{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-celebrates-americas-250th-birthday/", "Thune Celebrates America\u2019s 250th Birthday", "2026-07-16", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, we recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence \u2013 the 250th birthday of our country.\n\n\u201cOn July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration.\n\n\u201cThe document laid out the causes which impelled the colonists\u2019 separation from Great Britain.\n\n\u201cBut more than that, it laid out the political beliefs that would govern the new nation.\n\n\u201c\u2018We 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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.\u2019\n\n\u201cUnalienable rights.\n\n\u201cRights inherent in man, given by God.\n\n\u201cRights that exist before government, and that it is the job of government to protect.\n\n\u201cGovernment not by divine right or military might, but by consent.\n\n\u201cA government that represents the people, not the will to power.\n\n\u201cA revolutionary document, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cPun intended.\n\n\u201cMany of the ideas in the Declaration, of course, were not new.\n\n\u201cIt was a document built on the wisdom of the ages, on the tradition of British common law, on the inheritance of Christianity, and the colonists\u2019 own experiment in self-government in the colonies.\n\n\u201cJefferson himself, writing in 1825, said of the Declaration, and I quote, \u2018Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was 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. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut while many of the ideas in the Declaration were not new, the document was nevertheless, as I said, revolutionary.\n\n\u201cBecause the Declaration marked an event essentially unique in human history.\n\n\u201cThere had been philosophical treatises laying out principles of government.\n\n\u201cBut this was not a philosophical treatise.\n\n\u201cIt was the founding of a government, of a new nation, based on philosophical principles.\n\n\u201cA nation inaugurated not by conquest but on a set of ideas.\n\n\u201cAnd what ideas, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAll men are created equal.\n\n\u201cWhere before in the history of governments do we find that?\n\n\u201cAll men are created equal.\n\n\u201cNo one is given special dignity by nature. No man has a divine right to rule over any other.\n\n\u201cNo.\n\n\u201cAll men are created equal.\n\n\u201cCreated equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.\n\n\u201cRights that cannot be taken away.\n\n\u201cRights that are not the gift of government, but \u2026 of nature and of nature\u2019s God.\n\n\u201cRights that government must defer to and defend.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as everyone knows, the United States is currently hosting the World Cup.\n\n\u201cAnd the media has been filled with stories on how much visitors to this country are enjoying the United States.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re encountering the American character \u2013 generous, optimistic, big-hearted, friendly.\n\n\u201cAnd they are embracing it.\n\n\u201cAnd it occurs to me, Mr. President, that that American character almost unquestionably has a lot to do with our founding principles.\n\n\u201cWhen you believe that all men are created equal, when you believe that they have God-given rights and dignity \u2013 well, that has consequences.\n\n\u201cAll men are created equal.\n\n\u201cThere is no class of divinely appointed rulers.\n\n\u201cNo hereditary aristocratic class.\n\n\u201cNo barrier set to prevent you from rising.\n\n\u201cThose principles have consequences.\n\n\u201cSo I don\u2019t think it\u2019s surprising that Americans are generous and big-hearted and optimistic and friendly.\n\n\u201cI think it\u2019s the natural consequence of the principles that we espouse.\n\n\u201cMr. President, every Fourth of July is a day of celebration.\n\n\u201cBut this one, marking 250 years, was particularly special.\n\n\u201cSouth Dakota was honored to welcome President Trump to our fireworks at Mount Rushmore \u2013 a truly spectacular event.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s no better place to reflect on the majesty of this great country.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s fitting too, though, that along with the celebrations \u2013 along with the fireworks and the parades and the hot dogs and the hamburgers \u2013 that July 4th be a day of thanksgiving.\n\n\u201cFor the Declaration of Independence and the nation it founded.\n\n\u201cFor the blessings of liberty.\n\n\u201cAnd for all those who have pledged their lives to its defense, from the founding of our country to the present day.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his \u2018Concord Hymn,\u2019 referred to the opening shot of the battles of Lexington and Concord as, and I quote, \u2018the shot heard round the world.\u2019\n\n\u201cWell, Mr. President, if I may borrow his phrase, I think it\u2019s fair to say that the Declaration was the statement heard round the world.\n\n\u201cIt is still \u2013 still \u2013 heard around the world, to this day.\n\n\u201cAnd I pray it will be heard until the end of time.\n\n\u201cMay God bless our beloved country and keep us faithful to the principles for which we stand.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-17T07:15:58Z", "2026-07-17T07:17:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-celebrates-americas-250th-birthday/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4152200892567635, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}