The 250th anniversary of America’s founding provides an opportunity to reflect on its meaning. For the first time in history, a country was founded on the idea that humans possess inalienable rights and that the purpose of government is to protect those rights. Prior to then, nations had been created through conquest and the growth and consolidation of tribal societies. Never had a country been founded on the principle that people’s rights should be protected by the government.

While the Founding Fathers didn’t implement a government that consistently protected individual rights and freedom, with slavery being the most obvious example, the founding of America was still an enormous achievement and something worth celebrating. Slavery is a gross violation of rights and should be morally condemned. Unfortunately, slavery was common in the 18th century and has existed throughout human history in all parts of the world. So the founders didn’t create slavery — they inherited it. They also created a political system that’s incompatible with slavery, hence the reason for a civil war that eventually abolished slavery.