ECHOES OF EXCEPTIONALISM: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land”

This Independence Day, July 4, our nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But the story of that document—its meaning, its cost, and its power—cannot be understood without remembering what happened four days later, on July 8, 1776, the day the American people first heard the words that would change the world.

By July 1776, America had already been at war for more than a year. The first shots at Lexington and Concord were fired on April 19, 1775. The battle of Bunker Hill followed. Washington had taken command of the Continental Army. British troops had burned towns, seized property, and imprisoned colonial leaders. Independence was not the beginning of conflict; it was the moment the colonies admitted what the war had already made clear.

And such independence had a cost.

In August 1775, nearly a year before the Declaration, King George III issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be “in open and avowed rebellion.” Under English law, this meant the Founding Fathers were guilty of high treason—a crime punishable by being hanged until nearly dead, cut down while still alive, disemboweled, and quartered.

The King was serious. That same summer, Britain launched what historians describe as the largest expeditionary force the empire had ever assembled to that point. More than 32,000 British and Hessian troops, supported by the world’s most powerful navy, had landed in New York to crush the rebellion.

Yet none of this diminished the boldness with which the signers affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. That final sentence captures their resolve: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Note the placement of “sacred honor.” It was deliberate. To the Founders, honor was the core of a person’s identity. To lose one’s honor was to lose everything. The signors were proclaiming, we will give up our lives and our wealth before we surrender our integrity.

That is the world into which the Declaration was born, and that is the world in which citizens gathered in Philadelphia four days later, on Wednesday, July 8, 1776, to hear its words.

Philadelphia woke that morning under a blanket of thick humidity and tension. Word spread that the Declaration, approved on July 4 and printed on July 5, would be read aloud to the public for the first time.

Town criers, church bells, and handwritten notices summoned citizens to the grassy commons behind the Pennsylvania State House—today’s Independence Hall.

By noon, the yard was full.

They came on foot, on horseback, and by carriage. They came from workshops, wharves, markets, and kitchens. Historical accounts report that enslaved and free black Philadelphians mingled with soldiers, tradesmen, and clerks from the Continental Congress. Mothers carried infants. Apprentices elbowed for a view. A few Loyalists stood at the edges, uneasy but curious.

The weather was hot, heavy, and close—the kind of heat that clings to clothing and slows the pace of work.

But no one left. They could sense that history was about to be made.

At 12:00 noon, a platform was set up, and Colonel John Nixon, a Philadelphia merchant and militia officer, stepped forward. The bell in the State House tower—cast in London, recast twice in Philadelphia, and inscribed with the words from Leviticus, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants therefore”—had summoned them here.

And now the words of the Declaration, read aloud to the public for the first time, would summon something deeper.

Nixon began to speak: “When in the course of human events…”

The crowd fell silent. Many could not read. Many had never heard political philosophy. But they understood the stakes. They knew the world was shifting beneath their feet.

And then came the words that would echo across centuries—words that would eventually break the shackles of slavery, stretch across a continent, preserve a free Europe, and be heard in the distant and dark corners of the world: “That all men are created equal… that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Accounts reveal that the crowd did not cheer at first. They stood still—stunned, as if the words were too large to take in all at once.

Then a shout rose from the back. Then another. And then the whole yard erupted.

A British officer watching from a distance wrote that the people “shouted as if heaven itself had opened.” A German immigrant said he felt “as though a new world had begun.” A free black man later recalled believing that “God Himself had spoken liberty into the world.”

None of them knew how the war would end. Many would lose homes, fortunes, and sons. Some would not live to see the victory they hoped for. But in that moment, they understood something profound: Liberty is not a gift handed down by rulers. It is a divine truth spoken aloud by a people who choose to defend it and choose to trust the God who gifted it.

That afternoon, the Declaration ceased to be a document of Congress and became the possession of the American people.

Today, as we stand on the threshold of the 250th Independence Day, we live in a time when cynicism is fashionable and division profitable. There are powerful voices that claim our enemies are our neighbors and our institutions are broken beyond repair.

But the Fourth of July calls us back to that humid afternoon, when ordinary people heard extraordinary words and chose to believe in them.

It reminds us that the strength of this nation has never rested in Congress, or courts, or capitals. It has rested in the hearts of citizens who refuse to surrender the truth that all people are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. The power of our nation is present when this truth resonates in the hearts of its people.

So tomorrow, remember the forgotten crowd in the State House yard. Remember the bell that cracked but kept ringing. Remember the people who heard liberty proclaimed and answered in their lives.

And then—do what they did. Believe the words again, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land.

Phill Kline is a former state legislator and the former Attorney General of Kansas. He is currently a law professor.