It is said that on July 4, 1776, as they all signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin warned his fellow “founding” rebels, “We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” But John Adams, who would become our second president, had a more optimistic message: “We shall make this a glorious and immortal day,” he said. “When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivities, with bonfires, and illuminations.”

And we have done that. For the 228th time, we have celebrated the signing of that declaration and the unique form of government the signers went on to create. It was to be a government, in John Adams’ phrase, “of laws and not of men.” And it would be a government constitutionally required to uphold and protect those “unalienable” rights the Declaration proclaimed.