Imagine living during those times. Whether in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina or any of the Original Thirteen Colonies. Your entire life has been as a subject to the British Crown, with sworn allegiance to the King (as in every other European nation). And here you stand, on the cusp of an exercise never attempted. To state unequivocally that you dissolve all allegiance to your sovereign ruler and declare yourselves as independent states forming a new nation. Governed by themselves, with allegiance only to each other. It must have seemed like a glorious madness. No King? No sovereign ruler? No peerage or nobility? A “nation of commoners”? Who would be labeled as traitors to the Crown and hanged for treason? Madness indeed. And while the average farmer, blacksmith, barkeep or shopkeeper may have risked little, other than blood, the Founding Fathers risked everything. Life. Property. Possessions. Reputations. Not to separate from the Crown and create a new enterprise to further enrich their coffers, but to found a nation where freedom and liberty was paramount. “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Madness indeed! And while these United States of Americas has not, and never will, be perfect, and have faced numerous trials and tribulations over the past two and a half centuries, the basic tenets that founded this nation still ring true. Much has been done. Much remains to be. Such is life. But the debt of gratitude we owe to such brave men of vision can never truly be repaid. God Bless America! ??