11-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
What Made July 4 Possible?
Karl Rove says that we're focused on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence because it is 'What Made America Great' (op-ed, July 3). Fair enough, but without June 17, 1775, there would be no July 4, 1776.
On that day, weeks after the battles at Lexington and Concord, thousands of men and boys put down their plows, left their families and marched to Charlestown, Mass., to fight what was then the most powerful army in the world. They weren't yet fighting for a fully articulated nation but for dignity and the right to self-determination. Their valor didn't merely foreshadow the revolution—it ignited what was to come.