06/19/2026
Today we celebrate Juneteenth, the day we remember June 19th, 1865 when the last captive slaves were freed following the end of The Civil War. Why?
On July 4th, we celebrate our Declaration of Independence. Because we are the rare nation founded not on ancient tribal notions of blood and soil, but on the ideas and principles of the Enlightenment, our declaration was to declare more than merely the independence of one nation from another. It was also a declaration of the independence of each and every one of us when it proclaimed:
"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."
The reality of 1776 was that this founding principle would not immediately become manifest. At our founding, it was also said, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." This would prove easier said than done. The ancient tribal superstitions of the Old World would stand in the way of the Enlightenment principles of the New World we were building. In that sense, the revolution of our founders continues as we strive to make those founding principles a reality for all of us.
Juneteenth is a milestone in that continuing revolution. It was a day in 1865 that made the ideals of 1776 a reality for a group of people who had not been privy to them before. It led to a day nearly 100 years later, in 1963, when someone would remind us of that continuing revolution when he said:
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
He then told us of the dream of how these ideals would become reality when he declared:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
This dream, the principles of our founding, and the core ideals of Libertarianism are all one and the same. To judge someone solely by the content of their character is to treat that person as an individual, and only an individual can truly be free and independent. It is the old tribal superstitions that our founders meant to leave behind that rely upon circumstances of birth to judge and define a person: the parents they were born to, the land they were born on, the body they were born in, the skin they were born with, or the religion they were born into. To judge and define any person by these things is to deny them their true independence.
So today we celebrate Juneteenth just as we celebrate July 4th, because Juneteenth is one more day, and one more way, in which the principles and ideals of the Declaration of Independence were made manifest in reality. So too were August 18th, 1920, and June 26th, 2015, along with many days in between—and many yet to come.
It is all part of the same revolution, and it all leads to the goal of Libertarianism as set forth in our own Statement of Principles, in which we declared:
"Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands."
And in pursuit of that goal:
"We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual. We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose."
This is the true goal set forth on July 4th, 1776, brought closer to reality on June 19th, 1865, and still yet to be fully achieved: nothing more nor less than a world set free.
