“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”-
— John Adams to his wife, Abigail, July 3, 1776
John Adams had his dates off, but not the upcoming celebrations. Our second president and a Founding Father was referring to the date of the Second Continental Congress’s vote that gave birth to our nation, but the Declaration of Independence was not formally adopted until two days later, on July 4th.
And to further clear the air of some misperceptions, according to the National Constitution Center, the Liberty Bell did not ring on July 4, 1776. “A magazine writer in 1847 made up the story of the bell ringing on the first Independence Day.”
But eventually, bells did ring – in Philadelphia and across our great nation. There were fireworks and displays. And there still are because Adams understood 250 years ago when writing to his wife, that something extraordinary had just occurred: America.
Today, we are living in unsettled times. Politics divides us. Economic realities divide us. But think back to 1776. Those were unsettled times. A collection of men – landowners, lawyers, and even an active clergyman (John Witherspoon of New Jersey, president of the College of New Jersey, which today is Princeton University) – struggled against class and prejudice to find consensus on the Declaration of Independence. And after they did, they had to sell it to average people living in the colonies. Some colonists were loyal to the British Crown, while others embraced the cause of liberty.
Remarkable as it still seems, the colonists aligned with liberty defeated the British and, over time, gave birth to the United States of America.
The promise of the Declaration of Independence has always been a challenge to Americans to become their best selves, and with that, to make America its best self. We have moved forward over these past 250 years, but we have not moved easily or without great struggles.
Adams understood that would happen way back in 1776. There never was a straight, well-paved road to the shining city on a hill. It was going to require effort long after America won its independence, because winning independence was only the prologue of America. Keeping and defending those liberties is the real story, a story we still write. That is why we celebrate every July 4th because it is hard work and it is unfinished work – this great America we have inherited.
But it is joyous work! As someone who has spent most of my adult life in public service, America is joyous work.
There was and is more that unites us as Americans than what has divided us in the past and divides us today. The challenge we face is seeing that fundamental American truth when it is not easy to see clearly.
I was not yet a teenager when America celebrated its bicentennial. The context of that celebration was lost on me. Yet, looking back 50 years, in 1976 the civil rights struggles, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal were all recent events. Yet, despite all that – or perhaps because of all that shared struggle – America in 1976 celebrated with the joy John Adams envisioned 200 years before.
We are in much the same place today, in 2026, because despite the unsettled times, the core of America is strong, as we – the descendants of men and women who believed in the promise of a nation where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were written into its founding Declaration – remain committed to rising to our moment.
On July 4th, our eyes will look out in the great harbor between New York and New Jersey and see majestic tall ships sail on the Hudson, there will be aerial displays, parades, and, of course, there will be fireworks to be remembered until the nation’s tricentennial 50 years from now.
America 250 is something to celebrate because of all that has come before us. But it is also something to celebrate because we are actively a part of it. This is our moment, just as it was a different generation’s moment 250 years ago in Philadelphia.”
As Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, I have come to see close-up how our region is literally the portal into the promise of 1776. Two hundred and fifty years ago, ships sailed into our harbor and men, women, and children who suffered long, arduous journeys, disembarked onto our shores in the pursuit of their dreams.
Today, people still come to America. By ship. By plane. Over land. They arrive with their dreams, and the magic of this great country is that as they achieve their goals, America is made greater for it. Adams, in 1776, could envision that future America when writing to his wife.
On June 30, 1826, just days before he and his fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson would die on the same day, July 4, 1826, Adams was asked to offer a toast that could be read for the nation’s 50th anniversary. Adams said, “I give you, ‘Liberty Forever.’”
Let us make that same toast this July 4th on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As Adams envisioned, there will be “pomp and parades and illuminations.” There is so much to celebrate.
Happy July 4th! Liberty forever!
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