Vice President JD Vance used a speech in New York City to remind Americans of the power of the fundamental words and values of limited self-government that inspired the first generation of patriot soldiers to confront the British as conflict became inevitable 250 years ago.
For context, Vance was speaking at the International Naval Review at the port of New York and New Jersey when he harkened back to American’s founding. As tensions rose and the British began stationing tens of thousands of troops in the colonies, the Founding Fathers famously wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, who presided over the Second Congressional Conference that witnessed 55 signatories to one of the world’s most famous documents, later read the newly-adopted Declaration to inspire the soldiers under his command.
As Vance talked about the historical backdrop in which New York played an early and pivotal role in the later war, he reminded his audience that the same words that motivated men to fight for a new nation still ‘stir the hearts’ of those who hear them and believe in this great country.
“But I can’t help but consider that 250 years ago the waters of New York Harbor looked very, very different. While the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to ratify the Declaration of Independence, General Washington was right here in Manhattan, peering out on this beautiful land and beautiful sea, his attention was fixed on the horizon, watching for sales of the most powerful navy on earth,” he said.
“One week before the British had begun landing troops on Staten Island, and they had landed 32,000 in just over six weeks, one colonist still in the city recounted it seemed as if all of London was afloat and heading to the new nation. War was coming, and everyone knew it. By July of 1776 80% of New York’s population had emptied out in anticipation of the coming violence, and that brings us back to our great General Washington,” Vance continued.
“He knew the battles to come would be bruising and would demand much of his men, but they needed to know through hot summers and cold winters exactly what they were being asked to fight for, and so just a few days after the Declaration of Independence was signed, George Washington read aloud the words of the incredible Declaration: 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 and that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he described of the moment.
“Even today, 250 years to the day later, these words command a tremendous power over us as Americans. For 250 years, they have stirred our hearts, and they’ve reminded us of who we are as a people. But to Washington soldiers, to the people to whom they were first read, think about this: they were entirely new,” he explained.
“What has become standard American parlance, they had never heard those words before, and I think it’s something striking to reflect on that. In 2026 the Declaration was written with the assumption that its audience would immediately grasp its words, though they had never heard it, they would know exactly what it meant, it wasn’t written for historians, it wasn’t written for academics, it wasn’t written for the generations to come, it was written for the people of this fledgling country,” he finished.
Watch Vance discuss that moment below:
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video