07/04/2026
America is 250 years old! It’s a number that would have astonished almost everyone who was there in the beginning. Many of the Founders expected the U.S. not to last. Like most births, our nation’s was both glorious and messy.
Think about when the Constitution was first written. For months, fifty-five men labored in sweltering heat over the future of our country. They met in secrecy with windows shut against the stench of butcher shops and free-flowing human waste outside, and the frustration inside grew worse. Delegates argued and were never truly satisfied. Most New Yorkers left early, Rhode Island never came at all, and fourteen refused to sign. Even supporters doubted how long the Constitution would last.
But as the Convention ended, Benjamin Franklin made a cinema-worthy remark. Here’s how James Madison described it (1):
Whilst the last members were signing, Doctor Benjamin Franklin, looking towards the President's Chair, at the back of which a sun happened to be painted, observed…that the painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun.
“I have often,” said Franklin, “in the course of the Session, looked at that chair behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
That moment captures America’s story. Our history has been angry, messy, and rarely as romantic as we imagine. Yet it has also been a story of triumph. The Founders disagreed but shared enough mutual respect to keep moving forward. Progress was slow, but relentless. Not every problem was solved, but they built the framework to solve them. Even many of our freedoms came later with the Bill of Rights.
The road has never been smooth. We won a Revolution, survived a Civil War, ended slavery, expanded liberty, and endured depressions, world wars, pandemics, and countless crises. We still disagree, often passionately, but most Americans remain united by goodwill and respect. Our progress may be slow but has never stopped. History suggests that if we cannot solve every challenge, our descendants will.
The fact that we have a country at all is a major accomplishment. The fact that we have endured so much and often emerged stronger is miraculous.
As we celebrate our Independence Day, I believe what Benjamin Franklin came to believe: Over our country, the sun still rises.
Happy Independence Day!🎆
1 Richard Beeman, “Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution,” Penguin Random House, 2009.
