Tru History – A Word From Harry on Independence Day | July 4, 2025
Independence Day 1951
ON JULY 4, 1951, Washington, D.C. held a grand celebration marking the 175th anniversary—the demisemiseptcentennial—of the Declaration of Independence.
At 9:30 p.m., President Truman delivered an address that still has the power to thrill, challenge and inspire. Amid rising global tensions, he spoke of American unity, the defense of freedom, and the improbable birth of a democratic republic at a time when monarchs ruled the world. Following his remarks, a fireworks display (billed as the nation’s largest) filled the night sky.
Address at the Ceremonies Commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
This is a very special occasion. Here in Washington tonight, up in Philadelphia, and throughout our whole country, we are celebrating an anniversary of great importance. On this day 175 years ago the representatives of the American people declared the independence of the United States.
Our forefathers in Philadelphia not only established a new nation—they established a nation based on a new idea. They said that all men were created equal.
They based the whole idea of government on this God-given equality of men. They said that the people had the right to govern themselves. They said the purpose of government was to protect the unalienable rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
These were sensational proposals. In 1776 a nation based on such new and radical ideas did not appear to have much chance of success. In those days power centered in Europe. Monarchy was the prevailing form of government. The divine right of kings was still widely accepted.
The new Nation was small, remote, poor, and, in 1776, apparently friendless. Europe did not for a moment believe this new kind of government would work, and, to tell the truth, fully a third of our own people did not believe it would work, either.
We can hardly imagine the courage and the faith it took to issue the Declaration of Independence in those circumstances.
Today we can see that the members of the Continental Congress were right. Less than two centuries later the nation born that day, instead of being small, stretches across a whole continent. Instead of being poor, the United States is wealthier than any other nation in the world. Instead of being friendless, we have strong and steadfast allies.
The transformation during these 175 years seems to be complete; but it is not. Some things have not changed at all since 1776.
Freedom is still expensive. It still costs money. It still costs blood. It still calls for courage and endurance, not only in soldiers, but in every man and woman who is free and who is determined to remain free.
The principles of the Declaration of Independence are the right principles. They are sound enough to guide us through this crisis as they have guided us through other crises of the past. Freedom can overcome tyranny in the 20th century as surely as it overcame the tyrants of the 18th century.
There is a text inscribed on the Liberty Bell, the bell that rang out 175 years ago to announce the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly ordered that bell for the statehouse in Philadelphia, they directed that it should bear certain words, “well-shaped in large letters.”
You remember what those words were: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
We should write these words again today. We should write them in everything we do in this country—”well-shaped in large letters”—by every deed and act, so that the whole world can read them.
Let us write them in all that we do, at home and abroad, to the end that men everywhere may read them and take hope and courage for the victory of freedom.
Excerpted from President Truman’s July 4, 1951, address. Read the message in full, courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
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