“’When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.’

 “With these words our Founding Fathers began to ‘declare the causes’ that drove them to separate from the tyrannical control of King George III. Their vision was to give birth to a new nation that believed all men were entitled to ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

 “On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies' separation from Great Britain. This document would provide history with one of the few instances in which a work of true literary genius was produced, in essence, by committee. This Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies were now independent states.

 “Our Founding Fathers were deeply religious men who believed Divine Providence would play a large part in the shaping of the new nation. As evidence of this Thomas Jefferson, the original drafter of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’

 “I am forever grateful for the courage our Founding Fathers exercised as they stared into the eye of a tyrannical storm and stood for the cause of freedom. Now, 235 years later, may we continue the work our Founding Fathers started and courageously lend our hand in writing America’s future.”