Founded on a Set of Beliefs – Creating the United States | Exhibitions – Library of Congress

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The American republic was founded on a set of beliefs that were tested during the Revolutionary War. Among them was the idea that all people are created equal, whether European, Native American, or African American, and that these people have fundamental rights, such as liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom of assembly. America’s revolutionaries openly discussed these concepts. Many Americans agreed with them but some found that the ideology was far more acceptable in the abstract than in practice.

“Congress have judged it necessary to dissolve the Connection between Great Britain and the American Colonies. . . .”

John Hancock to George Washington, July 6, 1776