Throughout 2026, Americans are celebrating the bold experiment in self-government that began 250 years ago. Lectures, panel discussions, and papers marking the special milestone and inviting reflection. Parades, picnics, family gatherings, and concerts with fireworks evoking tradition on July 4. And for this history nerd, taking a moment to re-read the Declaration of Independence.
I have long been aware of the tremendous danger the founders embraced by signing their names to a document they wrote criticizing the Crown and declaring independence on July 4, 1776. They committed a concerted and public act of treason and made a promise in the closing sentence: “… we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
I have read the Declaration many times. However, I recently had to admit I have not paid enough attention to that last sentence, nor have I fully considered what it meant. This spring I was presented with an amazing opportunity to make amends for this failing.
An exhibit created by The National Archives made stops around the U.S., including Houston. Known as the Freedom Plane National Tour, it offered a glimpse of several rare documents from the founding era, and I absolutely had to see it.
I didn’t know how much it would affect me or the way I understand the enormity of what transpired July 4, 1776. On display were multiple examples bearing witness to the history I learned — a printed facsimile of the Declaration, the oath of allegiance cards signed by George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton, and the first and last pages of the Treaty of Paris bearing the signatures of the American negotiators Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay…red wax seals and all.
Also displayed before me, in low light and under protective glass, was a working draft of the Bill of Rights, marked up with edits and questions and notes. It was the work of human hands, using a quill pen. It is a testament to human thought in progress — people wrestling with the best way to express the ideas that continue to power concepts we sometimes take for granted. It was part of the deliberative process that still takes place when legislation is made (or when magazines are edited, for that matter).
For the first time, I realized the humanity of these iconic men. The founders were not simply cardboard figures from history; they were very real people who chose to put their lives, fortunes, and honor at stake. They risked death and ruin for their families by signing the Declaration. They risked it all again by fighting in the Revolution.
When some of these same men came together more than a decade later to create the U.S. Constitution, they brought all their human experiences to bear. They worked together to draft a document that created a system seeking to transcend human impulses and desires and establish the rule of law in the United States.
A principle so vital to democracy should be guarded at all costs. Is there any better way to celebrate 250 years of freedom than by dedicating ourselves to the preservation of the rule of law? And if not us, then who will lead the way as we try to keep the experiment from failing?
Terri Parris
Editor-in-Chief, InRe
To learn more about the Freedom Plane National Tour, a traveling exhibition by The National Archives featuring nine original Founding-era documents for America’s 250th anniversary, click here: Freedom Plane National Tour
