By most accounts these men were wealthy merchants and landowners who felt they had been taxed unfairly without representation.

It's even harder to understand how these men, representing 13 diverse colonies, could declare that they were going to merge to become one nation independent and free from English control.

They did this knowing that they would be declared traitors. Knowing that they would be hunted down like common criminals, and that they could be hanged and their families persecuted. They did this knowing that there was no treasury and no army to back their declarations.

But these men, possessing such courage, like Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Monroe, Carrol and Hamilton, wrote a document that was the most perfect utterance for any people up to that time - even up to our present.

The Declaration of Independence gave way to the Constitution, which has guided us through good and tough times. The Constitution has withstood the changes and pressures of time.

The Constitution along with the 27 amendments that have followed was written so that citizens could vote and have representation in government.

The ideals the Declaration of Independence have been defended by the blood of hundreds of thousands of brave men and woman. Men and women who didn't ask why but had the same faith in the document's strength as the original men who conceived its every word.

Today we celebrate our Independence. Most of all we celebrate the mighty words that have guided us and kept us whole for these 232 years.

God bless those original men of courage. God bless our men and women in the military past and present. God bless our country.

May the words of the Declaration of Independence forever ring true.