233rd Independence Day Celebration, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

July 1, 2009

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Fellow Citizens of the United States, Ladies and Gentlemen:   Good Evening.

It is a special honor for me to celebrate the 233rd Independence Day of the United States of America at the Rijksmuseum.  Thank you, Wim, for welcoming us to this, a national shrine to both art and history.  I am particularly grateful that Chargé d’Affaires Michael Gallagher and Mrs. Gallagher are able to join us from the U.S. Embassy in The Hague.  And to Minister Timmermans, thank you for your stirring words, and for the commitment you have made across this year to ensuring that people on both sides of the Atlantic have a renewed appreciation for the enduring ties between the United States and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

These ties extend back four hundred years, to the Dutch-sponsored voyage of an English sea captain whose inadvertent exploration of the Atlantic Coast led to Dutch settlements that exerted a deep and lasting influence on the character of what would become the United States.

On Independence Day we celebrate a landmark in our history, the culmination of years of struggle by the adventurous souls like those Dutch settlers who chose to bind their future to the New World.  We honor the struggle to carve settlements out of the North American wilderness, to forge communities from diverse backgrounds and nations, and to assert the rights of a group of colonies to self-governance.  We celebrate our struggle to achieve freedom.

During the early summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson labored to set down in writing the guiding principles for a new nation.  He readily attributed many of the ideas he set forth in the Declaration of Independence to other leading political philosophers and influences.  In fact, there are those who assert that the Akte van Verlatinghe declaring the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands from Spain was a leading influence on Jefferson’s thinking in drafting the Declaration of Independence two hundred years later. 
So it is that on July 4th we celebrate our founder’s revolutionary vision.  They boldly asserted the self-evident truth that all are created equal as the basis for a new republic.  They committed themselves to principle that individual rights are universal.  And they championed the social contract that governments derive their authority from the consent of the people.

Words written on a piece of parchment, no matter how profound, how eloquent, do not make real the dream of a better society.  It is up to us – to each generation – to wrest the essential meaning from the words “liberty” and “equality” and to ensure these sacred principles resound in the lives of all our citizens.  President Obama invoked this quest for a “more perfect union” than the one originally envisioned by our imperfect founders during his inauguration when he said,

“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation … that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

On behalf of my Dutch and American colleagues at the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam, we welcome you to our commemoration of Independence Day, when we pause to remember the day that a nation was born of ideals.  And to reaffirm our dedication to the causes of liberty and equality.

I would like to extend again a special word of thanks to the outstanding staff of the Rijksmuseum for their incomparable hospitality this evening and on all the other days when you extend the warm welcome of Amsterdam to visitors from the United States and around the world.

And to our terrific sponsors I would simply say that without you, this day would quite literally not have been possible.

In the United States on July 4th families and friends attend community celebrations throughout the land.  At the U.S. Consulate General we feel a strong commitment to this, our community in Amsterdam.  This is my last Independence Day celebration in Amsterdam, and it has been a great privilege to represent the United States here in The Netherlands during a momentous time.  I think of the Consulate General as America’s House on the Museumplein, with all of the opportunities and responsibilities that unique position affords.  We strive to be good neighbors, and constructive partners, knowing that we could not possibly fulfill those commitments without continued support from so many of you.  I know you will welcome my successor Julie Ruterbories with the same warmth that I have known during my time in the Netherlands.

And now, if I can return to history for one last moment, I would like to tell you about an Independence Day celebration 183 years ago.  As many of you know, John Adams, our second president, was also the first U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands.  Thomas Jefferson credited Adams as the Declaration’s “ablest advocate and defender” during the debate to adopt it.  According to a diary account of Adams’s last days, great celebrations were planned for the 50th anniversary of the 4th of July in his home town in Massachusetts.  Despite his advanced age and failing health, a member of the community asked Adams to provide a “sentiment” for the approaching occasion, to which he replied

“Independence forever.”

Those words proved to be among his last.  Yet they echo across the years, reminding us of our quest and our responsibility to preserve the true nature of liberty.  And they rang out over our nation’s capital and around the world in January of this year when our 44th President made clear his commitment to liberty when he proclaimed,

“ Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for joining us in sharing this special celebration of our 233rd Independence Day.