Americans have celebrated the Fourth of July for almost 250 years, with the 241st such celebration just behind us, but the vast majority of Americans have only the vaguest notion of why this holiday matters so much. The Fourth of July does not represent the beginning of the American Republic.  Indeed, there was practically no real government at all on July 4, 1776.  The men who signed the Declaration of Independence were largely volunteers in a thankless task:  express the reason why the thirteen colonies were declaring their separation from Britain. It would be a year and a half after the Declaration of Independence before any real structure to this new polity would be proposed in the Articles of Confederation, but even this document would not be ratified until almost four years after the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed.  The Constitution, the current governing document of our republic, was not proposed until 1787, and it would not be ratified by...(Read Full Article)