Independence

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.

I'm grateful for inspired men that saw fit to declare that men ought to be free.  After enumerating a list of grievances, these men further declared:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States...

And after this declaration of independence, these men showed how important this independence would be to them:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

This, of course, led to war with England, a war that cost many lives and fortunes.  This war ended in narrow victory by the American colonists and led to the constitutional republic known as the United States of America.

This wasn't the first time that blood was shed in protection of rights on the American continent.  Nearly 1850 years earlier, Moroni, chief commander of the armies of the Nephites tore his coat and took a piece of it and wrote on it:

In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children

He called this the "title of liberty" and he raised it on a pole and used it to rally his armies against those that were fighting against these ideals.

And he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should remain a band of Christians remain to possess the land.

I, too, pray that the blessings of liberty will continue to rest upon these United States of America.