Happy 4th

Image source: National Archives

"Thus the Congress has tied a Gordian knot, which the Parl [iament] will find they can neither cut, nor untie. The thirteen united colonies now rise into an Independent Republic among the kingdoms, states, and empires on earth... And have I lived to see such an important and astonishing revolution?"

-- The Reverend Ezra Stiles, quoted in David McCullough's 1776