America 250: Establishing the New Guards

This past weekend, as Americans celebrated 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document’s most quotable lines – the ones about liberty and happiness, consent, and sacred honor – took center stage in public life. Rightfully so. 

However, anyone reading through the Declaration from start to finish reaches a point, about a fifth of the way through, where its words become noticeably less familiar. The particulars of the colonies’ relationship with the British Crown rarely find their way into stump speeches or cable news hits.

One of these seldom-quoted lines appears just before the list of grievances begins: having cast off a tyrannical order, the people must “provide new guards for their future security.”