solemn vows, of what they pledged to each other and before their friends and their God. You might say that the founding principle of the marriage, the spirit that they try to live out day by day, is contained in those vows and the ceremony surrounding them on that special day in which the marriage was made. The same has been true in our political union.

Lincoln said, in Independence Hall, on his way to Washington D.C. to be inaugurated as President of the United States, that he "never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." Sixty-five years later, in that same Hall, another American president, Calvin Coolidge, said:

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a new nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776 has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history.

What were these new principles? We will look carefully at that question in the rest of this book. A brief answer may be found in the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays published in the newspapers of New York from 1787-88. John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, using the pseudonym, "Publius" argued in these essays for the adoption of the Constitution. In the first Federalist paper, "Publius" wrote,

...it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.

"Publius" meant that America would enshrine Liberty. The people would rule by their own choice. But he also meant that that choice would be reasonable. It would come from "reflection." On what would the people reflect? The answer is given early in the Declaration itself. "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," and the "inalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

In summary, the Declaration founded America and gave it its fundamental principles. The nation so founded was seen by its founders and the whole world as a trial of the ability of a free people to establish a deliberately chosen form of government in accordance with the laws of nature and of nature's God. The basis of that government would be the authority of the people, coming from their endowment, by their Creator, with inalienable rights.

1. The Great Seal of the United States may be found on the one dollar bill. Examine the pyramid and stones, the eye, and the Roman numerals. The Latin phrases mean, "He has favored our undertaking," and “A new order of the ages." Does the seal support the claim that the American union began with the Declaration? You may want to look in an encyclopedia or other reference for ideas.

2. Glance through the United States Constitution, stopping at the "Bill of Rights," i.e. the first Amendment.. When did the Convention submit the Constitution to the people of the states for ratification? There are two powerful pieces of evidence in the Constitution to support the claim that the Declaration founded the union. What are they?

3. The two hundredth anniversary (bicentennial) of the Declaration was celebrated in 1976. We also celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. Which was a bigger celebration? Did we celebrate the year the Constitution was submitted or the year it was ratified? Why?
Try to find from news magazines, newspapers, and other sources what the national celebrations of each were like.