Cornwall marks July 4 with parade, reading by Sam Waterston

CORNWALL – An American flag carried by a volunteer firefighter led Cornwall’s Independence Day parade Saturday, followed by an 18th-century colonial militia soldier, a colonial-era violinist, volunteer firefighters, local business owners, residents, children and a handful of dogs as the town celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The procession wound through the town green before a few hundred residents gathered to hear actor and Cornwall resident Sam Waterston reflect on the enduring meaning of the nation’s founding document.

The actor said he had spent a good part of his life reading, writing and thinking about the words of Abraham Lincoln, who “never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”

Quoting the Declaration’s best-known passage beginning with “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,” Waterston said he found those words to be most inspiring. Formulated by Thomas Jefferson, he noted, they mean every person possesses God-given rights that cannot be taken away.

A Fourth of July parade proceeds through Cornwall. Maxwell Murray

From the moment the Founding Fathers signed on to that premise, Waterston said there was a new country to live in, “a reason for being, a destination to head for, and a North Star to navigate by. You can’t beat that.” The audience applauded.

Waterston said the idea that all men are created equal promised “that no one could be deprived of the right to rise in life, follow their own path, seek their own happiness, speak their own mind, practice their own faith, have a free press, all that — and what it meant — that we would not tolerate anyone lording it over us.”

He concluded by invoking the oft-quoted line, “‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’” and noted that “it applies just as much to us here today as it did when people from this very town mustered on this very green 250 years ago.”