Independence Day.

I say this every year. Here in the United States, we celebrate for our independence day not the day we won the battle that secured our independence, nor the signing of the treaty that ended the war. Instead, we celebrate the day we swore to fight. It would be more than a decade from 1776 until we had a constitution (1787), or a president (1789).  But we date the founding of our nation to neither of those things. We call ourselves a country from the moment we demanded our freedom, from the moment we said we would rather fight than kneel. I  think something of that character remains in us today.