Two hundred and fifty years ago we began this journey as a nation, and this weekend we will watch the fireworks and rejoice with friends, neighbors, and family at the gift we were given by a group of courageous English citizens. Some of those citizens were of African heritage living a free life in New England, while others were Dutch and German, Scotsmen, and Irishmen and a salting of people from many other parts. But all were citizens of the United Kingdom and subjects of King George, bound by the laws of parliament and ministers of the Crown.

Our region of New York had a brief and limited role in the events of the founding years, but our region as defined by counties and towns is only half of the story — and would not be even that if not for the people who came here in the later 1780s.

The migration of New England Yankees and a smaller number of Pennsylvanians a few years after the end of the Revolution is what defines our region. The lakes and hills would be here without them and would in all likelihood be either part of Canada or a Native American region attached to Massachusetts or New York. It would look much different because it is the people that define any location at any given time.

The veterans of the Revolution who came here a mere six years after the cessation of hostilities built the majority of the towns in our upstate counties. There have been a scant few added over the decades after the last of those Revolutionary veterans passed in the 19th century. Nearly all of our villages, cities, and hamlets were their creations and not subject to the laws of Parliament but rather of Congress — a Congress answerable to them.

It is important as we rejoice and recall the founding of our nation to remember that the Colonies are far older than the nation. There is now 400-plus years of history laid down and, even in the days of Revolution, many Americans traced their families’ presence in North America back 150 years. That history was crucial to their identity, and so........

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