The Declaration of Independence, approved July 4, 1776, dissolved ties with Great Britain and established natural rights.

IN THE BEGINNING, no one paid all that much attention to it—and, if they did, they were not particularly impressed. Now scriptural, the Declaration of Independence’s most famous sentence—“We hold ...

Editor's note: In honor of Independence Day — this year, we mark 249 years since the United States parted with Great Britain — we present the nation's founding document, the Declaration of ...