Celebrating Individual Rights on Independence Day: New at Reason

In the early years of the United States, there were no walls to stop people from coming ashore and few rules to stop anyone from trying out new ideas.

John Stossel writes:

Did you think about the signing of the Declaration of Independence this week?

The July 4 holiday is meant to honor that, not just fireworks. Ironically, government’s grown so much since 1776 that fireworks might be illegal in your town.

The Declaration wasn’t about creating rules for citizens to obey. It wasn’t just about condemning the British, either.

Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues created a document steeped in the idea of individual rights. He could have written about the desire to replace a bad king with a good king, but he didn’t.

The founders’ bold plan was to design a completely new sort of country—one where people could rule themselves.

The Colonies were already known around the world for being a place where enterprising people could chart their own destiny. Now they would become a nation.

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