It will be time well spent, at this annual event,

watching this famous yacht race,

Yachts sailing fast, sails flapping on each mast,

'Independence' is often in 1st place.

A fast pace, wind in their face,

the Captain's shouting each instruction,

Telling the crew, exactly what to do,

avoiding sinking and destruction.

It'll be a fun day, we'll have the results on Monday.

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,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

With these memorable words, Thomas Jefferson, at the age of 33, laid the cornerstone of the United States of America. Though the Declaration of Independence, or, as it was known at the time, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America," holds no legal standing, it stands at the head of the US Code. The signed copy resides in the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Fifty years later, in an 1825 letter, Jefferson wrote that the Declaration of Independence was designed as "an appeal to the tribunal of the world." The document was therefore "intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion," and the fledgling state was thus introduced to the nations among which it was destined to assume its rightful place.