Why Celebrate July 4th?

In 1852, in Rochester, New York, the brilliant abolitionist and formerly enslaved Frederick Douglass delivered his justly famous speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Douglass had been invited to speak on July 4th, but he deliberately chose to deliver his remarks on July 5th—a choice we’ll return to shortly.

The question I explore here is far less urgent than the one Douglass posed, yet still worth asking: Why do we celebrate July 4th at all?

At first glance, this may sound subversive, but I don’t mean it that way. Having a national day to celebrate our country is a splendid idea. My question is more specific: Why this day? There were other possibilities. Allow me to suggest a few.

Alternative Possibilities

Let’s begin with September 17th, the day in 1787 when the U.S. Constitution was signed in Philadelphia. Given how proudly Americans speak of the Constitution—even if few actually read it—it seems a fitting candidate. And while it is recognized as Constitution Day, it’s not our national holiday.

Perhaps that’s because the Constitution wasn’t America’s first governing charter. We could turn instead to March 1st, 1781, the date the Articles of Confederation were ratified. For the first time, the colonies had a formal union under a shared framework. That’s historically significant—yet not nationally celebrated.

Both dates mark the beginnings of American government, not independence. So let’s consider alternatives tied more directly to our political separation from Britain.

What about September 3rd, 1783, when Britain formally recognized U.S. independence by signing the Treaty of Paris? This was the moment our borders were drawn and our sovereignty acknowledged. Yet hardly anyone remembers it, perhaps because it formalized what had already been won through war.

If we prefer to celebrate a military turning point, we might consider October 19th, 1781, the day British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. The war was, for all practical purposes, over.

But again, this is not our national holiday.

So perhaps the proper focus is the beginning of the revolution. In that case, April 19th, 1775, is a worthy candidate—the day of the “shot heard ’round the world” at Lexington and Concord.

Or maybe we should consider May 15th, 1776, when the Continental Congress instructed the colonies to form new governments. John Adams called this moment “the real revolution.” This was not just resistance to British overreach—it was a positive turn toward new political principles. The colonies, acting through their representatives, shed royal authority and began to govern by “the authority of the people.”

By July 1776, then, the situation looked like this:

• We had been at war with Britain for over a year.
• Royal authority had been formally rejected.
• The colonies had established new, self-governing systems.

All that remained was a formal declaration, an unequivocal statement severing all political ties with Britain.

Which brings us, at last, to July 2nd, 1776.

The Day We Declared Independence

Many readers may already know that it was on July 2nd that the Continental Congress unanimously approved Richard Henry Lee’s resolution: “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States…”

John Adams certainly believed July 2nd would be the day future Americans would commemorate. Writing to his wife Abigail on July 3rd, he predicted: “I am apt to believe that {July 2nd} will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. 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.”

His prediction was both eerily prescient and profoundly mistaken.

So why do we celebrate July 4th rather than July 2nd?

Because that’s the day Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Not the day we made the decision, but the day we explained it. Thomas Jefferson, with a little help from Adams and Franklin, gave our cause its voice. He gave our identity its creed, and in articulating our creed he gave us our identity.

The Declaration was more than a political break-up letter. It was a proclamation of who we are.

Our Creed and Identity

Most nations take pride in shared traditions—language, ancestry, religion, cuisine, great military victories, and folklore. And these are deeply meaningful. But for many Americans, national identity rests less on shared heritage or geography and more on shared ideals—what we often call the American Creed.

These ideals, drawn largely from the Declaration of Independence, include the following propositions:

• All people are created equal.
• Government exists to secure unalienable rights.
• Legitimate authority derives from the consent of the governed.
• Rulers are bound by law—not charisma, ancestry, or force.

Other nations have embraced these principles, and some may have lived them out more fully. But for Americans, these ideals are foundational. Celebrating July 4th isn’t merely a commemoration of not being British—it’s a celebration of what it means to be American.

The Two Faces of America

This dual identity means America is always two things at once: its aspirations or ideals and its actual practices, both political and non-political. Political philosopher Joseph Cropsey described these as distinct yet overlapping and interconnected regimes.

First, there is the Parchment Regime: our founding documents—the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights—which express our highest political principles in universal, liberal terms.

Then there is the Private Regime: the lived experience of Americans, shaped by language, religion, customs, communities, and regional ways of life. These are the things we mean when we call something “as American as baseball or apple pie.”

The relationship between these two regimes is fraught and exceedingly complex. Americans disagree not only about the ideals themselves—what “equality” means, or what rights should be protected—but also about which ways of life are truly “American.” The tension between our aspirational creed and our pluralistic realities generates both vitality and conflict.

For example, we argue over whether America is, at heart, a Christian nation. Not officially—not according to the Parchment Regime—but perhaps culturally, in the Private Regime. Would America still be America if it became predominantly Islamic? Or secular? Americans disagree deeply and intensely. Much of the tension in today’s culture wars stems from this duality. We want our values and our lifestyles to align with the American identity—but that identity is contested and complicated.

Falling Short of Our Ideals

America is always both what it claims to be and what it actually is. The Fourth of July, then, marks our aspirations—and also our shortcomings.  By choosing to celebrate July 4th instead of July 2nd, we signal that what defines us is not merely the moment of separation but the vision of who we ought to be. It’s a holiday of principles—principles we have never fully realized.

The day should inspire celebration, yes—but also reflection. Many of our ideals remain endangered. Due process, freedom of the press, and individual liberty face renewed threats. To ignore these violations—or excuse them when they affect others—is to betray our identity. Jefferson wrote in the Declaration that when a government shows “a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism,” it is not only their right, but their duty, to resist.

Back to Frederick Douglass

So why celebrate July 4th?

Because it is the one day—more than April 19th, July 2nd, or September 17th—on which we declare what we believe and who we strive to be.

And this brings us back to Frederick Douglass. He revered the ideals of the Declaration, even as he exposed America’s betrayal of them. In 1852, he said: “To the American slave, your 4th of July is a day that reveals… the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” Accordingly, Douglass chose to give his speech on July 5^th rather than July 4th because he believed in the ideals of the Declaration but did not feel it fitting to participate in the 4th’s attendant revelries. Douglass did not reject American ideals. He demanded that we live up to them. His speech was not a condemnation of America—it was an act of profound patriotism. He held up a mirror and asked the nation to reckon with its hypocrisy.

Douglass’s example suggests that to commemorate July 4th rightly we ought to honor both our creed and the distance we still must travel. If the American creed we celebrate is to mean anything—if it is to be hallowed and not hollow—it must continue to regulate our actions and to serve as an engine for betterment.