Religious Freedom and American Founding: Reflections on 250th

Reflecting on the American Revolution during her July 1976 address in Philadelphia as part of the bicentennial celebration, Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged that by losing the American colonies Great Britain had “learned the hard way” an important lesson. That lesson was “to respect the right of others to govern themselves in their own way.” “Without that great act in the cause of liberty” two hundred years ago, she observed, “we could never have transformed our Empire into a Commonwealth.”