As the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, its founding ideals remain undermined by the two histories it has never fully confronted: genocide and slavery.

People in the United States interested in words are learning a new one, semiquincentennial. It comes from Latin and literally means “half of 500 years.” It refers to the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776.

The actual decision “to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another” occurred on July 2, and the Revolutionary War had begun in April 1775.

The Declaration formally set out reasons that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.”

The issuance of the Declaration by “the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress, assembled” is considered the birth of the United States of America.

The core of the Declaration sets forth a political philosophy that has inspired people in many places and situations ever since.

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Those words, along with the US Constitution of 1789 and the Federalist Papers that advocated and explained the new Constitution to the new republic’s voters, still inspire pride and hope.

Over the years, those words have been joined by other foundational documents, such as the Bill of Rights (the first 10........

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