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THIS WEEK, building toward Independence Day, Americans recall the ideals of equality, rights, and self-government that formed the core of our revolution - yet far away events demand a fresh appreciation of what we are celebrating.

That the Declaration of Independence, by asserting a standard of justice against which the young nation would itself be judged, included mechanisms of self-criticism that continually expand the circle of equality and rights to include blacks, “savages,’’ the unpropertied, women, and an endless succession of immigrants makes the document a living treasure worthy of reverence.

That we look back now with a harsh understanding that the high Jeffersonian rhetoric was economically, racially, religiously, and sexually exclusive is...