FROM THE EDITOR

Bucks County had been around for nearly a century when the Second Continental Congress convened in nearby Philadelphia in July 1776 to adopt the Declaration of Independence. It was a landmark document in the history of humankind, famously asserting, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, its principal author, “All men are created equal.”

Five months later, George Washington and his bedraggled troops would arrive in Bucks County, having been run out of New York City and chased across New Jersey by British and German soldiers unified in their allegiance to King George III of England. By the time the American soldiers crossed the Delaware River to establish their camps across the county’s farm fields, the fate of the revolutionary cause was very much in doubt.

Within a matter of weeks, however, Washington would rally his troops in a history-making expedition, crossing back over the Delaware into New Jersey on a frigid Christmas night, then marching to Trenton, where they would stun the Hessians gathered there, taking nearly a thousand of them as prisoners of war following a brief battle that historians regard as a turning point in the war.

This summer and winter, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of those momentous events. And what a time to do so, when the country is embroiled in a feverish debate about the meaning of our democratic ideals and how best to apply them in twenty-first-century America. Nowhere is the conflict in that debate more apparent than in Jefferson’s own words. The author who declared that “All men are created equal,” after all, enslaved other human beings—more than 600, in fact, over his lifetime—as did many of the other fifty-five white men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

In recognition of the 250th, we’ve compiled a special section that looks at the River Towns’ impact on the revolution. At thirty-one pages long, it’s the most ambitious editorial project the magazine has ever produced. Our coverage documents the local men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the local homes where Washington stayed while plotting his battlefield strategy, the local Loyalists who opposed the revolution—and paid a price for doing so. We recall the role of African Americans in the revolution, some who fought on the American side, some who fought for the crown. We assembled calendars of anniversary commemorations planned across the region this summer. And we examined the artworks created by living artists in the River Towns and beyond who were inspired by the events of 1776.

This summer’s anniversary is surely a time to celebrate. But it’s also an opportunity to reflect and to consider how best to move forward in our efforts to advance our longstanding experiment in democracy. “The Semiquincentennial Comes to the River Towns” starts on page 56.