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The founding of the United States journeyed along a path of diverging interests beginning from resistance to the Stamp Act in 1765, through the adoption of the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law of the land on September 16, 1787.

What began as a demand for personal freedom ended in an act of covenant-making that bound personal freedom within the constraints of the Constitution.

From the beginning individual interests threatened the new nation. The interests of small farmers, and of craftsmen, and merchant bankers often conflicted. The challenge was to establish a nation that yielded individual interest to a higher purpose.

Unlike the creation of the world, the creation of the United States did not take place in a vacuum. The Founding Fathers had been conditioned by a long history – a Legacy – of covenant making and covenant keeping.

It included the progressive limiting of the freedom of the king following the death of Elizabeth I, but even long before that in the Magna Carta that limited the power of bad King John in 1215 at Runnymede.

This legacy modeled both an appreciation for freedom, and the need to limit freedom in the service of a higher purpose. On July 4, 1776, the genius of the American experience, drawing on this legacy, found expression in the Declaration of Independence.

In The Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln summarized the heart of our founding as one “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The United States was “conceived in liberty,” but instead of individual interest subverting that liberty, it was empowered by a long legacy that gave it focus.

In this dedicated liberty, freedom joined hands with commitment. Freedom limited itself to a principle: “the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Here is a higher purpose than service to self alone. Our dedicated freedom elevates the people of the United States in the service of human dignity. Each of us limit ourselves in recognition of the equal value of our neighbor.

This commitment inspires what makes America great. It continues to draw immigrants to our shores. It is the hope of the world.

Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is a celebration of a nation founded on dedicated freedom. The American experience will endure only so long as we continue to limit our personal freedom in the service of others.

May we the people of the United States never lose our capacity for commitment that our more perfect Union endure to inspire generations to come.