What role do the arts play in the founding of our country and the winning of our independence? Americans for the Arts' CEO and President, Robert Lynch, answers this question today in the Huffington Post, in honor of Independence Day.

"We know the arts inspire--George Washington commissioned a performance of Addison's Cato at Valley Forge to inspire his Continental Army. Passages from this play led Patrick Henry to utter, "Give me liberty or give me death" and Nathan Hale to state, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country"--two of the most often-repeated American patriotic quotations. Beyond inspiration, the arts were used as a tactic to train this new army. Military bands in America started as an artillery regiment under the command of Benjamin Franklin. Asked by Gen. Washington to help bring discipline through movement to the Continental Army of 1778, Franklin brought Prussian Officer Baron Friedrich Von Steuben to Valley Forge to teach the art of the drill, which has been core to military preparation ever since."